The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Wild Streaks

12.27.02 @ 12:01AM

ASTONISHING COLOR
Re: Bill Croke's Buffalo Bill's Wild West:

Thanks to Bill Croke for the portrait of one of America's most colorful characters, Wm. Frederick Cody, whose partially Buntline-conjured story I loved as a child (there was some authentic heroism in Cody's early years as well). I sometimes think of Buffalo Bill's 1917 death in Denver as a sort of historical marker: My father was born only five months later in Kansas. My maternal grandmother lived in a North Platte, Nebraska, house rented from the Plainsman himself; she remembered him riding horseback into town with his long yellow mane billowing from under his hat. (For that matter, my paternal grandmother remembered an on-the-run Frank James staying overnight at her house in Kansas.) Just another reminder of what an astonishing, breathtaking span the last century was.
-- K. E. Grubbs Jr.
Irvine, CA

FRISKY DEMS
re: The Washington Prowler's McAuliffe Frisks Frist:

Is there any sentient voter left in the U.S. who actually believes the Democrat Party has remaining any heart or soul, much less a message -- or that they give two hoots about the health, welfare, and security of this country?

Rather than constructively using the Lott fiasco to bring Americans together, lacking any direction or message they've become divisive, destructive, infantile muck hunters. To wit, the Democrat National Committee staffer saying of Sen. Frist, "... we're certain there is stuff in his past we'll be able to dig up."

The December 24 New York Times says it even more bluntly on a page 1 lead: "Democrats around the country say the replacement of Trent Lott with Bill Frist as Senate Republican leader greatly complicates their task of taking advantage of the racial furor sparked by Mr. Lott as they try to reassert themselves in a town dominated by Republicans."

When will more voters really throw the bums out?
-- C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, WV

I would appreciate some clarity. According to Sen. Frist and other sources he had no part of "running" HCA. No doubt he had a financial stake (I'm guessing that he helped finance it, although it was started before he was out of Medical School). We need to have clarity to protect him (if he deserves it). You know that you will be quoted.
-- Nancy Heil
State College, PA

The Prowler replies: It's true that Frist did not found HCA, but he has played a role in it over the years. His brother is a founding partner. For obvious reasons, given Frist's work at Vanderbilt and elsewhere, he could not have direct ties to the company. But the reality is that Frist will be tied to HCA no matter what. You saw it occurring just this past week with the settlement between HCA and the federal government. Whether one likes it or not, Democrats will find a way to tie the two together.

KERRY OUT
Re: Jed Babbin's Who Is John Kerry?

Don't sweat Kerry...Hillary's gonna whisper in his ear: "Get lost, you putz, I'm running." She's too power happy and greedy to wait until 2008.

Happy Holidays.
-- Pete Brittain
Sandpoint, Idaho

Fine. But will the Republicans drum that message, quote Kerry's un-American Senate testimony and actually call him an unfit military leader? No, I think not. As we have seen repeatedly, Republicans neither defend themselves against lies nor do they expose their opponents as un-American and left-wing liberals. The only time they attack opponents and defend themselves is against other Republicans in the primaries.
-- Peter Gualtieri

Whenever I read anything about John F. Kerry, I can't help but think about another genuine American Hero who shed his blood for our country. General Benedict Arnold, opportunist extraordinaire....
-- Dick Lambert

Jed Babbin replies: Yes, the protesters did help the enemy in Vietnam, but I still don't classify Kerry as a traitor. Those -- like Hanoi Jane then, and Baghdad Jim McDermott today -- are indeed traitors who should be treated as such. Kerry, for all his foolishness, didn't sink to that level.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Business, Sports, Military, NATO