Sen. Rob Boyce, District 4

To the editor,

The Kerry campaign has an ad trying to splatter mud on the President by saying the Saudis thank you for filling your gas tank. It implies there is something wrong or even criminal involved.

The Kerry flip-floppers want us to have a knee jerk reaction against the President and Vice President by invoking their socialist, class envy, anti-capitalist jargon. They want us to forget that under Clinton the Saudis

were profiting on the sale of oil and as allies against Iraq the Saudi royal family (their legitimate government) were receiving classified briefings from the U.S. State Department and military. They want us to believe it is morally wrong for someone to earn more money in one year than they need and to have that money paid over several years while wanting us to ignore that Kerry and his gold digger wife have refused to reveal their income and interests.

When George Bush was in the oil business of course he dealt with the Saudi royal family — they are the sovereign government of Saudi Arabia and they control a major portion of the world's oil supply — so of course as an executive with an oil company he made deals with them — HE BOUGHT OIL from them.

The ad goes on to say he had given a Saudi prince confidential briefings. Certainly as an ally of the United States, the member of the royal family involved with their national security was briefed about the war we were conducting against our common enemy and the Saudi's next door neighbor, Sadam Hussien.

Then the ad talks about VP Richard Cheney being paid by Haliburton. As an executive with Haliburton — before he decided to run for VP, he decided, just as many highly paid executives do, not to be paid all the money he earned in the year he earned it. He instead asked that the money be paid out over several years — much like a pension, and in years when he might have a lower income. There is nothing wrong with this arrangement — most labor unions do this for their members in the contracts they negotiate, so do Hollywood stars. It is called planning for their future.

Kerry and Edwards want the American voters to vote against Bush and Cheney because they were and are experienced executives. They expect the voters to vote for Kerry who has never held executive level positions in either the private sector or government, on the basis of class envy and anti-capitalism.The voters are not that gullible.

Sen. Rob Boyce, District 4

Alton