(Regarding article “New Gang of 14 won’t back McCain,” June 12.) Republican members of Congress that “refused to endorse … or declined to answer whether they back” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), stress that he and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) offer no true choice.
Americans overwhelmingly oppose the Iraq war that McCain approved; open borders and illegal amnesties, which McCain and Obama agreed to; and the reauthorized Patriot Act, razing our Bill of Rights, that both backed.
Obama, yet to be senator during the Iraq war vote, confirmed he reserves all options toward Iran, including preemptive attack, while McCain cosponsored the last two major Senate bills aiming to grant 12 million to 30 million illegal aliens permanent American citizenship, jobs, housing, education, healthcare and Social Security.
Conversely, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), one of the Gang of 14 refuting McCain, demonstrates rigorous adherence to the Constitution in voting no on the Iraq war, no on the NAFTA superhighway implementing de facto mergers with other nations, yes to securing our borders and no to the reauthorized Patriot Act.
In concluding his presidential bid and inaugurating his Campaign for Liberty, Paul told CNN’s John Roberts that Libertarian-elect Bob Barr “can have a very positive effect in this [presidential] campaign … that gives everybody a choice.”
Imagine that!
Lafayette, Calif.
HILLARY’S TIME OFF
The big picture
From David Post
(Regarding article, “Clinton takes a month off,” June 18.) This announcement begs the question of exactly how much time Sens. Clinton, McCain and Obama (to name only the three major players) have spent at the jobs they were elected to do in the past 18 months.
This is a complete farce and an insult to the whole country. What happens in the 2012 election race if 20 senators at one point or another decide to run? Does the whole government shut down until one of these egoists wins?
It’s time America reforms itself. A single six-year presidential term suggests itself.
Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Not very presidential
From Flo Jones
Poor Hillary — so “exhausted” from her campaign that she needs a month to recuperate? What about the 3 a.m. phone calls? Would she really have been ready on Day One? I don’t think so!
The hardworking people of America never get a month off to rest from hard work, so why should she?
Riverside, Calif.
Public trust in arrears
From Wayne J. Kulick
Outstanding editorial (“Housing on the Hill,” June 19). Not so much the fact two senators are caught in yet another public scandal, but you point out the public’s growing intolerance for politicians abusing the public trust.
The public does recognize, as our Founding Fathers did (Federalist Paper No. 57) that the tendency for our elected representatives will be “taken from that class of citizens which will have least sympathy with the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at an ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few” and “to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them [elected representatives] virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.”
I think public sentiment is summed up quite well and forewarned by Hamilton or Madison: “What are we to say to the men who profess the most flaming zeal for republican government, yet boldly impeach the fundamental principle of it; who pretend to be champions for the right and the capacity of the people to choose their own rulers, yet maintain that they will prefer those only who will immediately and infallibly betray the trust committed to them?”
Beware the professional politician.
Lansdowne, Va.