Whoa! Choke your motors for a minute. There's another principle involved here.

The real bad guys are the dingbat GOP hacks in NY23 who picked this turkey to begin with. Bad call but it leaves the national party leadership with a real problem. Do you really want to empower them to override the locals even when they're this stupid? Are they supposed to now endorse the candidate of another party over their own legally selected nominee? Think about that one for a minute.

My district is AZ8. Conservatives here will recall that our local backroom party leaders and the RNCCC tried to muscle us for a weenie state rep in our primary in 2006. We ended up with a multiple brawl won by one of the conservative candidates, proving that...

The theory that journalism has always been "objective" is a relatively modern myth.

We survived well into this century with a highly partisan press that reported and spun to its heart's contest.

Starting with that grand fraud Walter Lippman who was little more than a flack for the Wilson administration, this century slid into the grand abyss of believing that the agenda hacks like Walter Cronkite were on the level.

May the dis-information and mis-information be spread equally and beyond the snot impacted elite who had a clear monopoly for years.

EF, Tucson

Taney's decision was expected by all as slavery was clearly constitutional. What made it infamous was the racist drivel he added to it and that it received a 7-2 vote in that form.

To berate Lincoln for his unconstitutional saving of the Union is akin to complaining that Jefferson illegally acquired Louisiana. Both complaints are technically correct.

Anybody think we oughtta give it back to France?

Emil Franzi, Tucson

Joseph is apparently ignorant of the fact that most western and some eastern states have the initiative, referendum and recall. Arizona is one of those. The net result has been the voters being hustled mainly by liberal groups and kookie millionaires to vote for so many "feel good" programs that they are now most of the state budget. And thanks to another sounds good dipstick initiative, a conservative Republican legislature is banned from changing them.

Most initiatives are now the product of big money with the price of public opinion going for about $3-$4 million in states like Arizona. You can endorse and slobber over this form of populism if you want, but it's a 20th century add-on that many REAL conservatives believe sucks....

If all of you who believe that the present GOP leadership in your area is flaky and incompetent, then why bother with a third party? If you can't even figure out how to replace them and take over the GOP, how do you plan to accomplish the far more difficult task of beating the Democrats?

EF, Tucson