The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Wie Was Robbed

10.20.05 @ 12:01AM

BAD LIES
Re: Reid Collins's Michelle, Ma Belle:

Golf is the last refuge of integrity in sports. Players routinely disqualify themselves when they even think they might have made an error. It is a sport where fans watching on TV can and do call in to officials when the spot a rules violation. Mr. Bamberger, who is a former tour caddy, did nothing wrong. My only gripe is that he should have done it immediately so that Ms. Wie would only be assessed a two-stroke penalty instead of suffering the embarrassment of disqualification in her first professional event. However, ultimately the player and her caddy are responsible for adherence to the very complicated rules of the game.
-- Jerry

Isn't it strange that the violation was reported after play had ended on Sunday and not after he had paced it off on Saturday? It couldn't have had anything to do with the impact it would have had on the TV audience that would have vanished if she were not playing on Sunday, could it?
-- Harvey McCumber

Me thinks that the kicker writer at TAS is stuck in a 1970s time warp. The Sports Illustrated reporter who called out Michelle Wie is Michael Bamberger (as Reid Collins correctly noted in his column), not George Bamberger as the kicker line had it until corrected. George Bamberger was the pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles when they were managed by Earl Weaver in the 1970's. This makes me hark back to the pre-Angelos glory of the O's, but that's for another day.
-- Michael Palmer

The kicker writes replies: My thanks to Jim, er, Michael Palmer for catching that error (if I can mix things up further).

DELAY DEMONIZED
Re: Andrew Cline's The Plantation Right:

Mr. Cline starts off with a very cogent point, one that I can agree with wholeheartedly. Then he takes off like a rabid fox or skunk completely ignoring facts and/or political reality. It is unusual how often that happens among the hard core super conservatives in New Hampshire.

Let me say up front that I could list a bunch of reasons that Tom DeLay should NOT be in the GOP leadership. Because the Dems say so in NOT one of those reasons. If Mr. DeLay were not so darned effective in hitting the Dems where it hurts, they would be content to simply let him go along with only minor sniping from time to time. He should NOT be ousted during or because of a Dem hissy fit.

Just in the last decade, the Dems have taken the scalps of Newt Gingrich, Rep. Livingston, and Trent Lott, all on trumped up garbage that the Dems themselves are doing. All this while their own folks are committing felonies and walking away clean, as in Rep. McDermott, just for one. Of course this is only possible with the full assistance of the DNC department known as "the media."

I agree that the conservatives need to commit an overt act to get the GOP to quit taking them for granted. I agree that the GOP has, in large measure, abandoned its principles of frugality, efficiency, and merit for easy spending, growing the government, and cronyism under George Bush. We cannot, however, keep giving the Dems and radical liberalism cheap victories with our help. It might help if the GOP quit acting like Dem Lite and quit trying to get the Dems and the media to still love them in the morning.

Let us rescue Tom DeLay from the Dems, then slap him upside the head to get his attention and sit him among the back benchers until he learns his lesson. We don't need the Dems to help us in this, and we darn sure don't need to be helping the Dems to take down every right of center person that achieves a modicum of success.
-- Ken Shreve
New Hampshire

Andrew Cline is right on the money, as it were. It is also true on social issues. Speaking as a Pennsylvanian, we have seen good conservatives treated like dirt by the party establishment. No wonder Santorum is in trouble.
-- Chris Fletcher

Cline accurately disjoins conservatism from Republicanism. There is really no difference between Bush I and Bush II. The latter wanted a "kinder, gentler nation," and Bush II wanted "compassionate conservatism." These are the same insult wrapped in different packages. In these politically correct times, when have you heard Bush II criticize anyone? Answer: the Minutemen (vigilantes) and the Anti-Miers (Mrs. W. and her sexist comment). While we were fortunate to have a wartime president when 9/11 hit, Roosevelt didn't do too bad in WWII. Conservatives must not confuse our ideology with an opportunity to occasionally agree with W.
-- William Dye

"If the base is not willing to hold party leaders accountable -- by abandoning them if necessary -- then they will quickly become the lapdogs of the Republican Party, stroked every now and then, but wholly controlled by their masters."

The only problem I have with the above is where is there a choice. Sure I can just not vote, but I don't want to hand power to the godless liberals. I call and write to my elected reps and tell them what I feel, but I am only one person. The President has totally let me down with his lack of border control and lack of pushing for the rule of law against those here illegally and not using the veto pen. I am so upset with Sen. Hutchison for voting against the troops and for the terrorists I could spit.
-- Elaine Kyle

Letter to the Editor

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Sports, Religion, Books, Law, Iraq, Russia, Conservatism