Top 10 Letters

THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer's name, city, and state.

*1*

Here he goes again--a second, more desperate Hugh Hewitt column referring to me, the supposed antiwar, leftist professor who bullied two freshmen (Blacklist Envy). And the second he has written without calling me first to ask whether anything he was writing was true. The only "call" I EVER got before all this was an e-mail from a producer inviting me to a radio show hosted by one Hugh Hewitt, who was unknown to me; I declined. No one said anything about a column. Now Hewitt writes that Joe Scarborough's producer Greg Cockrell called me before the Scarborough MSNBC show. That is a lie. The first call I ever got from MSNBC came days after the show, from a very apologetic Cockrell. He never claimed he'd left any messages on my machine or otherwise. Neither he nor Hewitt are good at telling the truth about contacts. I do have to give Hewitt credit for linking my second column, but I'm beginning to wonder who among the free and the brave is strong enough to read it and tell Hewitt and his radio show and The Daily Standard and Cockrell and Scarborough and MSNBC that, this time, they simply messed up and can't admit it.

--Jim Sleeper

Hugh Hewitt responds: I am tempted to send Professor Sleeper a T-shirt with the words "Anguished Conscience of a Conflicted Generation" printed on the back so he wouldn't have to work so hard at attempting to telegraph his great sensitivities and his commitment to truth-telling. Alas, I can't send him the shirt because he's built his pose on either self-delusion or simple lies.

Both Cockrell and the Yale freshmen confirmed to me that MSNBC repeatedly tried to contact Sleeper.

His writings have been reviewed by a long list of serious people and they all agree that he slandered the freshmen with the terms "neo-Stalinist" and "Fedayeen Uncle Sams."

I plead guilty to inviting him on my radio show only once. I regret he refused the invitation because the tape no doubt would have been a classic. Sleeper seems most upset that no one takes him seriously, and has apparently persuaded himself that this is because his message has been distorted or muffled. In fact, the chuckling that follows his every column or letter is because instead of a simple apology--one manifestly owed to the freshmen--Sleeper keeps reaching for martyrdom.

*2*

As a diehard Bosox fan, I welcome the stir caused by Boston Herald reporter Howard Bryant. (Christopher Caldwell, A Clubhouse Divided) It takes my mind off the fact that despite a decent April, we are already three games behind the Yankees. News about a sportswriter driven to activism will keep memories of the Curse off my mind--and off the pages of the Boston dailies.

--Christian Farley

*3*

Terry Eastland should realize that there is another alternative in Iraq: A Shiite state theocracy which tolerates other religions (The Separation of Mosque and State).

I am an American living in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. There is a large Shiite population here. They believe (at least my small sampling--mostly graduate-degreed engineering professionals--believe) that a theocracy would be the utopian form of government. Their belief is that the Shiite sect of Islam is the only pure and righteous one. It relies on religious leaders for guidance in all matters of religion and politics. They feel an Islamic state which provides freedom for infidels to practice other religions is superior to a secular one which treats all religions equally.

--Ron Monsen

*4*

Claudia Winkler, while she rightly praises President Bush for saying nice things about Iraqi Americans, should realize that it doesn't matter too much what Iraqi Americans think about Iraq--what matters is what native Iraqis think (Bush's Ideology of Freedom) And what native Iraqis think should give both Bush and Winkler pause.

For one thing, the natives seem to believe they can run Iraq better than the Americans or the British. For another, native Iraqis do not seem much enamored of democracy--they prefer theocracy. Or at least they seem to, based on the demonstrations I've seen on CNN.