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_______________LIFE OF THE PARTY? BY JOSHUA MICAH MARSHALL (12/18/98)
	The Republicans should have had a reserved section on their side of the aisle Saturday for their puppet masters, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry "Mr. Morality" Falwell and Gary Bauer. I'm sure those morally bankrupt hustlers were relishing every minute as their minions did the dirty deed of impeachment. We should all hope and pray and do our best, during the 2000 election, to remind the American people what the Republicans did to our country today. Most politicians have it in their mind that if enough time passes, the public will forget their nasty deeds of today. I think it's high time that we show them just how wrong they are. -- C.B. Abrams Louisville, Ky. Joshua Micah Marshall mentioned Bob Livingston's withdrawal and coming resignation only briefly in his story. Am I the only one who heard what Livingston was really saying? After a chorus of Republicans chanting over the months, "It's not about sex, it's about perjury and obstruction of justice," at the 11th hour of their victory, Livingston resigns because of sex -- not perjury, not obstruction of justice -- and holds that up as an example he hopes Clinton will follow. So it is, after all, about sex, even if Livingston -- like Hyde and Chenoweth and Burton -- is only guilty of "good" sex because no one put him under oath and asked whether he moved it to the left or moved it to the right when he was doing it. Despite the lack of a Grand Inquisitor for Livingston, it is fitting that the sex that got him was revealed when Larry Flynt decided to raise the ante in Richard Mellon Scaife's trash for cash game. Perhaps Time should replace its "Man/Woman of the Year" with "Scandal Sugar Daddy of the Year" and feature both Larry and the Dickster, the real movers and shakers in this increasingly putrid mess. -- Kenneth Irving Staten Island, N.Y.
_______________HERE COMES THE JUDGE BY JEFF STEIN (12/16/98)
	Jeff Stein's thumbnail recap of Chief Justice Rehnquist's previously expressed views on impeachment was informative, yet I still feel great disquiet over this man's possible involvement in an impeachment trial. It was he who appointed Judge David Sentelle to head the three-judge panel that appoints and oversees the independent counsels. And it was Sentelle who appointed not only Starr but the egregious David Barrett, whose cruelty in the Cisneros case was so recently documented by Jane Kramer in the New Yorker. Sentelle is a right-wing Republican activist whose hatred of "secular humanism" and all its supposed works is well documented. For a Chief Justice such as Rehnquist to have appointed such a partisan and biased man is not only repulsive, it is alarming. And Rehnquist will sit in judgment of the president? Like I say, deep disquiet. -- Andrew Goodwin
_______________THE CRUISE COCOON BY ZACHARY KARABELL (12/08/98)
	Finally! Someone who feels as I do about cruises. I was beginning to think that I was some kind of intellectual snob, since everyone else thought cruises were wonderful, and seemed to think that I was strange to think otherwise. When I vacation outside the U.S., I don't want to spend my time surrounded by Americans. I can do that without leaving home. And yes, I have been on a couple of mercifully short cruises. -- Melvyn Gillette
_______________THE VIRGIN KING BY DON GEORGE (12/10/98)
	It was enlightening to read Don George's gushing account of his dinner with Richard Branson, and learn about the great man's noble bearing, adventurous spirit, dashing countenance and humanitarian soul. One thing though -- shouldn't such a love letter have run in the Urge section? -- Chris Erikson
_______________BOON OR BOONDOGGLE? BY NICHOLAS CONFESSORE (12/16/98)
	Salon's piece on E-rate was one-sided. The E-rate was intended to lower the monopoly phone bill for Internet access, not buy computers and premise wiring, which are purchased in a competitive manner. What if the power company raised rates to everyone for the purchase of spiffy new toasters for a certain subset of users? More importantly, this inclusion raised the total amount of the E-rate program to a level where Universal Service as a whole starts being questioned. The feds and states still have major decisions to make in this area. Your author acknowledges the benefits of Universal Service, yet seems unaware that Beltway-centric wonks think it entirely possible to can Universal Service. After all, no one lives in rural areas but rich ranchers and second-home vacationers. -- Don Arnold President, Shoreham Telephone SALON | Dec. 23, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| THE IMPEACHMENT WAR: WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?

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