Shoe pinches on the other foot

Marco Rubio reportedly said that conservatives cannot be hijacked by someone who is not a conservative. That’s really rather rich for a Republican to say considering that the best recent hope for a viable third party, United We Stand America, was torn apart by a disgruntled Republican losing candidate, Pat Buchanan, posing as an independent. Speculation then was that Republicans approved Buchanan’s action because it benefited them, win or lose. Shoe pinches on the other foot, doesn’t it?

Jeni Nosbisc
– Des Moines

Brave is brave
I appreciate the courage of many brave Americans standing tough against government encroachment on the Second Amendment. I don’t own a gun myself, but I’d be happy to die so my neighbor up the street can own 30 or 40. (I’ll try to stay off his lawn without first signaling my approach.) So what gives on the Fourth amendment? If it’s OK to sacrifice me to save the Second Amendment, I say let’s throw in the Fourth as well. It’s my party, and I’ll die if I want to. In fact, let’s just go ahead and make it a Constitutional Clambake — let’s be willing to die for the whole darn thing, wha’dya say? After all, if we’re so brave about the Second Amendment, let’s also understand the implications of having the government be able to violate anyone’s personal privacy protection by commanding a company to provide it a way to snoop on anybody’s phone. Of course, the government would only do so for a good reason, right? We didn’t buy that line for the Second, so we don’t buy it for any of the others, do we? Dead is dead, no matter which part of the Constitution you’re defending. And brave is brave. Let’s be sure we’re being consistent in all things and not let the Islamic terrorist aspects of this case make hypocrites of us.

Stan Hartt
– Urbandale

Grassley needs to do his job
Sen. Charles Grassley, in an excuse-filled opinion in The Des Moines Register on March 1, attempted to justify his reckless obstruction of the Supreme Court. Perhaps the most outrageous claim he made was arguing the American people should be able to choose by delaying the nomination process until 2017. He ignores the fact that the American people already made their choice clear in 2012.  Now Grassley wants to rewrite history by ending the president’s term 11 months early and nullify those voters’ choice. Grassley’s stubborn refusal to hold hearings to fill the Supreme Court vacancy will likely lead to a constitutional crisis. His obstruction will cause the highest court in the land to be paralyzed with frequent tie votes for nearly two years. By refusing to fill the ninth and tie-breaking vote, it will lock the court into endless gridlock until the vacancy is filled. The founding fathers, in creating a constitutional judicial system, were motivated by one very clear maxim: Justice delayed is justice denied. Grassley’s obstructionist actions violate that historical constitutional principle of speedy legal redress. Refusing to fill the vacancy is a direct assault on the ability of the judicial branch to function independently and amounts to a dangerous and unprecedented abuse of power by Grassley.

Rick Smith
– Urbandale

The legacy of Miss Hall
I had Miss Hall at Merrill Junior High, circa 1967 (Civic Skinny, March 3). I thought life would be a breeze if somehow I could manage to survive the dreaded 15-minute oral report supported by only three note cards. I can no longer recite the spelling rules we were required to memorize, but I am a good speller. Someone even hired me once because I correctly spelled e-m-p-h-a-s-e-s on my resume. One thing I’ve never forgotten is that my report was about Amelia Earhart. I don’t recall what Miss Hall thought of it, but obviously I did survive that rite of passage. Life’s breezes have been intermittent since then.

Mike Wellman
-Des Moines