Centrist

As a voter who came of age during the FDR era, I offer the following as a guide to the politically perplexed: Centrist: formerly known as a conservative. Conservative: formerly known as a reactionary. Leftist: formerly known as a New Deal Democrat. Liberal: proclaims he/she is a leftist but acts like a centrist. Southern Republican: formerly known as a Southern Democrat. JOSEPH MANDELBERG Granada Hills

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached deals Thursday with two political rivals that will enable him to forge a broad-based, but potentially unstable, coalition government. After weeks of hard-fought negotiations with the centrist party Yesh Atid and the nationalist Jewish Home, Netanyahu managed to persuade both to join his government with a combination of political promises and coveted ministry appointments. The agreements were still awaiting final signatures Thursday night, reportedly delayed by discussion of government titles for some players.

Regarding your Jan. 17 editorial bemoaning "The Senate's Shrinking Middle" and the urge to compromise: Consider what centrist deal-making has brought us over the years--a nearly $5-trillion national debt, Medicare and Social Security systems facing bankruptcy (even with current Republican proposals) and a culture whose basic unit--the family--is in clear decline. It it any wonder that even those of us who have always voted Democrat are saying to hell with compromise? DAVID S. WILSON Los Angeles

WASHINGTON - As former Sen. Chuck Hagel seeks to fend off critics aiming to derail his confirmation as Defense secretary, he has an incongruous ally: a Pittsburgh philanthropist who made his fortune as one of the world's top horse-race bettors. Bill Benter, a prolific donor to Democrats and liberal groups who keeps a low public profile, financed an ad campaign by a group of centrist national security veterans who hailed Hagel's "bipartisanship and independence of conscience and mind.

By nominating right-wing judicial activist Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, President Bush has squandered an opportunity to heal the nation's wounds. A centrist candidate would have appealed to a greater number of Americans, but our feckless leader has determined that conservatives are more important than centrists or progressives. A Senate filibuster regarding this nomination would be a positive development. DAN FREEDLAND Rolling Hills Estates How ironic that Rosa Parks is being honored in Washington at the same time that the right wing of the Republican Party wants Bush to nominate the type of justice who would have never voted, in Brown vs. the Board of Education, to overturn previous court decisions rationalizing the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Kevin Starr's wisdom and depth of knowledge of our state's history were evident again in "Saving California Centrism" (Opinion, Sept. 19). Most Californians, and even a few current officeholders, want a return to sensible, adult debate leading to rational state government. It's time we all united to sideline the ayatollahs of right and left who now control the political process by demanding open primaries to banish ideological gridlock. Managers of the major parties abhor the prospect.

For many years, I was able to relax and lose myself in the toy department of the local newspaper, the sports page. First it was in New York with Jimmy Cannon and Milton Gross, and then in 1983 I turned to Jim Murray in The Times. Now I can't even do that: Bill Plaschke has seen to that with his bleeding-heart, racial political agenda. Please transfer him to the left wing of the paper so I can once again enjoy the more centrist sports section. FRED BRENNER, Marina del Rey Finally, Bill Plaschke, who has a habit of annoying and antagonizing readers, may have found his forte.

Re "Subway's Arrival in Valley Ends a Long, Costly Journey," June 18. It took bold and adventurous politics to approve and build this system, something we sorely lack in this "centrist" age. I was disgusted and appalled to read the comments by our so-called forward-looking legislators. As it was in the 1950s, diesel or [propane] burning buses are not the answer to traffic or fuel consumption, nor are they a solution to future overcrowding in Los Angeles. It is shortsighted politics at its finest.

Re "How TV Killed Democracy on Nov. 7," Commentary, Feb. 14: After the votes had been counted twice and George W. Bush was the leader in the Florida vote count, I find it odd that anyone would think that the person with the lead in an election, no matter how slim, should concede. Local elections are frequently decided with margins of as few as one vote, and no one thinks the winner should concede. It's time to get over it--Bush is president for the next four years. WALTER T. BACHE Artesia Thank you, Todd Gitlin, for skewering the myth of "the liberal media."

Norman Miller (Letters, Jan. 25) complains that The Times "persists in repeatedly calling on Robert Lekachman for economic commentary." That is a ludicrous charge; Lekachman does not show up in the Times Board of Economists column any more than those who espouse conservative and centrist viewpoints. Miller also refers to Lekachman as a "left-wing missionary whose main purpose is to discredit any conservative thought, particularly Ronald Reagan's." Apparently, those of us who are not in love with Reagan's Darwinian economic policies and who are concerned about the millions of Americans who have been disenfranchised by them are just supposed to sit back, keep our mouths shut and go along with the program.

