The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Carbon Disposal

9.26.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 3)

Having said that, I hope he doesn't run for president, for two reasons. First, while Newt is a visionary, he is a lousy politician. Doesn't anyone remember his whining about not getting a budget deal done because he got a bad seat on Air Force One on an overseas trip to a funeral? Or, the way Bill Clinton ran circles around him during the government shutdown of '95? Or, the way he capitulated to Clinton in the budge battle of '98? Or, his allegedly hypocritical behavior during the Lewinsky episode?

Do we really want to revisit these episodes? Because we will have to, if Newt should somehow wind up as a serious candidate for president.

Now, some might read this and sniff, "But that's yesterday's news!" True enough, but that's the same excuse that another politician has used masterfully for years. Her name is Hillary Clinton.

Second, the GOP field is already too crowded. It's bad enough that Alan Keyes has jumped in. (While I support Keyes' views and oratory skills, he has proven to be a very unimpressive candidate. Who can forget his '04 campaign for the U.S. Senate?) Do we really need to add Newt into the mix?

I hope that Dr. Gingrich will stick to doing what he does best. Keep the great ideas coming, Newt. But whatever you do, please don't run for president.
-- Greg Hoadley
Deerfield Beach, Florida

Item: President Bush excluded all from his town meetings except for the most highly vetted supporters.

Item: Members of the press corps who asked embarrassing questions were excluded from future press conferences.

Item: Oh, heck... you get the idea.

For the sake of clarity, let's keep our labels straight: If you are a left wingnut, your hero is Stalin (state planning and persecution of those who dissent). If you are a right wingnut your hero is Hitler (big business/big government uber alles; persecution homosexuals, macacas and John McCain's "black baby" -- you get the picture).
-- Mike Roush
North Carolina

Visiting Dignitary?
Visiting dignitaries indeed.
But no dignity resided in the very bad seed
Who ungraced the stage at Columbia U.
He gave the whole watching world a view

Of students applauding his evil grin.
How many by this setup were taken in?
Tens of thousands saw without a doubt,
What the naïve Mr. Bollinger had brought about.

Words boldly spoken by the school's president,
Fell far short of their intent.
The honored guest babbled on and on,
All thought of making sense airily gone.

How many brave Americans by his weapons died
While this master of terror enjoyed our free ride?
-- Mimi Evans Winship

Your point about the hard left and its intolerance to anything that does not regurgitate the party line, is spot on. That aside, Bollinger's slick little demonstration of "toughness" notwithstanding, was nothing more than an act by an intellectual coward, smugly ensconced within Columbia's protective cocoon. Make no mistake, Bollinger's motives were multiple.

Like Ahmadinejad coming to America, he did it simply because he could. It also gave an elitist like Bollinger an opportunity to demonstrate his hypocritical piety to the lofty notion of academic free speech, no matter how repugnant to the rest of us. Thirdly, Bollinger had to placate the angered money crowd, in order to insure that the flow of lucre to the flush coffers of Columbia would not be interrupted: hence, his little act of solidarity with America. As for Ahmadinejad, well he got his international stage of respectability, at the expense of these useful idiots at Columbia.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
John McCain, Bill Clinton, Business, Catholicism, Islam, Environment, Global Warming, Books, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Iran, Israel, Conservatism, Energy, Oil