Flap Over Playboy Fund-Raiser

* Absolute political correctness corrupts absolutely. As a lifelong Democrat, I am angry at the DNC for threatening to silence Rep. Loretta Sanchez because she planned to hold a fund-raising event at the Playboy Mansion (Aug. 11). She has done much more for women’s rights than these men who are trying to control her. This is someone’s house. Do they suggest that background checks be done on people’s homes before we schedule events? This homeowner has done more for human and 1st Amendment rights than most others in our party. Let’s not be like the Republicans. They are the party of exclusion and prejudgment.

STEVEN AFRIAT

Los Angeles

*

Sanchez should move her event to a Buddhist temple and sell a few overnights in the Lincoln Bedroom. Al Gore is such a hypocrite, when his hat is being passed around all over Hollywood asking for those dirty show-business dollars.

DICK CHESTER

Los Angeles

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In 1976 when Jimmy Carter--probably the most “moral” president over the past 50 years--was running for president, a lengthy interview of Carter appeared in Playboy magazine. The interview contained a reference to the “lust” that Carter had.

Now, just a few years after she was the toast of the Democratic Party, the DNC turns its back on Sanchez after she arranges for a $3-million fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion. Bob Dornan must be having a great laugh.

KEN FELDMAN

Granada Hills

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Am I being too cynical or just aware of reality when I feel that what is said and promised at the big political conventions has only two purposes, to fool the naive public and to garner votes for the prospective candidates? The conventions have little connection with what the parties really stand for or what they plan to do. Looking at past convention rhetoric and comparing it with what those pols actually did or tried to do in the ensuing years, it would seem that much of what was so glibly orated about was just that, glib oration.

I suggest that voters ignore the convention bombast and examine what each party has done or tried to do in the past and judge them on that basis. What has each party really done to make your life and this nation better?

WALT HOPMANS

Santa Barbara

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Smartest thing the Democrats can do at their convention next week would be to drop Gore and nominate somebody electable. Somebody who stands on principle and doesn’t flop for political advantage. Somebody who has the respect of every American who has ever heard his name. Somebody like, oh, say Ralph Nader. Ralph, of course, is already spoken for by the Greens. But somebody like Ralph.

DON BUSTANY

Los Angeles