Kerry, Bush Maneuver on Iraq and Economy

Re “Bush’s Tilt to U.N. Shifts Iraq Debate,” April 21: President Bush’s switch on Iraq “blurs distinctions between himself and Kerry”? I don’t think so. Bush has lied (WMD, Hussein-Bin Laden connection), made backroom deals that benefit him and his cronies (flying Saudis out of the U.S. after 9/11, tax cuts for the rich, lowering environmental standards, high prescription medicine prices, efforts to cut overtime, Halliburton and Bechtel reaping contracts and the Saudi Arabian oil-for-winning-the-election connection) and broken with the Constitution (diverting war funds from Afghanistan into war preparations for Iraq, without congressional knowledge or approval).

Actions speak louder than words and, given Bush’s actions, appealing to the U.N. is probably another ploy to win the election, on the one hand, and an admission of complete incompetence on the other. At any rate, the distinctions between Bush and Sen. John Kerry are crystal clear.

Pamela Kelly

Long Beach

Re “Kerry Latches On to Claim of a Bush-Saudi Oil Deal,” April 20: Kerry says gas prices are too high and that Bush should do something to get the prices down. Bush asked the Saudis to pump more oil in order to raise the supply, which would lower prices. Now Kerry accuses Bush of trying to lower the price for politics, in order to manipulate the election. Is there anything that Bush could do right? I suppose if he walked on water, they would say, “Bush cannot swim.”

Judy Herbst

Beverly Hills

Amity Shlaes (Commentary, April 19) criticizes Kerry’s economic “misery index” for the middle class. Though it is not clear whether the author wants an index with fewer or with different components, a few suggestions are made.

One is to use “straightforward unemployment rates.” But this number is hardly straightforward, since it ignores people who have given up looking for any job. This is like saying that a person who is too sick to go to the doctor is really very healthy. Another suggestion is to include the price of private education in the index. Why? Kerry is focusing on those in the middle class. They cannot afford the cost of a private education; tuition at Yale is not relevant.

Perhaps a hardship index for the wealthy should be devised for an administration dedicated to helping them. Shlaes could do this.

Robert Kapche

Fountain Valley

“Kerry Would Threaten Gun Rights” (April 18) got it wrong. The photo of Kerry, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and me on the cover of the National Rifle Assn.’s monthly magazine was taken after the passage of a vote to extend the federal assault weapons ban by 10 years. It was not taken after the defeat of legislation giving the gun industry unprecedented immunity from civil liability lawsuits.

The four senators in the photo did not kill the gun-immunity bill. In fact, the NRA scuttled its own signature bill out of concern that the legislation to renew the assault weapons ban might actually get to Bush’s desk for his signature. This shows the lengths to which the NRA will go to stop the assault weapons ban.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein

D-Calif.