Editor:

Regarding Ryan Fuson’s letter in the April 2 issue of The Daily Utah Chronicle (“Clinton is the true ‘master of spin'”), I’d like to applaud his rote recitation of the FOX News talking points used by the Bush campaign.

For the past three years, every time President Bush has committed yet another major blunder, costing billions of dollars and thousand of lives, the Republican response has been the same: President Clinton did it! I’ve yet to see anyone connected with the Bush regime take any kind of responsibility for anything-if there was anything good about the Bush presidency, I’m sure they would take credit for that, but such things have been few and far between. I guess it takes a Democrat, like Harry Truman, to be brave enough and ethical enough to have a sign on his desk that says, “The buck stops here.”The buck certainly never stops anywhere near Bush.

So aside from the things that Clinton did that Fuson thinks were so bad (besides eight years of peace and prosperity, 100,000 new police on the streets, the love of the whole world-minor stuff like that), let’s think back to what Fuson’s heroes-the Republicans in Congress-were doing during that same period, 1993 2001.

Perhaps Fuson is too young or lives a sheltered life, but I seem to remember that the Republicans spent about $80 million investigating thestatus of Clinton’s zipper.I seem to remember that they pulled FBI agents off of terrorism investigations so that they could track down every trailer-trash floozy in Arkansas who might be paid enough-excuse me, I mean convinced-to testify that Clinton had groped her.I seem to remember that Ken Starr and his inquisitors dominated the public discourse with their tales of Monica and the blue dress, so that even when Clinton did try to strike at al-Qaida, the Republicans in Congress scoffed at his efforts as “wagging the dog.”And I seem to remember that those terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 were caught, tried, convicted and are still in jail-more than Fuson’s hero, George W. Bush, can say about Osama bin Laden (remember him?).

“History does not lie,” Fuson somberly intoned. No, but Republicans sure do.

R. Dale Webb

Alumnus, U Staff