Campaign Hearings

Re your July 8 editorial, “Campaign Hearings Should Avoid Partisan Detours”: You’re right. This is not Watergate. What these hearings are trying to uncover is more analogous to dismantling the hierarchy of the mob. John Huang was, most likely, engaging in economic espionage from the Commerce Department.

Huang was a friend of Bill Clinton and was hired at Commerce with Clinton’s full knowledge and blessing. Huang’s transfer to the Democratic National Committee was also approved and arranged by Clinton. Huang’s solicitation of illegal DNC contributions helped Clinton get reelected. Clinton either looked the other way while Huang funneled classified economic information to Lippo and, probably, the Chinese government, or he approved the activity in order to tap into the vast source of campaign funds he was desperate to obtain.

Either way, Huang and others were the foot soldiers in the operation, doing the dirty deeds while Clinton reaped the benefits. The foot soldiers were rewarded with all sorts of White House perks, and up until now, all have either maintained their silence or fled the country. This is not Watergate. It’s worse. It’s the political version of “The Godfather.”

CARRIE MAHAN

Newbury Park

Re Cal Thomas’ July 8 Column Right, “Campaign Fund Scandal Show on Capitol Hill”: While denying that the Republicans ever do anything wrong, Thomas goes as far as calling any media support for the Clinton administration’s stand on campaign reform as a “collective and coordinated effort,” implying that the media and the White House have somehow conspired to crush any Republican opposition to campaign reform.

Such Orwellian paranoia is cute, but hardly substantive enough to support Thomas’ continuously blaming the Democrats for all political ills.

TODD GROVES

Los Angeles

China was trying to “subvert our election process,” said Sen. Fred Thompson (July 9). Apparently that’s a right reserved only for American lobbyists.

PETER GRANT

Van Nuys