Letters to the Editor for Monday, September 28, 2009

People, where’s the real outrage?
I watched with utter amazement the feigned outrage in the House of Representatives over the inappropriate “You lie” comment made by Rep. Joe Wilson during the president’s recent speech.

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Some members of the House said it was a breach of decorum that brought discredit to the People’s House. And yes, the outrage must be feigned because the House has allowed many of its illustrious members to very corruptly discredit the People’s House and has done nothing to reprimand or sanction those members.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which writes tax laws, is a known tax cheat. Where is the outrage over this discredit to the People’s House? Rep. John Murtha is alleged to have serious ethics issues and violations, and the House has done little to investigate him. Does this not discredit the People’s House? Rep. Barney Frank fought vigorously against tighter regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage giants whose corrupt lending practices contributed heavily to our recent financial meltdown. I’m outraged; shouldn’t House members be outraged too?

These are just a few of the many examples of corruption that seems systemic in the People’s House. House members, where is your outrage? Where is your outrage when the majority of your membership passes bills without reading them? Don’t feign outrage by focusing on one member whose actions, while inappropriate, were not corrupt. Get serious with the American people. Focus your outrage on the real systemic corruption that is dishonoring the People’s House and hurting our nation.
KATHERINE R. NANCE
Madison Heights

Dear Susan’s ‘Dear John’
As Oscar Wilde once said of Little Nell, one would have to have a heart of stone to read Susan Estrich’s Sept. 26 column without laughing.

It seems Susan has a very public mad-on for John Edwards. She does her level best to make it seem as if it’s over his extracurricular and extramarital activities. Unfortunately, she has an equally public status as feminine defender of Chappaquiddick Ted Kennedy and Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton, as she herself admits. Thus she spends most of her column spinning like a “Dancing With the Stars” couple in the final freestyle round.

It is tempting, and absurdly easy, to dismiss Estrich as an utter hypocrite. But that would unjustly neglect the key clause in her column: “ ... When you distort a presidential race you had no business being in ... .”

When Mary Jo Kopechne breathed her last, Teddy was a sitting U.S. senator. When Juanita Broaddrick made her accusations, with at least the same credibility and timing as Anita Hill, Bill was already in the White House.

The real reason Edwards is feeling Ms. Estrich’s belated and selective wrath isn’t because of anything he did sexually. The real reason is because he did the one thing no leftist can ever do and sleep peacefully ever again. Edwards crossed the one line all leftists dare not cross; broke the one taboo all leftists universally acknowledge; in short, he committed the one leftist unforgivable sin.

He lost.
CAREY MARTIN
Forest