State of the Congress

Pat Buchanan accuses Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of being a “practitioner of the politics of compromise” (Dec. 11). Conservatives seem to regard compromise as a four-letter word, and anyone who compromises on anything as weak and somehow unethical.

Compromise is one of the foundations of a democratic society. There is a name for the leader that will not compromise, that forces his will on everyone else. The name is “dictator.” Hitler, Stalin and Mao were men who did not compromise. The one thing terrorist groups have in common is that they do not compromise. Fill the government with people who won’t compromise and if no group gains control you have gridlock and/or anarchy. If one group gains control you have a dictatorship by people like Buchanan.

ROBERT D. SWEET JR.

Ventura

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* Re “Verbal Slings and Arrows Pierce Washington Civility,” Dec. 3:

There should be no surprise that members of Congress act like schoolyard bullies. They do not need to be concerned that their causes are right or reasonable if they can accomplish the same goals with intimidation and insult. These politicians are continuing the same strong-arm tactics that they used during their campaigns. It is ironic that they rail against gang violence when they practice verbal hooliganism in the halls of Congress.

PATRICK J. MURPHY

Corona

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* Regarding the article that quoted a Democratic senator as wanting to “take an Uzi in there and spray the place,” and later spoke of Newt Gingrich and Al Gore “almost coming to blows”: Did Congress have a showing of “Money Train” at lunch?

JILL BRUBAKER

Garden Grove

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* The lobbying reform legislation passed by Congress (Nov. 30) will require the registration of individuals who devote 20% or more of their time to lobbying activities. We are about to witness the creation of a new Washington phenomenon: the Nineteen Percenter.

LEE HAHN

Laguna Hills

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* There is an obvious explanation for next year’s mass exodus from the Senate and House. These gentlemen and gentlewomen are simply experiencing the same feelings of revulsion and disgust that the current Congress evokes in most of us. The obvious solution to this unhappy state of affairs is to send Gingrich and all of his mean little Ging-sters into retirement next year too.

MARVIN A. GLUCK

Topanga

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* Robert Scheer was correct in stating, “Gingrich sure knew what he was doing when he appointed Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) head of the House Ethics Committee” (Commentary, Dec. 12). He could have appointed a totally biased “character assassin” like Michigan Democrat David Bonior (“Democratic Vendetta: Death by Nitpicking,” by Cal Thomas, Commentary, Dec. 12).

Scheer alleging that the Republicans whitewashed the entire ethics process and that committee Democrats were so desperate that they went along with the whitewashing is ludicrous. If so, shame on those weak-kneed liberals for so easily caving in.

I’ll buy into Scheer’s suggestion to let my “elected representatives know loudly and clearly that they are not buying into this scam,” with one little change--I’ll tell them not to buy into the political-demonizing scam of sore losers like Bonior and his robots.

BOB BALL

Anaheim

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* Re “Tearful Waldholtz Says She’s a Victim of Love,” Dec. 12:

The long-awaited explanation by Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz (R-Utah) was vintage Republican politics with the only thing missing being a dog named Checkers. The representative was shameless in putting on the mantle of victimhood. Here we have a seasoned and tough attorney who was advising the state of Utah on financial matters, now claiming that she was duped by her husband. No explanations as to why she paid no heed to her staff or the FBI as to irregularities in her personal finances, only drivel aimed at avoiding any responsibility for fraudulent acts. Either she is grossly incompetent or an extremely bad liar.

This mendacious person has had the gall to, along with her first-year Republican cohorts, preach family values as if they were the sole possessors of the word of God! Before Waldholtz and her junta of hypocrites presume to lecture the country on ethics and morals, they should tend their own house first.

RALPH M. CASILLAS

Los Angeles

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* Thank goodness for the Grand Old Party. First they gave us the Newt and now the Waldholtzes, with a story you couldn’t sell as a soap opera. I haven’t been entertained so much by politicians since Barry Goldwater offered to saw off the Eastern Seaboard and sink it in the Atlantic.

DEAN HISER

Orange