Don't send me no more letters...

NYT readers respond to Brooks's latest idiocy.

To the Editor:

Re “Party No. 3” (column, Aug. 10):

David Brooks has outdone himself in his spin on the Lieberman loss in Connecticut. It is ludicrous to argue that Senators John McCain and Joseph I. Lieberman represent the voices of reason in America when they have been such outspoken advocates of the disastrous Iraq war.

If there is to be a third party formed, it will be by someone bold enough to lead the opponents of that war, with 60 percent of the people already opposed to it. Now there’s the base for a new party!

Kenneth N. Davis Jr.
Stamford, Conn., Aug. 10, 2006
The writer was an assistant secretary of commerce/international in the Nixon administration.

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To the Editor:

David Brooks castigates the “ideologues on the left” as being “perpetually two years behind the national mood.”

In fact, regarding the fiasco in Iraq and the disastrously incompetent Bush administration, the national mood is finally, three-plus years late, catching up to this so-called ideological left.

Stephen Stept
Montclair, N.J., Aug. 10, 2006

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To the Editor:

While I agree with David Brooks’s account of the undeclared third party in this country, the problem we “progressives” face is an uneducated public blinded by talk radio, and the likes of Karl Rove who see no in-betweens and name-call and badger the other side.

The mistake John Kerry made in not fighting being called a flip-flopper was not pointing out the alternative. I’d much rather have a president who keeps an open mind and is able to change his mind and see different sides of the same issue, than a president who refuses to alter course.

Standing firm in one’s beliefs is a weakness of our current president and one that should have been exploited. As humans, we learn from our mistakes and grow. This president remains weak because he cannot see past the end of his nose.

I think David Brooks is right on. But we must fight extremes with extremes. We can all make nice once we’re in office.

Karen George
West Allis, Wis., Aug. 10, 2006

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To the Editor:

David Brooks’s “McCain-Lieberman” party of moderates is a myth. There is no such party.

On Iraq, both John McCain and Joseph I. Lieberman are even more hawkish than President Bush. Most Americans agree with Ned Lamont’s position.

In Congress, when the chips are down, “moderate” Republicans always vote with their radical leadership. That leaves no center for Democrats to make deals with. When Mr. Lieberman compromises, he legitimates the hard right’s legislation without winning any concessions for his side.

Nor is Mr. Brooks’s party a party of civility. It is not civil of Mr. Lieberman to echo Karl Rove in calling his own party weak on national security because it opposes reckless and counterproductive wars. It is not civil of Mr. Brooks to put a gentlemanly and genuinely moderate Greenwich businessman like Ned Lamont on a par with a corrupt extremist like Tom DeLay.

Robert W. Gordon
New Haven, Aug. 10, 2006

Couldn't of said it better myself.