The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> FRIENDS LIKE THESE br> Re: Larry Thornberry's Red Faces in a Red State : /p> p>From what I saw of Harris, she's not exactly the type to look for a couch to faint upon. I think she's going to rock the boat a little. She's taking an opportunity no one else will, so I say help her with some of the lifting, and heave the opportunistic Nelson over. br> -- M. Scott Horn br> Akron, Ohio /p>

I suppose politics is the art of the possible, and I suppose Larry Thornberry is discussing Florida politics in that way. But I find it very dispiriting when public affairs are reduced to only political calculation. What about principles? Katherine Harris is a hero. She stood in the door when the Democratic vote counting and smear machines tried to roll over her. And she stopped them cold. Yes, there were other players who would have come into the game, including the Florida legislature, but the Dems threw everything they had at her -- including the ever-helpful Alan Dershowitz calling her a "common criminal" -- and she didn't buckle. That is pretty impressive to me.

It was exactly the lack of that type of character that let the Nazis take over in Germany -- the Enabling Act was only the first step; a lot of people had to abandon their civic duty to hand the keys to the country to the Nazis. The Dems tried the same playbook on Katherine Harris to seize the presidency. I cannot think of a more disgraceful episode in our history, let alone in living memory. I believe with this episode alone Al Gore disqualified himself from high office.

The politics of Florida may mean that Katherine Harris is behind now. Does that mean she can't win? Try telling that to Harry Truman. Or to George Bush I for that matter who was, I believe, 14 points behind Dukakis after the Democratic Convention.

Let's have a little faith and support our own. And why is it that the evils of self-financed campaigns are only discovered when Republicans are involved? Money never seemed to bother anybody about Ted Kennedy, or Jon Corzine who actually did buy his Senate seat, or John Kerry, or Jay Rockefeller, or Herb Kohl, or Dianne Feinstein who has just bought a palace in San Francisco, or...well, you get the picture.

topics:
Taxes, Mainstream Media, Business, Islam, Hollywood, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Israel, NATO, Energy, Oil