Letters to the editor

LUIS SINCO / AP U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, aka "Marlboro Man," in Fallujah, Iraq, Nov. 9.

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To a man

Editor, The Times:

Dear Mr. Rossi: Congratulations on winning the election to become the next governor of Washington state ("It's Rossi by 261; recount is next," Times page one, Nov. 18). However, please do not assume that your 261-vote majority means you have the right to lead me.

I voted in the minority — not in support of your opponent, but to send you the message that your conservative policies and programs are undesirable and run counter to my religious, business and political beliefs.

I am absolutely opposed to everything said in your campaign messages. Over the next four years, you may not count on my support.

In order to win my support, you and your political party must seriously moderate your tone, message and practices. Your brand of conservatism is as abhorrent as the liberalism of the late 1970s was. I considered myself a Republican then; now I consider myself a moderate (not a Democrat, though I supported them) in policy, program and way of life.
— Michael Heavener, Redmond

He's head, she's head

Two-hundred sixty-one votes, at least for Thursday, separate the candidates for governor.

There is clearly a perfectly symmetrical electorate in the state that would like two sets of values and two sets of skills to work on the same issues: jobs, transportation, the environment, education and the arts. Two heads are, after all, better than one, and these are complex issues.

The situation in Washington more or less mirrors the situation across the country, so I suggest we set the new national standard for political cooperation and let Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi serve as co-governors.

Oh, I know there would be rough days, times the staffs would fight about the details. But if they sit down long enough, share the same office, and drink really good coffee, I have every confidence the two can work it out, thereby serving the common goals of the entire electorate. Democracy, after all, occasionally demands innovation.
— Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Clinton

Nyet sum gain

Funny how — when Dino Rossi was ahead (in the ballot count for the governorship) and projected to win by 3,000 votes — the Democrats in King County just happened to "find" 9,000 "mystery votes" for Christine Gregoire. Can we all say "voter fraud"? ("More ballots found in King County, Local News, Nov. 16).

Luckily, it didn't work.

It is obvious that the rest of the state is sick and tired of having the Seattle liberals shove their socialist agenda down everyone else's throats. It is about time the Soviet of King County stopped running the state of Washington.
— Gerald Cline Jr., Seattle

Zero Sims' game

Dino Rossi owes King County Executive Ron Sims a great big thank you!

Sims' primary campaign for governor distracted some 200,000 Democratic voters away from Chris Gregoire.

Not all those who voted for Sims in the primary then turned around and voted for Gregoire on Nov. 2 — quite simply because Sims did not actively stump for her after his "tearful defeat."

Whether or not Sims was covertly working for Republican interests is not the question, because the fact remains that Sims' refusal to mandate his voters to support Gregoire clearly gave the Republicans another state governor.

There can be no doubt that George W. Bush also says, "Thank you Ron Sims!"
— Virgil Howard, Seattle

The person is apolitical

Well, now we're going to have a Republican governor, just when we finally took control of the Legislature, barely. Christine Gregoire lost by 261 votes. To my knowledge, Dino Rossi voted against every single bill that would support social issues to come before the state Legislature during his two terms in the senate.

When are we going to treat people with respect. The greatest problem facing this country is the disparity in wealth that exists, and every single action the Republicans have taken the past four years has exacerbated this problem.

It is mathematically demonstrable that taxes distribute wealth better than any other means, as long as the money is redistributed to the society in a more or less equal way. Alternatively, stirring up the wildness and unpredictability of investment returns works in the opposite direction, as it boosts the influence of the rich-get-richer phenomenon.

Taxation is a form of enforced trade, and without it, wealth discrepancies rapidly escalate.

We need an economic bill of rights in this country. Every person deserves: food, clothing, shelter, medicine and an education. We're a long way from that.
— Baiss Eric Magnusson, Seattle

Acre of his neighbor's scorn

Times editorial cartoonist Eric Devericks' cartoon indicating that if Christine Gregoire wins, she will be the governor of only the northwest counties of our state (and implying that if Dino Rossi wins, he will be governor of only the other counties) is typically simplistic and pandering, playing on the east-west rivalry in our state ("Governor of King County," editorial cartoon, Nov. 18).

It implies that somehow a person's vote should be less important because he or she lives in a populous area. It implies that the vote total of King County is equal to the vote total in Ferry County, with 1/223 the population.

This would be true if our Founding Fathers had the foresight to grant voting rights to acres rather than to people. But they didn't, so we are stuck with the fact that because 50 percent of the state's population find the counties bordering the east shore of Puget Sound a good place to live, the individual votes cast along that east shore will always be equal to those cast in the rest of the state.

The future governor of our state will be the governor of the entire state, and it won't matter what acre of land voters stood on while casting their votes.
— Jay Davis, Shoreline

Exchange for vows

Congratulations to the gay community of Washington state for helping to elect a Republican governor by supporting the Libertarian candidate. As a lifelong Democrat and supporter of gay rights, I have received a clear message: The gay community is not willing to support those who would support them in this state.

To my Republican friends: Bring on the gay-marriage ban for Washington state; I'll now be voting for it.
— Bruce Austin, Pullman

One on a match

Seeing this Marine makes me proud to be an American... and I sure as hell hope Marlboro supplies him with all the smokes he and his buddies want.

I also pray for the day that his Mom greets him safely at home.
— William Wexted, Sherwood

Liberal Diaspora

"Typical of the left. Promise to leave the country if President Bush were re-elected, and what... they are still here. Why, oh why, can't the keep their promises?" ("Unword-bound," Northwest Voices, Nov. 11). Where would we go? No one else in the world wants us any more than the Iraqis do.
— Ostin Stryjak, Gold Bar

American as maple pie

During the last election cycle, conservatives were chastised for questioning the patriotism of the liberals. Now that so many liberals discuss moving to Canada, is it OK to question their patriotism now?
— Mike Inman, Issaquah