The American Spectator

Reader Mail

DISCOUNTING VALUES
Re: W. James Antle III's Against Discount Values:

When Mr. Antle suggests that social conservatives should spend energy to try to move Giuliani toward their way of thinking, what he's really saying is that they should try to get him to say the right things. This is precisely the lesson that Mitt Romney has put into practice for his own campaign the last couple of years, and it has even worked to some extent, witness ostensible cognoscenti such as Mr. Antle accepting as bona fide Romney's claimed pro-life conversion, his many contrary past utterances, actions and inactions on the matter of abortion notwithstanding.

Note to Messrs. Antle, Tyrrell et al. at TAS: There are hundreds of thousands of voters in the social conservative bloc who understand for what it is the tactic of politicking known as "Screw what I really think; just tell 'em what they want to hear." As much as we despise Bill Clinton's worse half, we are animated far more so by our pro-life principles, which are nonnegotiable. Our prospects for having a reason to turn out in November of '08 grow bleaker by the week.
-- Francis M. Hannon, Jr.
Melrose, Massachusetts

Whether or no some Evangelical conservatives warmed up to Giuliani in D.C., yours truly, Catholic and conservative, simply will not vote for a pro-abortion, pro-queer, antigun hedonist who was a draft dodger during my little war in Vietnam. I.e., I won't vote for Giuliani even at the risk of letting Hillary capture the White House.

Nor will I vote for a Mormon (and another draft dodger) under any circumstance whatsoever.

It increasingly looks like in '08 my vote will go to a 3rd party.

Is the GOP indulging in the fulfillment of a death wish?

Dominus vobiscum,
-- Dave Livingston
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Values voters and social conservatives enamored with Mike Huckabee should be skeptical not only of his fondness for taxes, but his dubious ethics. As Governor of Arkansas, on the ethical front he had more in common with his predecessor Bill Clinton than with Ronald Reagan or both Bush Presidents. Still any one of the Republicans stands head and shoulders above the Democrat Presidential contenders, who as a group embody the corruption and dishonesty of the morally bankrupt Democrat Party.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

GET OUT THE WAY
Re: Jeremy Lott's Watch Out for Lynne Cheney's Elbow:

What a great article Mr. Lott has brought us here. Mrs. Cheney is a tremendously underrated politician/bureaucrat and an absolutely brilliant woman. She and Dick Cheney have been tremendous assets to this administration. Unfortunately the President has discarded some tremendously talented assets, like John Ashcroft at Justice, Porter Goss at CIA, Donald Rumsfeld at Defense, Amb. Bolton at the UN, Gen. Peter Pace as CJCS, and Adm. G as his number 2, and others. All the while giving us a plethora of Clinton holdovers well into the first term, while trying to jam unqualified candidates down our throats like Harriet Miers for SCOTUS, while giving us Alberto Gonzales at Justice to succeed Ashcroft.

All the while Bush absolutely refuses to defend himself and his administration from the vicious attacks from Capitol Hill, and the news media, and the radical activist Left. No, for almost 7 years now we have been charged to "change the tone." Well, the tone has indeed changed, it has gotten orders of magnitude worse.

We need more of the attitude of the Cheneys and a good deal less of the attitude of the Bush clan.
-- Ken Shreve

She is the woman I would vote for for President. I have been a big fan of hers for years.
-- Janis in Independence.

STRIPPING THE COLONEL
Re: George H. Wittman's The Scores of Tripoli:

Do we need yet another sign of decay and defeat at the hands of terrorists and thugs like Gaddafi? Apparently not -- the appetite of the Bush administration for self-mutilation makes masochism look positively benign. When is somebody out there go to tell the emperor that he is parading around buck naked? Please, God, do it quickly before these idiots do something really, really stupid.
-- Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia

As a veteran of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's mid-eighties free navigation rights exercises in International waters that included flight operations below the infamous "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra, and having been onboard when Col. Khadaffy ordered his air force (such as it was) to go and "Sink the Eisenhower," I don't have a lot of use for Libya or Khadaffy on a good day. Watching Libya buy its way back to respectability in the UN doesn't improve my opinion of them one bit.

Just like with Fidel Castro, the world cannot be a better place until Libya's Dictator for Life finally assumes room temperature, one way or another.
-- Bob Koski
ABECS(AW) USN (Ret.)

FEARLESS LEADER
Re: Mark Tooley's Asbury, Itinerant Leader:

Mr. Tooley writes an interesting and timely article, a quick look into the life and times of Asbury. Would that our once great country contained far more like Bishop Asbury today, and far less of what passes for leadership within the Methodist structure of today. The question that occurs to me is just this. If Bishop Asbury were alive and active today, would he be apt to lead a rebellion against what the Methodist Church and it's hierarchy have become, or would he simply form his own sect that returned the church to it's biblical roots of preaching the Gospel, the renouncing of sin based on the laws given to Moses by God Himself. Or is it possible that Bishop Asbury would have been so influential within the Methodist Church that he could have stopped the drift away from Scripture, and held the line against the secularization of Methodism. Mayhaps he would have been so towering a figure, so influential a voice that he could have helped to strengthen the good biblically oriented folks in other Christian communions. Then again, Billy Graham tried mightily to staunch the drift away from the Bible by the leadership elite within the Christian hierarchy also, and he only managed to slow the drift by an almost imperceptible amount. The mainstream of much of the Christian church in America certainly has left the teachings of great preachers like Bishop Asbury in their wake.
-- Ken Shreve

