Letters to the Editor
debpet
Published Letters: 170 Editor's Choice: 14
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Demonizing the Clintons
[Read the article: Smearing Bill to get Hillary?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While it is true that just about any dirt that could be dug up against the Clintons has already come out, that doesn't mean that the constant repetition by the right wing noise machine couldn't still be effective. I think Hillary has as many of the qualities we would want in a president as anyone out there. (I still haven't made up my mind among her, Obama and Edwards...they all have strengths and weaknesses.) And yet, I actually dread having to endure the kind of campaign that the Republicans would certainly wage against her. Oh, they'll smear the Democratic candidate, whoever it is. That's what they do. But if Hillary is the candidate, it will drive them absolutely apoplectic, and we will see a level of demonizing against both her and Bill that will be ten times worse than anything seen before. I hate the idea of having to close my eyes and cover my ears during every single TV commercial break to keep from being asaulted by images of Hillary with devil's horns growing out of her head (or something just as bad), accompanied by blatant distortions of her record and positions uttered in voices dripping with venom.
If the Democrats do nominate Hillary, they had darn well better be prepared to do a much better job of countering this kind of thing than they've been able to do before.
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Gonzales' "Testimony"
[Read the article: Accountability? Libby? Gonzales? Let me tell you about 9/11]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]George Bush denies that Alberto Gonzales has done anything wrong and makes a big deal out of the fact that he testified. But what was the nature of that testimony? Gonzales responded to all the questions that were put to him in ways that were often confusing or contradictory and almost uniformly evasive. He provided a textbook case of how to answer without actually answering. Bush derides the questioning of Gonzales as being political, but the truth is that that there have been very real and legitimate questions raised about the conduct of Mr. Gonzales and the Justice Department, And Congress has not been able to get clear and direct answers to them because of the evasiveness and stonewalling of Mr. Gonzales and other members of the administration. We still don't know for sure who made up the list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired and why.
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Counting the cost
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, we're supposed to stay in Iraq for another 9 or 10 years if we're going to win? Is anybody who suggests that even thinking about the costs involved? Namely:
. The thousands of more deaths and many more thousands of serious injuries. And that's just among our own troops. Who knows how many more Iraqis would be killed? We don't even have accurate figures on how many have been killed so far, and the estimates vary widely.
. The hundreds of billions, or even TRILLIONS of dollars in resources that we should be putting into critical needs here at home, such as health care, infrastructure and preserving Social Security.
. The incalculable cost in terms of our moral stature and how we are regarded by the rest of the world. Every day we continue this misbegotten misadventure simply deepens the hatred against us in much of the rest of the world and inflames the radicalism we're suposed to be opposing.
We simply cannot afford these costs. This fiasco must end!
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Overreacting, but...
[Read the article: The Islamists are coming]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Granted that the right wingers you cite go to an extreme in their paranoia and want to respond in inappropriate ways, but Glenn, are you actually maintaining that the more radical elements of Islam (which are in fact growing in response to our own misguided policies) represent NO threat to us and our values? Aren't there SOME groups out there who do in fact want to impose their understanding of Islamic law, not just on the U.S., but on the entire world?
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They're actually acknowledging this?
[Read the article: Yes, but will Michael Gerson take the credit?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People in the Bush administration are actually acknowledging this? How can they possibly believe that a report written under these circumstances is possibly going to impose on anyone?
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Sorry, Mitt!
[Read the article: Takes one to know one]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, Mitt! After your faux pas the other day you have no business commenting on anybody else's attitude toward the military.
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To be expected
[Read the article: Jenna Bush -- engaged!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess it's to be expected that Bush's daughter would be marrying a Republican. But did she have to choose one who actually worked for Karl Rove?
Seriously, do you think that this announcement could possibly be the beginning of a campaign to improve the image of the Bush family?
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Frustrating!
[Read the article: The poisonous rhetorical legacy of Karl Rove]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The constant demonization of anyone who questioned the policies of the Bush administration, especially with regard to the war in Iraq and the shredding of the Constitution in the pursuit of "terrorists", as traitorous, has been perhaps the most frustrating of the many frustrating developments of the last seven years. But just about as frustrating is the fact that the liberals/Democrats who have been the victims of these attacks never seemed to find an effective voice to counter them.
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Loyalty Above All
[Read the article: Bush and Gonzales, or the accountability moment that wasn't]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bush values loyalty to himself above all else. Therefore, anyone who is loyal to him is automatically a god guy and and any questioning of that person is, prima facie, unfair. He is unable to conceive of the actions of one of his loyalists as being WRONG.