Pinkerton on Klein, Clinton

James Pinkerton (“ ‘Calvinism,’ Clintonism Do Not Reign,” Column Right, Feb. 23) reads too much into Calvin Klein’s latest advertising controversy. The simple fact is that Klein knows how to get maximum publicity with minimum expense, and social conservatives are only too willing to be of help. Unfortunately Pinkerton goes beyond simple outrage and sees sinister undercurrents everywhere. He makes the preposterous suggestion that Klein’s tots-in-undies ad may be linked to “Clinton’s recent victory over congressional Republicans” in the impeachment trial!

Even worse, he suggests that conservatives alone hold proper “anti-Calvinite” family values. Is he genuinely clueless that respecting the sanctity of childhood is a basic human value held by conservatives and liberals alike? His pathetic attempt to correlate the political spectrum with attitudes about underwear (and by insinuation to demonize anyone he deems politically to his left) is one further debasement of our already debased national debate.

With his reference to Marky Mark’s “crotch-bulging Calvins,” what more evidence do we need that Pinkerton’s thinking is decidedly “phallacious”?

DAVID NELSON

Santa Barbara

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On Feb. 23 you ran a very positive and commendable editorial encouraging Congress to get beyond the Clinton sex scandals and the lingering hostility among members of Congress.

Why do you then, on the opposite page, run Pinkerton’s exercise in superficiality, in which Pinkerton attempts to tie Clinton’s acquittal with another of Calvin Klein’s latest exercises in greed?

How about a Times moratorium on right-wing Clinton-hate columns for a few months?

RALPH LONG

Newport Beach