Gov. Clinton, Others Respond to Buck Johns’ Attack on Clinton

Buck Johns just doesn’t get it. But then, why are we not surprised? The close-minded thought process displayed by Johns last month (Orange County Voices, Dec. 20) is indicative of the thinking that plagues the extremes of both major parties, thinking that has created much of the mess that we find ourselves in domestically.

Johns’ glib ideological “sound bites” about denying landing rights at John Wayne Airport to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton and “doing lunch” with the President are classic examples of the kind of intramural partisan bickering that trivialize the critical issues facing our country. Such bickering also fails to make any contribution whatsoever to finding solutions to the important nonpartisan issues of economic growth, health care, education and crime.

Personally, as Americans first and Republicans second, we felt compelled in this time of domestic crisis to open the dialogue in our community to other points of view and to send a message to both the White House and Congress that we wanted action and leadership on these issues, now. Hence, when Gov. Clinton called us and asked for the opportunity to share his views and review his record--which he felt both Democrats and Republicans could support--we obliged with an open mind to provide such a forum with Orange County business leaders.

The fact of the matter is that our reaching out for new points of view and Gov. Clinton’s articulation of his positions seem to have struck a responsive chord among many Republicans in Orange County. We saw first evidence of this when our guest list for the Dec. 5 Clinton breakfast meeting more than doubled from its original size. Since then we have received hundreds of phone calls from fellow Republicans applauding the gesture of hosting the governor. Apparently, these folks share our view that considering other points of view is not a litmus test for party loyalty.

As we both stated at the breakfast meeting with Gov. Clinton, we remain members of the Republican Party and supporters of President Bush, hopeful that he and his Administration succeed in converting their recent words of concern into actions to get our economy back on track.

In the meantime, since the Republican Party can’t always count on enjoying the broad-based support nationally that it does here in Orange County, we think it behooves us to evaluate those seeking the nomination from the other party. In the event that the Bush Administration and Congress do not turn things around and the Democrats win the White House in 1992, it is important that the most qualified and responsible Democratic candidate be in the running. We think Bill Clinton possesses those qualities.

If Mr. Johns and other hard-line Republicans consider such thinking disloyal or misguided, then so be it. We’ll continue to try to get our leaders to do what’s right for the country, including listening to a broad spectrum of points of view.

ROGER W. JOHNSON, KATHRYN G. THOMPSON. Roger Johnson is president, CEO and chairman of the board of Western Digital Corp. in Irvine and Kathryn Thompson is a prominent Orange County developer.