RUNNING AT LARGE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Their Seven Deadly Sins:

I read with great interest your recent article entitled "Their Seven Deadly Sins," but it only serves to add to my complete frustration and disgust with what is going on in America today. With all due respect, I have no idea what the readership of The American Spectator is, but it apparently is not enough to get the truth out to the American electorate. Equally discouraging is the fact that no one in the national spotlight ever fights back and reveals the true facts about the Clintons.

I feel as though I am witnessing a true phenomenon as I observe that not one of the few conservative newspapers, none of the conservative talk show hosts, none of the Republican presidential candidates , NO ONE ever dares tell the truth as it is. WHY IS THAT? Whatever the reason is, the Clintons will forever be able to do whatever they want because most people don't know about it and a great percentage of the others don't care. Does no one care that Bill Clinton desecrated the Oval Office? Of those that claim that what he does with his personal life is his personal business ever consider that fact that Monica Lewinsky could have been a foreign espionage agent to whom he might have revealed secrets about national security? Sometimes I feel as though I'm one of very few people on earth who never forgets that the Clintons are liars and felons who even stooped so low as to steal silverware from the White House? Why is it that no one seems to care about the Clintons "Seven Deadly Sins"?

My frustration reached an all time high one day last week when I heard a woman who had called in to the Hannity show make a statement that she was going to vote for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman and because she is a mom. With that level of ignorance that exists within the American electorate, how can the most qualified candidate (or ANY qualified candidate) ever get elected?

Mr. Tyrrell, I am almost totally despondent in my realization that this country, or indeed possibly the entire world, cannot possibly continue to last in any logical fashion while we are hurtling down this road to self-destruction. Assuming that the liberal leadership in this country are not totally ignorant persons, what can the motivation to the destruction of our country's social and economics systems be? In their view, is political power more important that the well-being of our country?

In closing, I congratulate you for your truthfulness, honesty and courage to present the facts as they truly are encourage you to continue your good work
-- Anthony Penizotto

Her Royal Clinton (HRC) and The Boy President have a clear history of corruption that has gone grossly underreported from Arkansas to Washington to New York. With one glaringly "fair and balanced" exception, televised news leans strongly to the left, so the under (or non) reporting of this unethical and immoral behavior is no surprise. The print media has been much better shepherd, sounding the trumpet more frequently, but the sheep are too often either blind or tone deaf to head the call. If the clarion is acknowledged at all, it is quickly dismissed as "old news" or part of the "vast right wing conspiracy."

When The Great Communicator, President Regan, God rest him, left the White House, the party of Lincoln lost its moral compass. When Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich resigned, the GOP then lost is collective backbone. Only one man running for president is hard boiled and spinal enough to not only speak the truth, but to shove it down Hillary's throat. That candidate: Mayor Giuliani. If Da Mayor brings up these issues in the presidential debates, the stink of the dirty laundry might just penetrate the nostrils of the American public. The stains, once again brought to light, will be so blatant that even the mainstream (i.e., liberal) news will have to acknowledge that the empress' new clothes cover many weeping abscesses, some old and some new, all needing serious attention. If Giuliani is given the chance to face HRC, only the most mindless loyalists will have any taste for the spew that HRC serves up.

Conservatives, unless they can find a messiah, will have to hold their noses and accept that no Republican candidate is without sin, and only one has the steely eyed, crisis tested, testicular fortitude to stand up to the lady who wishes to once again hold the balls, and other social functions, of the White House.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

MARKET UNREADY
Re: Garin K. Hovannisian's The Liberaltarian Delusion:

I really enjoyed the article. It amazes me how ignorant Democrats are on economic freedom...They get social freedom but they miss the best part of libertarianism (in my opinion), the free markets. Thanks for the article keep up the good work
-- Matthew Elliott

THE ONE AND ONLY
Re: Ben Stein's I Had No Alternative:

I want to add my thanks to the Spectator for bringing Ben's views and analysis to the fore. And my thanks to Ben for his countless thought-provoking and timely articles.
-- Tom Bullock
West Covina, California

TWO LITTLE JOE'S
Re: Lawrence Henry's A Cook's Vocabulary:

I have eaten at Little Joe's many times but it's in North Beach on the Chinatown side of Broadway. I learned to saute squid there from an ancient Italian who liked me. I see there is a Little Joe's on Van Ness, but one on Union Square is news to me. Where exactly was it?
-- James Jackson

Lawrence Henry replies:
There are two of them. The little luncheonette, if it's still there, is in North Beach near Broadway, you're right. The fancy one is in Union Square.

THIS IS DEDICATED
Re: Liz Mair's Script and Stage:

Hillary requested that her campaign supporters come up with a campaign song. Here's one that is making the rounds.
-- Fred Edwards

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