Geffen’s comments about the Clintons
Re “An early tussle over Hollywood’s war chest,” Feb. 22
Like entertainment mogul David Geffen, I am a hopeful supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Unlike Geffen, I am not a public figure whose intemperate comments and personal agenda against the Clintons undermine the candidate he purportedly champions.
Geffen’s gratuitously ugly remarks poison the political atmosphere and threaten to drag Obama into the cesspool of personal-attack politics he strenuously seeks to avoid.
With supporters like Geffen, who needs enemies? He should just shut up and continue writing big checks.
TIM HEBB
Sherman Oaks
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This just goes to show how much weight a media mogul carries when what he says may tarnish the reputation of the candidate he supports. Regardless of what he feels, what was he thinking? More insidious, however, is the statement of Terry McAuliffe, campaign chairman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.): “You are either with us, or you’re against us.” Where is the backlash on this extortionistic tactic?
If I were on the fence between Clinton and Obama before, I sure know now the direction in which I’m heading.
PATRICIA BIDLE
Valley Village
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Poor Hillary. With friends like Geffen, who needs Swift-boaters? Everyone should support the candidate of his or her choice, but for Geffen to denounce the Clintons in such a vengeful, bullying manner, just because he didn’t get his way with American Indian activist Leonard Peltier’s pardon, is unnecessary and destructive to the Democratic Party.
JUDITH MARLIN
Hollywood Hills
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While, as a Democrat, I appreciate all that Geffen has done and is doing for the benefit of the party, his demeaning of the Clintons is curious. When he talks of how “they lie with such ease,” to what exactly is he referring? Is it something Hillary Clinton did during her term as senator or something she did as first lady? It might be understandable that he’d be disappointed in the personal actions of her husband while in office, but just how does this accrue to her? Please, I want to know -- I’ve got a big decision to make.
What it sounds like is Geffen’s attempt to justify his shift in support to another candidate so as to avoid being branded disloyal. Gee, we wouldn’t want anyone to think ill of him for who he directs his money to. Talk about weakness of mind and character.
JULES BRENNER
Hollywood
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Geffen may well be right when he says Hillary Clinton is an “incredibly polarizing figure” for the nation or even for the Democratic Party. But how about the polarizing effect of a candidate (Obama this time) schmoozing with and receiving support from one whose recent claim to fame is that he has just spent 24 years using money and influence to deny legal public access to Carbon Beach?
The irony of the situation would be delicious if it were not such a sad example of industrial tycoonery, liberal or conservative.
HARRY TERRILL
Monrovia