The American Spectator

br> Re: Joseph Baum’s letter (“Massachusetts Echo”) in Reader Mail’s Whither Men of Stature? : /p>

I read Joseph Baum’s critique of my analyses of Ben Stein’s columns about Big Oil and the War in Iraq with interest. He accused me of merely recycling the Kerry/Kennedy line of buncombe, and “after further review,” as it were, I can see where he got such a notion.

Beyond any feeling of flattery that I must acknowledge from learning that anyone bothered to look that far, I must also confess that I took the trouble to look at Mr. Baum’s history in these pages. He is uniformly succinct in his comments. I wish I had his gift of brevity.

I’ll grant that, by any standard, I’ve appeared to be antagonistic toward the current regime in Washington. I’ve intended to appear that way, because I am.

I’ve only recently begun corresponding in these pages, so there can be no record here of the utter disdain I felt and continue to feel toward every such regime since at least the Reagan Administration, and many of those that preceded it. Whether nominally Democratic or Republican, regardless of which party controls the Congress, let me be clear that I’m a foe of what I think of as “mo’, bigguh gummint” and, in particular, the collusion of the dominant parties in its behalf, for their own benefit at the expense of the nation itself.

p>It pains me that Mr. Baum or anyone else should imagine that I’m in any way a fan of the Kennedy/Kerry wing of “mo’ bigguh gummint,” as I hold them in particular contempt as the most dire enemies of Constitutional principles, excepting, of course, the Clinton wing. My efforts at “careful wording and scrupulous construction” have gone awry! I resolve to take Mr. Baum’s criticism to heart in future submissions to this page and to demonize with a broader, yet more finely pointed brush. br> — Mark Fallert br> Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania br> /p>