The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Under Attack

10.27.08 @ 6:01AM

(Page 3 of 4)

I specifically reported that the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee pulled its scheduled advertising buys on behalf of Michelle Bachmann, which it did. But the NRCC has continued raising money off Bachmann, sending out solicitations asking people to donate to the embattled congresswoman -- and, of course, to give the NRCC itself some money as well.

How to resolve this seeming contradiction? According to the Hill, the NRCC has sent out a memo saying it wasn't really abandoning candidates like Bachmann. “There are more paths to victory for Republican candidates than we have money to fund,” spokeswoman Karen Hanretty said in the memo. “Some candidates, like Congresswoman Bachmann, are sitting on more than $1 million cash on hand in districts that President Bush won in 2004 by double digits.” This makes it sound like pulling the ads was an expression of confidence, like the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee's decision to stop advertising in Colorado now that Democratic candidate Mark Udall is well ahead in the polls.

This argument just doesn't hold up. The ads are being pulled at a time when Bachmann's Democratic challenger has started raising vast amounts of money -- over $1 million -- and a SurveyUSA poll shows Bachmann trailing 47-44 percent (within the margin of error). Bachmann will no doubt get some benefit from the latest House Republican solicitations, as will the NRCC. But when her strongest socially conservative supporters complain about being abandoned, they have more than half a point.

GORE'S SECRET LEVER
Re: Paul Chesser's Climate Alarmism's Flimsy Foundation:

Paul Chesser is right on target. Cultivating fear of environmental collapse is an enormously effective lever for centralizing political power. It was used to great benefit by the Maya kings of Mesoamerica, who surrounded themselves with an intelligentsia that enforced the idea that, lacking  the proper ritual activities (which included blood sacrifices and the building of enormous public works projects) their civilization was doomed. The sun might not rise, the rains would stop and the harvests would fail. I can imagine what happened to the first Mayan "denier" who dared to speak out against the notion that the sun, rains and crop yields had little or nothing to do with the favored rituals of the Mayan priestly class.
-- Ken Smith
Ellendale, North Dakota

STOOPING TO THEIR LEVEL
Re: David Callon's letter (under "So Do You") in Reader Mail's John the Lockpick:

I love the comments of reasonable citizens concerning cheating, fraud, lies and villainy. It's OK for our side to do it, because the other side does it too.

Dr. Callon complains, at length, that Mr. Ferrara's article is not balanced and objective. Then he vehemently attacks the perceived partisanship of the Heritage foundation and then strongly criticizes Mr. Ferrara's writing ability.

And yet, with the possible exception of mentioning the book "Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy," by Mark Crispin Miller, Dr. Callon makes no effort to refute any of the instances of fraudulent activity mentioned in Mr. Ferrara's piece. Nor does he cite any instances to substantiate his claim of "a sinister effort by some on the right to compromise our Democracy". While, given the nature of politics, instances of Republican and Conservative attempts to influence an election through fraud have undoubtedly taken place, there does not appear to be any widespread, coordinated effort underway, in this regard. If there were, it is almost a certainty that the Main Stream Media would be reporting on it ad nauseum, much as they screamed about the actions of Kathleen Harris in 2000 [she was ultimately proved to be correct in her actions, though no retractions were ever made by any media outlets for their remarks about her]. Yet MSM news stories abound concerning Democrat officials and Democrat related groups participating in just such activities this year [Ohio Secretary of State and Acorn to name but two].

The point is, it is not acceptable for anyone to engage in voter fraud. Voter fraud steals YOUR voice. This government was set-up to allow the citizenry to select responsible people to represent the majority views of the populous. Voter fraud negates that and allows a few to dominate the majority.

The government will continue to stand only as long as people have confidence that their vote counts and that they have a say in their government. The enforcement of voting laws is one of the main reasons for that confidence. When it evaporates, then governance will be decided by bullets, as it is in half the nations of the world.
-- Michael Tobias

FACT CHECKING RELIGION
Re: Cameron S. Jackson's letter (under "Site Check") in Reader Mail's John the Lockpick:

Letter to the Editor