Bush and Cheney

* Re “White House Let Hussein ‘Off the Hook,’ Cheney Says,” Sept. 21: Where does Dick Cheney get off claiming the Clinton Administration let Saddam Hussein “off the hook”? That happened under the Cheney watch, when Operation Desert Storm was halted within a stone’s throw of Baghdad, at the command of President George Bush. Then, to make matters worse, U.S. support for an internal uprising within Iraq dribbled away, as well. Now Saddam thumbs his nose at us from his palaces built on the backs of his people and goes about restoring his weaponry with impunity, and our pathetic response is sanctions.

Why, instead, doesn’t Cheney show a little class and acknowledge that the Bush Administration made a serious error in judgment, rather than carping about the Clinton Administration’s handling of the impossible mess they left.

GARY BULLOCK

Los Angeles

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The real issue of this election is whether the majority of the voters are willing to turn over the leadership of this nation to two rich Texas oilmen.

H.O. VAN PETTEN

Downey

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Two untruths in your Sept. 20 paper are so blatant I can’t believe it. In a commentary, Bruce Bartlett states “Bush, however, never talks about Big Government.” The basic premise of George W. Bush’s campaign is against big government.

“The Softer Side of Bush: George W. Visits Oprah” says that Bush blushed when asked about his “favorite dream” and did not tell us what it was, except that he raised his right hand, causing the audience and Oprah to laugh. I saw the event on TV news, and both Oprah and the audience laughed since they knew, and she acknowledged, that it was a gesture of “taking the oath” as president. Oprah replied, “Of course, that’s your dream.” It was obvious that the gesture spoke for him. How rude and petty for the article then to go on and imply he may have had something racy in mind.

JOHN E. PIPER

Covina

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Al Gore likes to suggest that many of Bush’s proposals involve risk. He’s right--they do involve political risk. Bush has shown real courage in suggesting fundamental reforms to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and he’s not afraid to hold the school system accountable for teaching our kids. This is the type of risk that a leader does take.

Gore won’t take any political risks, but he will accept another type of risk--the risk of continuing the failed status quo. He’d rather let problems like underperforming schools and Social Security insolvency fester than show leadership to take these challenges on. Like President Clinton, Gore’s more interested in scoring hollow political points than improving America’s well-being.

GARY MENDOZA

Sierra Madre

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Bush scornfully decries Gore’s Medicare drug plan as a “government-run HMO.” What Bush is careful not to say is that what he proposes is to force all seniors into insurance company HMOs, eventually. For my part, I absolutely prefer any program run by Medicare, as Gore’s would be, to any program run by private HMOs, and I think most seniors will also.

Bush is using the prescription drug issue to further his master plan to dismantle Medicare as a universal, non-capped, non-means tested program, while at the same time covering his rear end on the drug issue.

DANIEL F. OLIVIER

Bullhead City, Ariz.