Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...

Salon likes to see itself as a boxing ring where people of various political, religious and social backgrounds can duke it out. If reactions to Salon's coverage of the impeachment hearings are any indication, there's ample disagreement among our readers to keep us fighting on into the millennium: For every letter demanding President Clinton's impeachment (and often worse), there was another arguing just as passionately for pardoning the beleaguered leader of the free world.
Also, Steven Brill and his colleagues at Brill's Content showed that they do indeed have a sense of humor, contrary to the claims of James Poniewozik in his weekly Under the Covers column. Brill and two of his staffers wrote to contest Poniewozik's claim that "While the New York Observer drops names and downs Manhattans at Balthazar, Brill's Content has a glass of milk and goes to bed at 9:30." Thanks for clearing that up!
Gary Kamiya stirred reader passion yet again with his Dec. 15 rant, "A kinder, gentler lynch mob." At the end of the first day, Kamiya tallied up the 141 or so letters in his in box and came up with the following unscientific survey:

Kamiya is a god who strides the earth: 94
Kamiya is a mixed bag: 4
Kamiya is a loathsome sack of acid-addled liberal shit: 43
We've published a selection of letters regarding Kamiya's article as well as responses to Scott Rosenberg's Let's Get This Straight column comparing the trials of Bill Gates and Bill Clinton below.

