Stacking the deck

RE “A Vice President With Unprecedented Power,” Sept. 24: How can Tim Rutten reasonably equate Robert E. Lee’s defense of the institution of slavery, which was indeed at the time perhaps “the worst [cause] to which any man (well, at least any American) ever gave himself,” to Dick Cheney’s overwrought but sincere attempts to protect the U.S. and it allies from the threat of murderous terrorism?

And of course, to accompany the article, The Times picks the worst photograph of Cheney they could find in their archives. Has the Times ever printed a photo of Barack Obama looking bad?

Peter Rich

Los Angeles