JERUSALEM - Just a few days ago, Yair Lapid was a political rookie making his first foray into Israeli elections with a newly formed centrist party. He awoke Wednesday as a major power broker. Israeli pundits and journalists wasted no time anointing Lapid, 49, a possible heir-apparent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose conservative Likud Party delivered a disappointing performance at the polls. Lapid's new party, Yesh Atid ("There Is a Future"), won 19 seats, nearly overtaking Likud, which came in first with 20. "New King Is Crowned," blared one newspaper headline.

JERUSALEM - Israel's political left cheered when newly installed Labor Party head Shelly Yachimovich led the faction from near-extinction two years ago to its current No. 2 ranking in polls for next month's Knesset elections. The feisty former journalist was heralded for her foresight in focusing on Israel's high cost of living long before massive social inequality protests swept the nation last year. But since rising to the helm of Israel's oldest major political party, Yachimovich, 52, has stirred dissent within the ranks over her latest unconventional strategy: a lurch toward the political right in hopes of drawing centrist and even conservative voters to the historically liberal Labor.

JERUSALEM - Former opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Israel's most-recognized female politician, threw her hat back in the political ring Tuesday, setting the stage for an election rematch against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Four years ago, Livni, as head of the centrist Kadima Party, beat Netanyahu's Likud Party by one Knesset seat, but she was unable to form a majority coalition, giving Netanyahu an opportunity to take power. Few expect her newly formed Movement Party will come close to threatening Netanyahu this time, but her return to the political scene - seven months after she announced she was taking a break - will further reshape Israel's center-left as it struggles to find a way to confront the nation's rising right-wing movement.

SACRAMENTO — California's new voting system may have been designed largely to shake up the polarized state Capitol, but Tuesday's election made it clear that the promised political earthquake will have to wait. Despite newly drawn districts and a primary system that allowed cross-party voting — changes that backers said would produce more moderate lawmakers — California could face continued partisan brinkmanship, at least for a while. Just a few centrists emerged Tuesday in contests marked by some of the lowest voter turnout in state history, less than 25%, according to the secretary of state's latest tally.

WASHINGTON -- Ever since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010 struck down restrictions on the ability of corporations to spend money in political campaigns, Democrats have been warning their followers that a tidal wave of conservative cash threatened to swamp liberal candidates. With this year's Republican primaries, the image of plutocrats ready to empty their bank accounts on behalf of favored conservatives got more concrete as money from Sheldon Adelson, Foster Friess, Harold Simmons and other multimillionaires kept candidates on the market long after their sell-by dates.

SACRAMENTO - For years, running for office as a Republican in California boiled down to one core pledge, bound by a candidate's signature and enforced with a vengeance: no new taxes. Not anymore. The state's new political landscape, scrambled by freshly drawn voting districts and new election rules, has given rise to a handful of GOP hopefuls proudly bucking the anti-tax orthodoxy. Their candidacies have the potential to end years of partisan gridlock here. It would have been unimaginable in the last election, just two years ago: At least five viable Republican contenders for the Assembly are refusing to sign the no-tax pledge that helped ensure protracted budget negotiations and gimmick-laden spending plans as California limped from one fiscal crisis to another.

Reporters descended on a state Democratic convention over the weekend to poke at the party's base--to see how firm it is for Gov. Gray Davis. For the last year or two, the political wisdom has been that Davis' support is soft where it should be the strongest, in the Democrats' liberal base. There, left-wingers are frustrated with the governor's centrist policies. He's not behaving like a real Democrat, the cry echoes. Ideologues are so unenthused that they could walk in November and vote for another centrist, Republican Dick Riordan.

Re "Action at Center of Political Stage," editorial, Nov. 28: There you go again. Now you editorialize about the prospect of a "third-party" presidential candidate to be anointed by "seven prominent politicians." Beware of making yourselves look silly one more time. It is not news when professional politicians describe themselves as "centrists," profess an interest in good government and proclaim that they alone stand for such principles. Unfortunately, it is also not news when the press swallows this story whole.

The easy - but still important - thing to say about Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar's involuntary retirement is that it deprives the Senate of a long-serving, studious and open-to-compromise wise man. In an eloquent statement after his defeat by conservative State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, Lugar echoed retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) in decrying partisan extremism and polarization. “ If that attitude prevails in American politics,” he warned, “our government will remain mired in the dysfunction we have witnessed during the last several years.” But there seems to be more to Lugar's defeat than impatience with his bipartisan approach.

JERUSALEM — While gliding to a surprisingly easy victory over Kadima party Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, Israel's newly elected opposition leader, Shaul Mofaz, faces an uphill battle in keeping the once-dominant centrist political party from splintering. The Iranian-born Mofaz, 64, comfortably defeated Livni in Tuesday's primary, garnering nearly 62% of the vote in the party election. Speaking Wednesday, he wasted no time in setting his sights on Israel's next national election, which is not scheduled until the end of 2013 but which many believe may be called as early as this fall.