LISTEN TO HIM
Re: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder’s Stop the Killing:
It pains me as an American that Israel cannot see fit to defend itself. I know many people believe that the Israelis are persecuting the Palestinians and murdering children, etc. etc. But the Arabs have not and will not put a peace plan on the table that allows Israel to exist.
Bottom line is that Israel is at war. Someone needs to win. The killing will end sooner that way. The methods of the last 10 years have killed more people than an outright victory.
Jackie Mason is right. Listen to him.
— Clint Griffith
Jacksonville Beach, FL
CONVINCED
Re: Jed Babbin’s Picking Up the Pace:
Jed, I agree with you, so you don’t have to convince me. You have to convince President Bush. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. President Bush will not be re-elected if he keeps on harping on the Bozo from Baghdad while the scumbag slips off the hook. It’s time to stop talking and start doing. Our President’s problem is that Saddam has heard it all before while we whine and do nothing. This bizarre ritual has gone on since 1991. It’s about time we start acting like a superpower and stop trying to be loved. Millions of American lives are at risk.
— Mike Slater
REPLACEMENTS
Re: The Washington Prowler’s Lott’s Entertainment Channels:
Trent Lott should be replaced as Senate majority leader by either Bill Frist or Kay Bailey Hutchison. Bill Frist is the most intelligent and qualified and he is on the subcommittee on African affairs. Kay Bailey Hutchison is a thoughtful, intelligent speaker and appeals to women voters. Both senators come from more critical states than Don Nickles, who had a mediocre background prior to joining the Senate.
— Mary Murray
UNRECONSTRUCTED DEMOCRATS
From yesterday’s Reader Mail, Mr. Paul Beston writes, “The second posture is Trent Lott and the remaining vestiges of the unreconstructed Confederacy. Is there are any wonder that blacks don’t vote Republican?”
I suggest Mr. Beston find a history book fast! The unreconstructed Confederacy was full of Jeffersonian Democrats fighting for states’ rights (including slavery) against the newly elected Republican President.
The reconstructed South was full of liberal Democrats from the North coming down to punish the Confederates and took their lands, their votes and their power. These disgruntled Southern Democrats then formed the Ku Klux Klan.
Fast forward eighty years and it was the descendants of these men that took power and kept the South segregated, stood in the doorways of the schools, refused to let blacks register to vote, and intimidated black voters where possible. The vast majority of these people were Democrats like Orville Faubus, George Wallace, then Democrat Strom Thurmond, Fritz Hollings (who put the Confederate flag on the state capitol of South Carolina as governor), KKK member Robert Byrd, Clinton’s mentor William Fulbright, Al Gore, Sr. who voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Bill (of which higher percentages of Republicans in Congress voted For), et al.
Only revisionist history, lousy public schools, agenda controlled media, and lies, keep the myth alive that the Republicans “hate blacks.”
— Greg Barnard
Franklin, TN
Paul Beston replies: My intention was to point out how ineffective Republicans have been in breaking that myth. They have been afraid to advance and fight for their positions on race, which are correct and moral; their squeamishness about doing so only confirms the myth’s power. They do not speak honestly — as Shelby Steele often points out, they are too paralyzed by guilt to have the courage of their convictions. And then on the other hand, they have idiots like Lott extolling the Confederacy.
I am well aware that the Democratic Party was the party of slavery and segregation. But let’s not be so disingenuous to forget that the South went Republican largely as a response to the Civil Rights movement. The Party of Lincoln rhetoric is all well and good, but the truth is that neither party has covered itself in glory.
NAME PSYCH
Re: Jeremy Lott’s Avoid the Noid:
Jut tell Jeremy Lott that when people ask in those accusatory tones, “You’re not related to TRENT Lott, are you?” — he should reply, “No, no. My last name may be spelled L-O-T-T, but it’s pronounced ‘Bush.’ “
— Kevin McGehee
Coweta County, GA
ROSY SCENARIO
Re: Paul Beston’s Charlie’s Latest Hustle and Richard Goldstein et al.’s letters in Reader Mail’s Keep Rose Out?:
My take on why Rose accepted the “death penalty” is that the agreement contained a provision allowing him to apply for reinstatement in one year! In his press conference back in 89, he made reference to applying for reinstatement on his daughter’s birthday year hence. He probably thought that he was likely to be back in the game.
Note that George Steinbrenner also accepted a “lifetime” ban in 1992 for the Spira episode, only to return after two short years of purgatory.
Sadly, Rose did not have competent legal counsel. In fact he used a couple of country lawyers who didn’t know better. As I stated previously, the MLBPA would have eaten John Dowd for breakfast and squeezed out his remains for lunch.
As for George Will, if there are 52 instances, we’d love to see ’em. Kind of like the 28 teams that “lose” money, eh, George?.
— Richard Goldstein
Somerset, NJ
Read the agreement and tell me where it says he bet on baseball. I don’t care what the Dowd Report says there was never a hearing. Pete put the game above himself and did not fight it in court. You can’t say he was guilty and the report had him dead to rights because he never had his day in court. In America you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, not based on a report for the prosecutor and from statements from criminals. If Pete was so guilty why didn’t baseball prove it and ban him for life?
This is what he signed and he has applied for reinstatement. Give him credit for giving up his livelihood and accepting the deal.
This is America, we forgive and forget. Baseball is for the fans and they want to see him in. What don’t you get?
— Paul M. Cussen
Chicago, IL
Talking about baseball’s integrity: Any sport that ends it’s all star game in a tie has no integrity.
— Robert Shotzberger
