Stirling Stirs Anger

I am angered and personally insulted by the remarks reportedly made by state Sen. Larry Stirling when he spoke against the ethics reform bills that are being proposed by the Legislature (“Stirling Lambastes Common Cause,” Sept. 15).

As a charter member of Common Cause, I am proud to be associated with an organization that has almost single-handedly over the years fought for reforms that would both pay our representatives more but hold them to a code of conduct commensurate with the high office to which they have been elected. I am also proud to be led by such men as Walter Zelman, whose honesty and integrity have never been questioned by any legislators, even those who disagree with him.

To call our organization communistic shows the low stature to which Sen. Stirling has fallen in his apparently lone fight to defeat a measure whose time has come. It is the old demagogic way of dealing with an issue that he cannot defeat by rational argument, and such name-calling certainly reflects on his lack of ability and reflects on the entire electorate of San Diego County which he represents.

I would hope that Sen. Stirling, upon reflection, would have the moral integrity to apologize in public to both Mr. Zelman and to those of us who support him through Common Cause.

GORDON A. SHIELDS

El Cajon