QUEENS OF PORK

Hey, is it me or has anybody else noticed the way our two US Senators are running around like superwomen to overturn the base disclosure decision (see "Nine Reasons to Say Goodbye," by Al Diamon, May 27)? It’s like they staked everything on this issue and know they have been left to twist slowly, slowly in the wind. Now it seems they realize they cannot trust this administration with its incredible "stupidity" (their own word, really). Where was this reaction when we learned that they gave away our national wealth to the corporations? Where was their indignation when it became clear that Bush et al. lied to get us into a war for their own profit? These Senators squawk and subpoena every single email and scrap of paper over the military cuts to Maine, but when it comes to deaths to Iraqis in this war, they do not even bother to count the human beings we kill. It is a great thing that these Senators use their powers to defend jobs lost. How can we allow them to continue, though, when they care not for lives lost? Maine people need bigger values. The Queens of Pork we have. It’s the Queens of Peace we need.

Tom Connelly, Portland

letter via US Mail

TAPLEY = BAD

Congratulations to Mr. Tapley (see "Bad News for Baldacci," June 17) for proving that yellow journalism is alive and belching here in Portland. In response to his childish denunciation of Governor Baldacci, Tapley seems to audition for Fox News. The Phoenix has broken from its traditional, independent progressivism to publish articles worthy of George Will and Cal Thomas.

Tapley’s article on the governor displays utter contempt for pragmatic reasoning. His caricature of the governor as a horned beast illuminates Tapley’s disdain of gay rights, accessible health care, and low taxation. "Bad News for Baldacci" is bad news for the Phoenix. Portland’s most reliable source of political commentary has embarrassed itself to the credibility of a Murdoch rag.

Brian Farrell, South Portland

letter via email

TAPLEY = GOOD

It is my painful duty to praise a liberal journalist writing in a liberal journal (see "Bad News for Baldacci," June 17), but fiat justitia, pereat mundus. Lance Tapley’s recent analysis of Governor Baldacci’s painful "box" was as fine a piece of political writing as I have read anywhere. It now reposes on my hard drive so that I may turn it to my own evil purposes in some future columns for the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal. It contains solid nuggets of fact garnished with illuminating quotes. Naturally, I was especially delighted to read of Representative Lerman’s discovery that boxes can be "hollow." I suppose most of your readers will find this a minor point. It pleased me in ways they will no doubt find obscure.

John N. Frary, Farmington

letter via email