Quid

In the last election, millions read George Bush's lips and gave him their vote. This time, it looks like many will give him quid Perot quo. ALAN BLIZZARD, Claremont

It remains anyone's guess how the Supreme Court will vote this year on whether Congress can require people to buy insurance as part of President Obama's healthcare reform law. At this point, the smart money is on a 4-4 split between the court's conservative and progressive factions, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy the likely swing vote. And he hasn't tipped his hand on how he feels about the issue. With this in mind, it's helpful to remember why this is even being discussed.

Arianna Huffington is confused ("With the Bankruptcy Bill, Follow the Money Trail," Commentary, March 6). The pardon of Marc Rich with or without a quid pro quo was a despicable and irresponsible act. The passage of the bankruptcy act with or without a quid pro quo will represent much-needed reform of a system that allows debtors to absolve themselves of personal responsibility. RICK CLEMENTS Claremont

Roland Burris told the Illinois impeachment panel Thursday that he cut no deals with embattled Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, and he heard no quid pro quos. "Absolutely, positively not," said Burris, 71. "I can before this committee state that there was nothing . . . legal, personal or political exchanged for my appointment to this seat."

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu said President Bush has told him that there was no quid pro quo discussion of expedited military and economic aid to Honduras in return for that country's assisting the Nicaraguan Contras when Bush met then-President Roberto Suazo Cordova there in March, 1985. Documents released at the Oliver L. North trial have implied that Bush played some role in a U.S. plan to expedite aid to Honduras in return for its assistance to the Contras. White House officials said secret documents will be released to buttress the claim that Bush's visit was not part of the quid pro quo deal.

I question Quayle's qualifications. His quirky quotes make me queasy. I quarrel with his quest to quash his quixotic past; a quagmire of quintessential quid pro quo. He has no qualms about trying to quench the stench of his quasi-military/school background. I quake at the thought of this quackpot at the helm. PHILIP LEMPERT Beverly Hills

President Bush today heatedly denied that he ever told the president of Honduras that there would be expedited American aid in exchange for that country's aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. Standing in the White House Rose Garden with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Bush for the first time publicly addressed head-on the question of whether as vice president he participated in a purported Reagan Administration plan to make quid pro quo deals with Latin American countries to get help for the Contras.

President Bush, challenging evidence presented in the trial of former Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, denied Thursday that he took part in any Ronald Reagan Administration effort in 1985 to offer U.S. aid to Honduras in direct exchange for that country's assistance to Nicaragua's Contras. "The word of the President of the United States, George Bush, is there was no quid pro quo, " the President declared in his first public response to evidence presented at the North trial. "There has been much needless, mindless speculation about my word of honor--and I've answered it, now, definitively," he added.

President Reagan's decision to ship arms to Iran was wrong. If all the President wanted to do was to open a dialogue with moderate factions in Iran, he could have done so with donations of foodstuffs and/or medical supplies. Whatever face is now put on the arms shipments, it sure looks like a quid pro quo to gain the release of the hostages--something the Administration vowed it would not do. I'm a strong Reagan supporter, but he blew this one. GAIL FUNARO Cerritos

I am not a Bush ranger or even a tenderfoot, but Mark Fineman's "Well-Heeled 'Rangers' Oil Bush Reelection Machine" (Aug. 4), on President Bush's fund-raising efforts, had me questioning Fineman's agenda more than the agenda of the donors. I found it interesting to learn that Bush might rake in over $200 million despite an individual contribution limit of $2,000, but how newsworthy is it to report that many of the contributors from Georgia are executives at Georgia's biggest companies?

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer tapped more than a dozen construction and publishing companies -- many of which have business with the school district -- to raise money for a public relations effort begun during the mayoral campaign. Late last year, mayoral candidate and former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg introduced a plan to carve the Los Angeles Unified School District into smaller districts. Other candidates, including former Mayor James K.

During the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage by Black September Palestinians demanding the release of 200 Arab prisoners. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir refused to consider making a deal with terrorists. The hostages ended up being killed in a rescue operation gone awry. Earlier this month, Islamic extremists demanding independence for Chechnya took hundreds of captives in a school in Beslan, Russia.

I am not a Bush ranger or even a tenderfoot, but Mark Fineman's "Well-Heeled 'Rangers' Oil Bush Reelection Machine" (Aug. 4), on President Bush's fund-raising efforts, had me questioning Fineman's agenda more than the agenda of the donors. I found it interesting to learn that Bush might rake in over $200 million despite an individual contribution limit of $2,000, but how newsworthy is it to report that many of the contributors from Georgia are executives at Georgia's biggest companies?

Nearly one-fifth of the $64 million Gov. Gray Davis has raised for his reelection, about $12 million, has been directed to his campaign by people he appointed to state boards and commissions. Among those who contributed are multimillionaires on the University of California Board of Regents, racing enthusiasts on the California Horse Racing Board, and union leaders whose organizations have donated more than $4 million.

Re "Does President Bush Have the Guts to Abandon a Bad Idea?" Commentary, June 19: Wake up, Robert Scheer! Dumping the Antiballistic Missile Treaty has nothing to do with national defense and everything to do with expanding corporate welfare. Your piece on the value and historic importance of the ABM treaty is off point. The Republican National Committee just ran the best stealth campaign in the history of American politics. It's time to reward the contributors. Energy and Enron are just the first.

Two months after Bill Clinton departed the nation's capital, the scandal he left behind has followed him here. The political controversy surrounding the former president's eleventh-hour clemencies has all but played out in Washington, where congressional hearings featured a parade of former White House aides who acknowledged that they and even Clinton erred in rushing through the clemency process, swayed by influential friends and relatives.

The tech broke the bud of marijuana into small flakes, measuring 200 milligrams into a vial. He had picked up the strain, Ghost, earlier that day from a dispensary in the Valley and guessed by its pungency and visible resin glands that it was potent. He could have determined this the old-fashioned way, with a bong and a match. Instead, he began the meticulous process of preparing the sample for the high-pressure liquid chromatograph. His lab, called The Werc Shop, tests medical cannabis for levels of the psychoactive ingredient known as THC and a few dozen other compounds, as well as for contaminants like molds, bacteria and pesticides that marijuana advocates don't much like to talk about.

Arianna Huffington is confused ("With the Bankruptcy Bill, Follow the Money Trail," Commentary, March 6). The pardon of Marc Rich with or without a quid pro quo was a despicable and irresponsible act. The passage of the bankruptcy act with or without a quid pro quo will represent much-needed reform of a system that allows debtors to absolve themselves of personal responsibility. RICK CLEMENTS Claremont

Prosecutors in New York have convened a federal grand jury to begin collecting potential evidence for their investigation of the pardon of fugitive commodities broker Marc Rich. The jury already has issued subpoenas and is collecting the fund-raising "lists and documents" for Bill Clinton's presidential library--a clear sign that it is looking for evidence of a quid pro quo between the Rich pardon and donations to the former president.