Inside Politics

Taking no guff

Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican, is not afraid to challenge constituents whose letters he thinks are rude or just dumb, Newsday reports.

“I understand that you recently contacted my office requesting that I vote to censure President Bush,” Mr. King recently wrote Bellmore resident Harry Halikias. “I disagree with you in every respect. You are morally, intellectually and politically wrong. President Bush is an outstanding leader of outstanding integrity. Like Ed Koch, I thank God every night that he is our president. You should do the same.”

Mr. King told reporter J. Jioni Palmer he reviews every letter sent out from his office, and he often writes them himself.

“The general rule is that almost any letter that comes in receives a polite response,” Mr. King said. “The exception is when an abusive letter comes in, but even then sometimes you’ll give them a bye the first time.”

Constituent Claudia Borecky falls in the latter category, having written what Mr. King described as an “abusive” e-mail opposing private accounts for Social Security. A second letter began, “I think you underestimate the knowledge of your constituents on Social Security” and asks “do you have the courage to hold a Town Meeting so that we may hear your opinion on your plan?”

Mr. King replied: “I am in receipt of your March 5th e-mail and regret that you don’t know as much about Social Security as you pretend.” It concludes, “Frankly it is truly unfortunate that you chose to resort to adolescent-like name-calling against the president rather than attempt to discuss the issue intelligently.”

Treaty talks

President Bush said in a Danish TV interview aired yesterday that adhering to the Kyoto treaty on climate change would have “wrecked” the U.S. economy, the Associated Press reports.

“I couldn’t in good faith have signed Kyoto,” Mr. Bush told the Danish Broadcasting Corp., noting that the treaty did not include other nations — including India and China — that he called “big polluters.”

The interview was recorded Wednesday at the White House. Mr. Bush will visit Denmark next week before going to a G-8 summit in Scotland.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to make cutting greenhouse-gas emissions a key theme at the G-8 meeting. On Wednesday, Mr. Blair told the Associated Press it was not possible to persuade the United States to implement the Kyoto Protocol.

“There is no point in setting a task that is not achievable,” he said. “Obviously, there is a disagreement over the Kyoto treaty, and you are not going to resolve that disagreement.”

Yesterday, Mr. Blair told an MTV audience there would be no solution for global warming without U.S. involvement. The United States is the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, which have been blamed for contributing to global warming.

Dorgan’s complaint

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat, says he’s a little miffed over a study commissioned by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that tries to measure liberal bias in public broadcasting.

Mr. Dorgan said the study — commissioned by Kenneth Tomlinson early this year — was “a little nutty” and “a complete waste of more than $14,000 in taxpayer funds.”

He said the man hired to do the study, Indiana consultant Fred Mann, is “an armchair analyst with little or no professional preparation for the task.”

The study examined a handful of public television and radio programs and found a liberal bent. For instance, it found that out of eight guests on two Tucker Carlson shows, four were liberal, two were conservative and two were neutral.

A look at “The Diane Rehm Show” for one month found that out of 46 guests, 22 were liberal, five were conservative, 14 were neutral and five were entertainment.

It also examined “NOW” with Bill Moyers, and found that out of 33 guests in spring 2004, 16 were “anti-Bush,” five were “anti-corporation,” six were “anti-DeLay,” two were “pro-Bush” and four were neutral.

But Mr. Dorgan said guests were labeled in terms of both ideological and party leanings with no established criteria, frame of reference or explanation.

Mr. Dorgan wrote to Mr. Tomlinson in May requesting a copy of the study and was sent one, which he copied and handed out to reporters at a press conference yesterday. Mr. Dorgan said the study, combined with the recent hiring of a former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee to be the president of CPB has him worried “that Mr. Tomlinson is taking the CPB down a very dangerous path.”

Hagel and MoveOn

“The left-wing antiwar group MoveOn, a key Democratic support, has found a new spokesman in Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (R., France),” Eric Pfeiffer writes at www.nationalreview.com.

“Last week, the Nebraska senator made headlines when he criticized the administration’s Iraq policy saying, ’The White House is completely disconnected from reality. … It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along.’ Hagel also warned that Iraq was on the verge of becoming another Vietnam.

“While Hagel’s comments faded from media attention, MoveOn went into action. The same day as this week’s speech by President Bush on Iraq the MoveOn PAC began a new advertising campaign calling for a withdrawal of U.S. forces. They took Hagel’s words and placed them alongside claims that President Bush, ’is trying to change the subject from Iraq to terrorism and September 11 — implying that Iraq attacked us in 2001.’

“On Wednesday, MoveOn sent out a fundraising letter to supporters asking for $500,000 to ’expand the advertising into the hometowns of Republican members of Congress who will have tough elections in 2006. That will help send a signal that Congress will pay a price at the ballot box because of the Iraq failures.’ The letter explains that 84 percent of MoveOn’s 3.3 million registered members support a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

“The ad itself is titled ’Hagel’ and reads in part: ’It’s time to come home. We went in the wrong way, let’s come home the right way.’

“Hagel’s office was not pleased when they received word of the new ad. Hagel claims MoveOn used his words out of context and asked for the ad to be taken down immediately.”

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.