WHAT DID DELAWARE?
Re: Lawrence Henry’s New Jersey Gets a Bad Rap:

I was born and raised in New Jersey, but moved away after my college years. Whenever people from other parts of the country found out I was from New Jersey, I would hear one of the following: (1) “Oh Yeah, what exit?” or (2) “I hear New Joisey is lovely.” I would smile politely, knowing that New Jersey was America’s best kept secret, and moved back as soon as I could. Now, Lawrence Henry has blown New Jersey’s undercover status. Hopefully, we won’t have hordes of Midwesterners, or even worse, Manhattanites, descending upon us as a result of Mr. Henry’s article. I agree with everything he wrote. I just wish he had kept the secret amongst us New Jerseyans.
— Sean K. Smith
Edison, NJ

Lawrence Henry replies: The Manhattanites (and Brooklynites) are already coming, and at an even faster pace since September 11. The Midwesterners, I don’t think we have to worry about, with more and more big companies realizing that, say, Sioux Falls or Omaha is a great place to headquarter. I hope I did provide some comfort, though, for people who may find themselves undergoing a forced relocation, as we did, and whose initial reaction may be, “Oh, no! New Jersey?”

POWER POINTS
Re: The Prowler’s The DNC’s Dirty Disk:

The scenario you present regarding the so-called lost disk and PowerPoint presentation being swiped from a temporary file in a hotel’s projection system is completely and totally wrong. It is not technologically possible to do — one possibility would have been for someone to videotape the presentation off the screen it was projected on, or, even more unlikely, the connection between the computer and the video projector was tapped and converted to standard video and recorded.
— Keith Hanson
Clear Lake, IA

Where o where is Don Fowler? This has a Fowler smell and appears to have come out of that tape recorder from the Florida Demo operatives. After that wild story, he disappeared and became very quiet. Why is no one interested in him?
— J. Butler

The probability that a Demo staffer “found” the disk with the PowerPoint presentation on it is about the same as the probability as the two Demo operatives driving around in their car listening to their scanner were able to tape-record Newt Gingrich’s cell phone conversations.
— John Manguso
San Antonio, TX

How apt that such parallel events should be unfolding at the 30-year mark for Watergate:

Then: Democratic strategic data (paper files). Now: Republican strategic data (computer files).

Then: An office in the Washington Watergate hotel. Now: A computer in the Washington Hay-Adams Hotel (American Prowler, 24 June 2002).

Then: “A third rate burglary” (White House spokesman Ron Ziegler, 1972). Now: “Next time they lose something, let’s hope it’s a bit more sophisticated” (Democrat Maureen Dowd, N.Y. Times, 16 June 2002).

Then: “I neither authorized nor encouraged subordinates to engage in illegal or improper campaign tactics” (Richard M. Nixon, 15 August, 1973). Now: “A Senate subordinate found a disk on a street corner” (Terry McAuliffe, et al., covering their tracks after the leak).

So, Daschle, McAuliffe, Dowd, Gore, N.Y. Times, Washington Post, CBS, what did you know and when did you know it?
— Scott Young

RED NOSED
Re: Judd Magilnick’s A Light Unto the Reindeers:

Great piece. Hell, I’m a Catholic in Newton, Mass., and feel the same way. Hey, Rudolph, we need you here.
— Carey Pierce

MESSAGE UNDERSTOOD
Re: Ben Stein’s The Daddy Trap:
Ben: I read your recent article on The American Prowler website, and … as a father of a wonderful little four-year-old boy, it broke my heart.

I got your message, and thanks for writing it.
— Martin Potucek

HOW’S THAT AGAIN?
Re: Reader Mail’s Turning on the Heat:

About Barbara J. Ankrom’s contribution: Huh?

I went back and read John Corry’s column again to be certain that we are reading the same words, Barbara. In it I find no attempt on his part to review Stephen Carter’s writing. He doesn’t even claim to have read The Emperor… He was reviewing reviewers!

How then can you “look forward… thanks to your insights…”?
— Robert E. Johnson
Bedford, TX

IS THAT ALL?
You guys are doing some good work here. Thanks.
— D. Davis