David Duke in Election Runoff

Your editorial on David Duke (“Reap What You Sow: GOP’s Duke Problem,” Oct. 22) was fine as far as it went. But it reflected the curious double standard that the national media have adopted concerning the man.

You traced Duke’s political history back to the 1960s, but you neglected to mention that for most of that time, including his 1988 race for the presidency, he was a Democrat. Furthermore, the Democrats during that time never took the sorts of action against him that the Republican Party and its leaders have during his three races since 1989.

Duke is at best a pallid Republican Jesse Jackson. Both are racist and both are anti-Semitic. Duke, however, has stopped his public comments along those lines and even offered tepid apologies for earlier behavior. Jackson has not recanted his racism and manages to insert it into virtually every speech.

Is there any chance The Times will urge Democratic leaders to endorse a Republican in a race against Jackson?

ROBERT DAVIS, President, West Hollywood Republican Club