_______________WALK LIKE A MAN BY NED STAFFORD (08/14/98)
	If Ken Starr is foolish then Bill Clinton is selfish. Using his high office to induce sex from a young low-level employee is high abuse of office for selfish sexual gratification. Ned Stafford is selfish because he uses his podium to praise the president for demanding, yes demanding, sex from staffers as his rightful due. Further, I am tired of the constant drumbeat Clinton pounds forth, the government should pay for school uniforms, child care, college, health care. Tired, but not surprised. This is rhetoric to pander to the selfish in our land. So what does this all add up to? A selfish leader leading the selfish. -- Greg Ripke Veneta, Ore. Ned Stafford must be smoking some serious hashish over there in Germany. And if his 78-year-old mother really believes what he says in his article that she believes, the old lady must be smoking it too. Give us a break, Ned. There are health-care professionals out there that can help you and your mom with those delusions. -- Bill Cherbonnier New Orleans Bravo, Ned Stafford. When I tune in CNBC and MSNBC, I feel incredible sadness. And it's so convoluted, it's impossible to fix blame. We are all involved in this mess. We have fed it and watered it with our voyeurism. And in the end, we all suffer as the American presidency suffers. Enough. The Fifth Amendment is there for a reason, and it has arrived. Mr. President, we knew you were human when we elected you twice. -- Helene Cribbs Jr. If Bill Clinton was the type of man who could deliver a speech such as the one Mr. Stafford has fantasized for him, then Bill Clinton would not be in this predicament in the first place. He would have stood up and delivered this speech when the Lewinsky story first broke. He would not have spent a year threatening witnesses and colleagues who might know something about him. -- Gary Schnitzer What Ned Stafford neglects to comprehend is that to "Walk like a man," one has to be one. In our hearts, whatever our political persuasion, we intuitively know Clinton has been rudderless when it comes to some unifying sense of values, and all the gnashing of teeth and self-motivated aversion from the slow-motion car wreck that has been the hallmark of the second term of his presidency can not obviate that fact. When it comes down to it, "It's character, stupid!" and that truth can and should not be avoided. We loved Kennedy, because whatever his faults, he genuinely seemed to want to bring out the best in us. Clinton, on the other hand, has often pandered to the worst in us, and in our struggle to come to terms with this, we have invested him with more substance than he is capable of demonstrating. Pity him, shame on us. -- Bruce Harrison Ned Stafford's "commentary" was complete drivel. Is this the best you can do? Trot out some former hayseed from a "real American town," who now pontificates insipidly -- and perhaps a bit drunkenly? -- from some Frankfurt beer garden? Stafford's piece is nothing more than a long, trite, cliché-ridden wail that one would expect to read in a high-school composition class. Any essay that begins: "When I want to find out how real-life, everyday Americans feel ..." and then proceeds to trot out the opinions of some ancient crone living in some godforsaken, Midwestern dust bowl or tiny Southern fever swamp, I instantly cringe. Why are these "folks" any more "real Americans" than someone living in a large city? Also, who cares about how anyone "feels" about a subject, anyway? American society is becoming much too emotive when it comes to issues of the day, be they those involving the president, or those involving social policy, the economy or the environment. There is too much feeling going on, and not enough thinking. Salon, your shilling for Clinton has reached new lows with the Stafford piece. I've heard enough opinions of "real Americans" from "real America." -- Tom Gordon New York
_______________CLINTON TAKES THE OFFENSIVE BY MURRAY WAAS (08/18/98)
	My compliments on an excellent article on how Clinton lied not just to the public but to his own family. I assume this will hold up. I have always wondered how Hillary could stand by him -- I've thought she was simply power-hungry and willing to put up with dishonor and lying for the sake of being first lady. But you give her story a convincing psychological cast. I'm disappointed more of the Clinton team didn't bail out as I did -- an ordinary supporter -- as soon as those 20 hours of Linda Tripp tapes were reported. Madeleine Albright and others defending the president were foolish then, and they should be angry now not just at him, but at themselves. -- Victor Chen New York Give me a break; Hillary Rodham made her deal with the devil years ago. All of you Clintonistas who are now trying to portray a "hurt" wife are either stupid or maliciously disingenuous (certainly you wish the compliment of the latter). -- Gary D. Boyd
_______________NEW JFK DEATH FILM BY SCOTT McLEMEE (08/04/98)
	Labeling all who question the official government version as "conspiracy theorists" is popular and the lazy journalist's laziest hook. Scott McLemee conveniently did not mention the background of the man who bought the film from Zapruder. C.D. Jackson worked for both Life magazine and the CIA, as a quick Yahoo! search might show. Maybe it's just me, but leaving that part out makes the article just a little unbalanced. And please do not insult my intelligence by informing me that the head shot came from behind and that backward reaction, well, it's just a peculiar muscle spasm. Come on. -- John Navin SALON | Aug. 20, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| SPECIAL REPORT: FALSE WITNESS BY MURRAY WAAS

If you'd like to submit a letter to the editor for publication,
please e-mail us at salon@salonmagazine.com.
Letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness.
If you do not wish the letter to be published, please say so.