Herschensohn

After reading about Herschensohn's suggested plan to bail out Nixon by attacking the Senate Watergate committee hearings and by blaming Nixon's attempt to subvert the democratic process on a "liberal" smear campaign, I keep asking myself: "Where the hell do the Republicans find these people?" They just seem to keep coming, year after year. Considering Herschensohn's zeal for employing any tactic to keep Nixon in office, regardless of any consequences to others, his cry of unfairness over the release of his 1973 memos somehow falls flat.

Re "GOP Senate Candidates Hope Debate Ignites Campaign," Feb. 4: The statement by Ann Shanahan-Walsh, "[Bruce] Herschensohn was nowhere [Tom Campbell's] intellectual equal, and Tom does not suffer fools well," is one of the best on-the-record examples of the Peter Principle that I have seen during this campaign. I attended many of the 1992 Republican U.S. Senate primary debates between Herschensohn, Sonny Bono, Campbell and another candidate whose name I don't recall. It was obvious to me and to anyone with even a small amount of intellectual ability that in those battles of wits against Herschensohn and Bono, Campbell was virtually unarmed.

Re "GOP Senate Candidates Hope Debate Ignites Campaign," Feb. 4: The statement by Ann Shanahan-Walsh, "[Bruce] Herschensohn was nowhere [Tom Campbell's] intellectual equal, and Tom does not suffer fools well," is one of the best on-the-record examples of the Peter Principle that I have seen during this campaign. I attended many of the 1992 Republican U.S. Senate primary debates between Herschensohn, Sonny Bono, Campbell and another candidate whose name I don't recall. It was obvious to me and to anyone with even a small amount of intellectual ability that in those battles of wits against Herschensohn and Bono, Campbell was virtually unarmed.

Re "For Peace to Work, Milosevic Must Go," Commentary, June 9: What a precious thing is a free press that can give us the thoughts of such a scholar as Bruce Herschensohn! We had the chance to make this man part of our government once and we blew it. Getting only qualified people in office is essential. We have the machinery for good government, and if we choose candidates on the basis of money and a big mouth rather than on integrity and ability, we suffer. Citizens, throw off your chains of apathy and consider what a candidate has done, not what he is gonna do. CARLETON H. RALSTON Los Angeles

I'm outraged at the Herschensohn "storm troopers" who were permitted to disrupt the Boxer rally. Only in Orange County, or Iran, would such conduct be condoned. RICHARD J. SILVESTRO, Santa Maria

Re "For Peace to Work, Milosevic Must Go," Commentary, June 9: What a precious thing is a free press that can give us the thoughts of such a scholar as Bruce Herschensohn! We had the chance to make this man part of our government once and we blew it. Getting only qualified people in office is essential. We have the machinery for good government, and if we choose candidates on the basis of money and a big mouth rather than on integrity and ability, we suffer. Citizens, throw off your chains of apathy and consider what a candidate has done, not what he is gonna do. CARLETON H. RALSTON Los Angeles

The attempts to uncover a scandal involving the disclosures on Bruce Herschensohn prove one thing--the press was asleep at the switch in applying the same character tests to Herschensohn that it did to the Democrats, including President-elect Bill Clinton. The issue was not Herschensohn's night life, but his hypocrisy in preaching a conservative, zero-tolerance platform, and then doing exactly what his platform condemns. Herschensohn can't have it both ways. The charges would have been unfair if Herschensohn and his supporters would have a less strident position, but the Republican convention proved that they're fanatics.

Re "Kashmir Could Ignite a Cataclysm," Commentary, June 15: I was amazed at the blatant anti-Muslim sentiment Bruce Herschensohn displayed. He did not mention at all the root cause of the Kashmir problem and the various U.N. resolutions regarding the issue. Rather, Herschensohn named one Muslim country after another in an attempt to show how they all are or will rally behind Pakistan in case of a war. This is far from the truth. Many of the Middle Eastern countries have remained neutral about this matter.

One can only hope Bruce Herschensohn's Column Right of April 1, "Cigarettes Today, Burgers Tomorrow," was an April Fool's attempt at humor. The comparison of the health problems linked to cigarette smoking and those due to dietary indiscretion trivializes the multiple diseases attributable to cigarette smoking. Aside from the 20% of cardiovascular deaths attributable to cigarette smoking, 80% of emphysema and 30% of cancer deaths are also attributable to cigarettes. This does not include the increased incidence of peptic ulcer disease, decreased exercise tolerance and increased incidence of osteoporosis seen in cigarette smokers.

Civility is dying in American politics and a destructive meanness has taken hold, said panelists opening a two-day conference Tuesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley. "There is, I believe, a new nastiness in politics, a venom that is loose that exceeds anything any of us old-timers in Washington can remember," said David Gergen, a key adviser to President Clinton and keynote speaker at the conference titled "What's Wrong With American Politics?"

Bruce Herschensohn, last year's Republican U.S. Senate nominee and a former conservative television commentator in Los Angeles, still has Washington politics on his mind, saying Thursday that he is exploring a bid for Congress next year. Herschensohn said he has been encouraged by Orange County Republican leaders as well as his onetime employer, former President Richard M. Nixon, to seek a congressional seat in Newport Beach expected to be left vacant when Rep. Christopher Cox enters the 1994 U.

Bruce Herschensohn, one of last year's Republican U.S. Senate nominees and a former conservative television commentator in Los Angeles, still has Washington politics on his mind, saying Thursday that he is exploring a bid for Congress next year. Herschensohn said he has been encouraged by Orange County Republican leaders as well as his onetime employer, former President Richard M. Nixon, to seek a congressional seat in Newport Beach that is expected to be left vacant when Rep.

While last-minute tax filers crammed local post offices on Tax Day, hundreds of others vented their frustrations at a protest and sought an alternative tax system at a conference. More than 200 people Thursday attended a one-day "flat tax" conference in Irvine, headlined by conservative Bruce Herschensohn, who lost to Democrat Barbara Boxer in their recent U.S. Senate race.

The attempts to uncover a scandal involving the disclosures on Bruce Herschensohn prove one thing--the press was asleep at the switch in applying the same character tests to Herschensohn that it did to the Democrats, including President-elect Bill Clinton. The issue was not Herschensohn's night life, but his hypocrisy in preaching a conservative, zero-tolerance platform, and then doing exactly what his platform condemns. Herschensohn can't have it both ways. The charges would have been unfair if Herschensohn and his supporters would have a less strident position, but the Republican convention proved that they're fanatics.