Congress OKs Clinton’s Budget Plan

* You are a freshman senator. You are a Democrat. You are a “short termer” with an election not far away. You decide to play hard to get on President Clinton’s economic bill. You become very visible on national TV and in the newspapers. The President meets with you personally. You say you are concerned about the bill as it applies to California. You become a key swing vote figure. Actually you had decided to vote for the President’s bill from the beginning. The publicity and exposure, though, have made you a celebrity. Back home, you have become, you think, a very important person. You eye that upcoming election. You are Dianne Feinstein.

R. D. CADMAN

Los Angeles

* The loudmouth talk show callers and their Republican representatives still can’t accept the fact that Clinton was elected. A recent example of this was their unyielding “cut-spending-first” stance during the budget debate. If these people are so much smarter than the rest of us, where were they 10 years ago during the Reagan tax-cutting frenzy? Back then, did they insist on spending cuts first, tax cuts later? No, once their taxes went down, they were too busy dancing in the streets to notice (oops) spending didn’t go down and the deficit was shooting up. This inconsistent record reveals that their self-claimed “expertise” is actually a front for self-interest.

TIM WARREN

San Diego

* Regarding the notion that Clinton “inherited” the present budget mess: Throughout the Senate debate, concerning the President’s plan for deficit reduction, many Democratic senators sought support for Clinton by claiming that he had “inherited” this terrible mess after 12 long years of wild Republican spending. Clinton did not inherit the presidency. He made every conceivable effort to win the office by promising the moon to everyone who was old enough to vote. Now that he and his wife are in the White House, they should end their sniveling.

MEL H. CONNELY

Huntington Beach

* I’m sure many public safety workers enjoyed your Aug. 7 headline, “Clinton Budget Triumphs, 51-50”--5150 is the police code for a crazy person.

JOE DUNN

Burbank

* The chairman of the California Republican Party, Tirso del Junco, has falsely accused Sens. Barbara Boxer and Feinstein of frustrating constituent protest against Clinton’s budget by disconnecting their office phones (Aug. 7). I reached both senators’ offices on Aug. 6 to urge a “no” vote.

Del Junco, however, recently announced a plan to silence millions of California Republicans. At a gathering of about 150 “Chris Cox for Senate” boosters at an Anaheim Hills residence on July 31, I stood 10 feet away from Del Junco when he promised to remove the pro-life plank from the state party platform and banned any discussion of the abortion issue, in order to achieve party unity. I contend that the defense of the unborn is a Republican distinctive. The abandonment diminishes the party and will be its (further) undoing.

As the 1994 Senate race heats up, is it too much to ask that no more hypocritical charges of constituent abandonment come from Republican leadership?

CRAIG A. WHITE

Costa Mesa