Profiting off the presidency

Re “Bush’s family profits from ‘No Child’ act,” Oct. 22

Since when does the brother of a sitting president using the family name to make money warrant a lengthy front-page article? Brothers of both Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in the presidential pardon process. Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy pitched Billy Beer and became a lobbyist for Libya. Richard Nixon’s brother received money from Howard Hughes.

Why would an article on the Bush family’s capitalizing on its name and investing in a perfectly legal educational enterprise land on the front page?

People have lost billions of dollars through wasteful pork-laden legislation under the Bush administration. Call me and I’ll let you know what’s wrong with Bush, but don’t bore your readers with this penny-ante stuff.

JOSEPH R. WACHTER

Laguna Hills

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The Times expose is not the first report of potential corruption related to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Bush administration. The Nation’s Stephen Metcalf described the intimate relationship between the Bush and McGraw families, and textbook publisher McGraw-Hill’s strong influence on No Child Left Behind.

And, of course, there is the most recent scandal, the U.S. inspector-general’s report of misuse of funds to benefit certain commercial products, including those by McGraw-Hill.

The Times’ report noted that Barbara Bush donated money to Hurricane Katrina relief but required that the money be spent on Neil Bush’s education software.

On March 24, Bill Maher also commented on this: “Who can forget those tragic images of the poor black people on the rooftops in New Orleans holding up signs that said, ‘Send educational software.’ ”

STEPHEN KRASHEN

Professor

USC School of Education

Los Angeles

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So George H. W. and Barbara Bush used their money and political influence to help their son Neil, just as they have in the past with their other sons. Exactly. No child left behind.

ROBERT OSTROVE

Oxnard

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Will there ever be an end to the shameless opportunism and cronyism of President Bush and his cohorts?

The most recent example, involving a company founded by his brother Neil, is the latest evidence of the blatant soaking of tax dollars by corporate profiteers directly linked to the president.

The Republicans have become profligate spenders of taxpayer dollars in order to transfer the average American’s wealth to a small group of individuals and corporations that are already wealthy.

Voters who wish to continue to make the rich richer should vote Republican. As for the rest of us, we should vote anything but Republican.

ANNETTE HALPERN

Ventura