George,

I agree with Rey about this. John Kerry is fumbling badly. I think neither he nor the Dems fully understand the mendacity they are up against. Further, if any single event or person could cost Kerry the election (other than himself), it was Dan Rather's inexplicable and monumental blunder about the "Veeetnam wah-ruh" record of "Dubious" Bush. Now, folks will simply dismiss any recitation of that as more "lies" from CBS. To save its credibility, CBS needs to cancel both "60 Minutes" shows and fire Rather. They won't do it, however.

I have spent the last 25-35 years defending Rather and "60 Minutes" ever since he stood up to Nixon. But, I knew he would fulfill the Peter Principle if he took Walter's anchor position, for he is solely a beat reporter, one of the best. He was not suitable for the anchor position, and now it shows, badly. He has to go.

I believe this episode is going to drive more "undecideds" (if any) to vote for Dubious on Election Day.

As for MoveOn, I had to terminate my tenuous relationship with them when they came out stridently, as did Kerry, for the revival of the so-called "assault-weapons" ban, which was a crock of self-delusional shit from Day One. It was a monumental fraud, irrespective of its questionable legality under the 2d Amendment, for it did not "ban" anything useful to criminals other than sales of new larger cartridge magazines of which there are already plenty existing in circulation for private sale. It superficially banned guns that LOOK like military carbines! It was no big deal to get any SEMI-automatic weapon anyone wanted; it just made the plentiful pre-ban guns more valuable, like throwing Br'er Rabbit into the briar patch. (NOTE: fully automatic weapons (machine guns) have been tightly restricted by federal law for decades.)

John Kerry is a fool for jumping on that bandwagon. He also supports the Patriot Act, the Iraq wah-ruh, the blind pro-Israel bias in our foreign policy, and the stupid Wah-ruh awn Drooogs. He basically comes across as nothing more than a kindergentler enemy of the Bill of Rights. He makes it difficult for someone like me to vote for him against Bush. There are a lot of folks like me who supported Howard Dean who are quite squeamish about Kerry. He will lose.

Wat Ellerson (electronic mail, September 22, 2004)

PS. A major thing that really bothers me is the number of Republicans who dislike and distrust Bush who, nevertheless, will re-elect him. THAT is discipline. Misplaced, however.