_______________A KINDER, GENTLER LYNCH MOB BY GARY KAMIYA (12/15/98)

Overdrawn perhaps, but Gary Kamiya's article synthesized a lot of my own thinking about the GOP and the characters driving the "get Clinton" train. The present state of its momentum is starting to remind me of past hysterias that have afflicted Western cultures from time to time: The Salem witch trials, the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades were all driven by long-nosed, moralistic power mongers who trumped the sentiment of the masses on the grounds of some "higher authority." Cloaking the current affair in the rule of law or the Constitution or righteousness doesn't change its fundamental raison d'être: an umbraged group of self-effacing, small-minded men and women with money and power -- be they politicians, news mavens or self-appointed cultural arbitrators.
-- Tom DeLuca
At the core of Gary Kamiya's wonderful, if occasionally vituperative, essay is a reality Republicans seem willing to ignore or dismiss: They are gleefully handing their Democratic opponents in 2000 the best campaign material in recent memory. This past weekend -- on talk shows, during CNN interviews, over the Internet and even in the New York Times -- Republican leaders and peons alike were seen and heard declaiming, over and over, that "the voters won't remember this two years from now," "my constituents have short-term memories," "people will completely forget about this by next year"-- to cite just a few of the most egregious examples. It doesn't take a genius in political consulting to see an ad campaign based on the famous Daily News cover (mocking, ironically, Gerald Ford, who found out the hard way that voters do have memories): "Republicans to Voters: You're Stupid!"
-- David Cloyce Smith
New York
Gary Kamiya's piece is just more vapid GOP bashing. Since I represent the "American People," I wonder when the "American Media" is going to get it. Clinton dropped the ball. If he had any integrity or honor he would admit that fact and step down. Obviously, he doesn't and won't.
However, what he has done sets a much less damaging precedent in American history than Ken Starr's reckless disregard of privacy in his sensationalized investigation. If Starr had done his investigation by the book, he could have had a great case against the president. I firmly believe Clinton should be impeached. However, Starr's blatant political manipulation and entrapment cannot be allowed to stand as a precedent for the removal of the American president.
-- Drew Hegarty
Gary Kamiya's analysis of the right-wing lynch mob (though I refer to it as "the vast right-wing circle jerk") was certainly spot on. But I'm somewhat mystified as to why people are so shocked over conservatives' open contempt of the wishes of the majority of Americans. Universal health care, a woman's right to choose, Social Security reform -- these are but a few of the issues the American people have, time and again, indicated their overwhelming support for and, time and again, have been defeated by the ultraconservatives, at the behest of their corporate and religious masters. Why should impeachment of Bill Clinton be any different?
-- Dave Abston
San Francisco
I was alive and aware in the 1960s. I remember hearing hogwash like that which Gary Kamiya espouses. Except this is 1998. I wasn't fooled in 1968, when I was 17, and I'm not fooled now.
-- Karen Kasting
I went to bed last night realizing that I had not felt this abused by my government since Vietnam. Gary Kamiya cannot have expressed my feelings more exactly. Here I am, a middle-aged businesswoman with two children, and I feel ready to storm Washington, throw my rather round body on the barricades and shout, "Hell, no. He won't go!" I too tried to look at these conservatives with adult eyes over the years. Kamiya's right. We had it the first time.
-- Barbara Gerard
Austerlitz, N.Y.
While I am no firm believer in the high ideals espoused by the House Republicans, let's not assume that every last Republican is foaming at the mouth with anger and thoughts of revenge. Some people interpret the Constitution in a different manner than Gary Kamiya and follow it for noble reasons.
-- Chris Hansen
Chesapeake, Va.
N E X T+P A G E+| More reactions to Gary Kamiya. Plus: The trials of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...
	Salon likes to see itself as a boxing ring where people of various political, religious and social backgrounds can duke it out. If reactions to Salon's coverage of the impeachment hearings are any indication, there's ample disagreement among our readers to keep us fighting on into the millennium: For every letter demanding President Clinton's impeachment (and often worse), there was another arguing just as passionately for pardoning the beleaguered leader of the free world. Also, Steven Brill and his colleagues at Brill's Content showed that they do indeed have a sense of humor, contrary to the claims of James Poniewozik in his weekly Under the Covers column. Brill and two of his staffers wrote to contest Poniewozik's claim that "While the New York Observer drops names and downs Manhattans at Balthazar, Brill's Content has a glass of milk and goes to bed at 9:30." Thanks for clearing that up! Gary Kamiya stirred reader passion yet again with his Dec. 15 rant, "A kinder, gentler lynch mob." At the end of the first day, Kamiya tallied up the 141 or so letters in his in box and came up with the following unscientific survey: Kamiya is a god who strides the earth: 94 Kamiya is a mixed bag: 4 Kamiya is a loathsome sack of acid-addled liberal shit: 43 We've published a selection of letters regarding Kamiya's article as well as responses to Scott Rosenberg's Let's Get This Straight column comparing the trials of Bill Gates and Bill Clinton below.
_______________A KINDER, GENTLER LYNCH MOB BY GARY KAMIYA (12/15/98)
	Overdrawn perhaps, but Gary Kamiya's article synthesized a lot of my own thinking about the GOP and the characters driving the "get Clinton" train. The present state of its momentum is starting to remind me of past hysterias that have afflicted Western cultures from time to time: The Salem witch trials, the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades were all driven by long-nosed, moralistic power mongers who trumped the sentiment of the masses on the grounds of some "higher authority." Cloaking the current affair in the rule of law or the Constitution or righteousness doesn't change its fundamental raison d'être: an umbraged group of self-effacing, small-minded men and women with money and power -- be they politicians, news mavens or self-appointed cultural arbitrators. -- Tom DeLuca At the core of Gary Kamiya's wonderful, if occasionally vituperative, essay is a reality Republicans seem willing to ignore or dismiss: They are gleefully handing their Democratic opponents in 2000 the best campaign material in recent memory. This past weekend -- on talk shows, during CNN interviews, over the Internet and even in the New York Times -- Republican leaders and peons alike were seen and heard declaiming, over and over, that "the voters won't remember this two years from now," "my constituents have short-term memories," "people will completely forget about this by next year"-- to cite just a few of the most egregious examples. It doesn't take a genius in political consulting to see an ad campaign based on the famous Daily News cover (mocking, ironically, Gerald Ford, who found out the hard way that voters do have memories): "Republicans to Voters: You're Stupid!" -- David Cloyce Smith New York Gary Kamiya's piece is just more vapid GOP bashing. Since I represent the "American People," I wonder when the "American Media" is going to get it. Clinton dropped the ball. If he had any integrity or honor he would admit that fact and step down. Obviously, he doesn't and won't. However, what he has done sets a much less damaging precedent in American history than Ken Starr's reckless disregard of privacy in his sensationalized investigation. If Starr had done his investigation by the book, he could have had a great case against the president. I firmly believe Clinton should be impeached. However, Starr's blatant political manipulation and entrapment cannot be allowed to stand as a precedent for the removal of the American president. -- Drew Hegarty Gary Kamiya's analysis of the right-wing lynch mob (though I refer to it as "the vast right-wing circle jerk") was certainly spot on. But I'm somewhat mystified as to why people are so shocked over conservatives' open contempt of the wishes of the majority of Americans. Universal health care, a woman's right to choose, Social Security reform -- these are but a few of the issues the American people have, time and again, indicated their overwhelming support for and, time and again, have been defeated by the ultraconservatives, at the behest of their corporate and religious masters. Why should impeachment of Bill Clinton be any different? -- Dave Abston San Francisco I was alive and aware in the 1960s. I remember hearing hogwash like that which Gary Kamiya espouses. Except this is 1998. I wasn't fooled in 1968, when I was 17, and I'm not fooled now. -- Karen Kasting I went to bed last night realizing that I had not felt this abused by my government since Vietnam. Gary Kamiya cannot have expressed my feelings more exactly. Here I am, a middle-aged businesswoman with two children, and I feel ready to storm Washington, throw my rather round body on the barricades and shout, "Hell, no. He won't go!" I too tried to look at these conservatives with adult eyes over the years. Kamiya's right. We had it the first time. -- Barbara Gerard Austerlitz, N.Y. While I am no firm believer in the high ideals espoused by the House Republicans, let's not assume that every last Republican is foaming at the mouth with anger and thoughts of revenge. Some people interpret the Constitution in a different manner than Gary Kamiya and follow it for noble reasons. -- Chris Hansen Chesapeake, Va. N E X T+P A G E+\| More reactions to Gary Kamiya. Plus: The trials of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates