David Gammon

To the editor,

The letters to the editor is one of my favorite sections. Letters that deal with facts and don't make personal attacks on other writers for expressing their opinions get my read. Steve Earle's personal attack on Neil Young in a letter on February 15 because of Young's letter of February 13 is an example. Neil wrote an excellent letter full of facts about John McCain. If I was a McCain supporter I would write a letter refuting Young's facts not making a personal attack on the writer.

Lets look at some of the facts about Senator, Vietnam War Hero, John McCain. He left he's first wife who was in a "crippling, near-death ordeal during his captivity, due to an automobile accident" . . . "by the time he saw her again she was four inches shorter, on crutches, and substantially heavier." "During his time in Jacksonville, the McCain's marriage began to falter. McCain had extramarital affairs"; all according to Wikipedia.

McCain was involved in the Keating Five Scandal with four other senators in the bail out of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association owned by Charles Keating Jr.

Senator McCain was a "member of the 1991-1993 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, convened to investigate the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War. And World War II and the Korean War. "The committee's final report, which McCain endorsed, stated that, While the Committee has some evidence suggesting the possibility a POW may have survived to the present, and while some information remains yet to be investigated, there is, at this time, no compelling evidence that proves that any Americans remain alive in captivity in Southeast Asia." "At times the hearings became heated and contentious. McCain was criticized by some of his fellow POWs for wanting to find a path to normalization. He was vilified by some POW/MIA activists as a traitor or a brainwashed 'Manchurian Candidate' occasionally his famous temper flared during hearings and Kerry had to calm him down, for which McCain later said he was grateful"; again according to Wikipedia. These hearing were televised between 1991-1993. Only Senators Bob Smith of New Hampshire and Chuck Grassley of Iowa voted against the Committees findings. Senator McCain says he's willing to stay the course in Iraq if it takes a hundred years. Will our POW/MIAs in this war meet the same faith? I will never vote for Senator John McCain because of his vote on the Committee's Final Report.

Steve Earle is concerned that if liberals Hilary Clinton or Back Obama win they will get to pick two Supreme Court Justices. My concerns are if liberal RINO John McCain gets elected he will appoint liberal Supreme Court Justices. McCain is a member of the "Gang of 14", according to Wikipedia — "The Gang of 14 was a term coined to describe the bipartisan group of moderate senators in the 109th United States Congress who successfully negotiated a compromise in the spring of 2005 to avoid the deployment of the so-called nuclear option (or Constitutional option)". There was no need of Senator John McCain to break away from the Republican majority and join in with seven Democrats.

And this from The Wall Street Journal: "McCain And The Supreme Court by Steven G. Calabresi and John O. McGinnis — We recognize that there are two plausible sources of disquiet. Mr. McCain is perhaps the foremost champion of campaign-finance regulation, regulation that is hard to square with the First Amendment." (The McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.)

Then there's the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Bill which failed in 2005. McCain then pushed to pass the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 which also failed. Now he says he gets it?

In Steve Earle's letter, he claims that the United States has had "28 years of Conservative Republicans in the White House." I don't know what he considers a Conservative? One thing for sure is the last seven years we haven't had a Fiscal Conservative in the White House. Is John McCain going to continue George Bush's Fiscal Policies?

"Breaking from his 2001 and 2003 votes, McCain supported the Bush tax cut extension in May 2006, known as the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, saying not to do so would amount to a tax increase," according to Wikipedia. In 2001 and 2003 he also broke from the Republican Party and sided with the Democrat Party. And McCain accused Romney of flip flopping?

David Gammon

Laconia