Campaign Finance Reform

Re “Local-Level Suits Keep Campaign Reform Alive,” Oct. 20:

Several key lines bear repeating because they clarify “campaign finance reform” so that everyone can understand. “Less than 1% of the population gave 80% of the donations,” while “96% of the population gave nothing at all.” They are talking about $2 billion in the 1996 election. Is it any wonder that the lawmakers favor the special interests?

The key issue is the U.S. Supreme Court’s Buckley vs. Valeo decision that you could not limit individual spending, which actually means $1 equals one vote, instead of the older standard of one man, one vote, when Congress votes! This is a critical issue for our democracy.

DAVID BRUNK

Gardena

* Like most Washington politicians, Sen. Fred Thompson (interview, Opinion, Oct. 19) doesn’t begin to comprehend the profound contempt with which he and his colleagues are viewed by most ordinary people. Constantly surrounded by a gaggle of lackeys and hustlers, fawned on by reporters and lobbyists whose livelihood depends on access to them, members of Congress, especially senators, live in a closed world without access to honest mirrors or voices that are not mere echoes. In the corridors of the Capitol, they all see themselves as giants.

Elsewhere in the country, on those rare occasions in waiting rooms or checkout lines when strangers even bother to talk about politics, the general attitude toward Thompson and his colleagues ranges from scorn to indifference. Washington politics is seen as a corrupt game played by others, a game in which the players make up the rules and the rest of us pay the penalties.

Despite all the posing and preening by Thompson and his fellow committee members, even the least sophisticated citizen understands that these self-serving, smug politicians are the only people who can clean up the game and they choose not to, because they and their backers are the beneficiaries of its corruption.

The result is a grotesque parody of democracy in which the wealthy and powerful choose our nominal representatives for us.

MARVIN A. GLUCK

Topanga

* Washington is a more disgusting sight than usual: To see our leaders in both parties devoting most of their energy to trying to make the other party look worse than themselves spatters mud on both.

What’s abundantly clear is that both parties in our vaunted democratic process are practicing thinly veiled bribery and each side has torn away the veil. “Pay money and we will respond to your request” is certainly bribery. Shame on the Senate for throwing campaign reform out but pursuing investigations in a frenzy. It’s lucky Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has inherited some knowledge of wrestling alligators.

W. ROBERT HOLMES

Apple Valley

* Shades of the past and present. Dick Nixon had John Mitchell as his attorney general. Clinton has Reno as his attorney general. Smell familiar?

PETER C. LATSIS

Culver City

* Reno will keep on buying time until Clinton’s term ends.

BILL STEIN

Arroyo Grande

* Re “Money Trail in Probe of China Funds Turns Cold,” Oct. 19: How can we justify getting on our moral high horse about possible Chinese influence in U.S. politics when we have an entire institution, the National Endowment for Democracy, whose sole function is to pour millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of foreign political candidates we support?

DAVID KERBY

Los Angeles

* Re “Videos of President Capture a Focused Political Animal,” Oct. 18: Congratulations for reporting that recognized the breadth and depth of President Clinton’s understanding. How refreshing it is to read this report, after so many slanderous stories that have denigrated the president. Your article portrays the outstanding intellect and caring person we have embodied in our president.

BARBARA FINCH

Costa Mesa

* So, they say the president is a “focused political animal.” No kidding. How else do you become president? Another question: Do Republicans think they can distract the American public from campaign finance reform by making the congressional hearings so blatantly partisan?

PHILLIP MORELOCK

Los Angeles