Correspondence

...Come on, guys—get a life...

...I am not insulted by her comments...

...FRANK MANKIEWICZ Vice Chairman, Hill & Knowlton Washington, DC UNFUNNY LADY DOES BARBRA STREISAND realize that some of us voted for George W. Bush ("The Streisand Democrats," Mike Murphy, April 16/April 23...

...Yet she comes across to Barnes as in the job at the Department of Defense only through "quotas" and "set-asides" for women, and maybe qualified to be spokeswoman "for many federal agencies," but not the voice of all that machismo at the Pentagon...

...John McCain and for the Carla Hills-led U.S...

...All that seems to entitle him to smear the person who got the job his pal coveted, who just happens to be one of the most competent and experienced women in Washington, Victoria Clarke...

...I am now strengthened in my resolve, headed in the right direction, and I thank Streisand for reminding me and others that there are still some lost souls out there, scared and confused...

...I suggest that Sidak watch The Godfather again and that some of my fellow Straussians lighten up...

...PATRICIA KAVANAGH Marysville, WA STRAUSSIANS & SOPRANOS YOUR READERS may get the impression that we Straussians are a humorless bunch, quick to take offense at anyone who treats our eponymous master with less reverence than we do, from two letters to the editor published in your April 9 issue...

...I guess he'll next write a baseball column comparing Henry Louis Gehrig with George Herman Ruth...

...In her review of The Sopranos ("Mob Mentality," March 26), Melinda Ledden Sidak attributed to Tony Soprano's being "a secret disciple of Leo Strauss" the fact that he tells his son to keep his teenage atheism to himself...

...Correspondence TORIE'S STORY FRED BARNES apparently can't get over the fact his buddy Tom DeFrank didn't get an appointment he wanted at the Pentagon, nor that nearly half the senior staff at the White House daily meetings are women nor, for that matter, does he know the meaning of the word "gender" ("The Bush Quotas," April 16/April 23...

...My chief reaction to Sidak's review was that she accomplished something novel: She quoted an academic writer in order to show how abstract and removed from common sense his language is, but inadvertently made him sound intriguing: I find compelling Paul Rahe's suggestion that The Godfather reveals a conflict between "contract and friendship" as the basis of political life...

...Hard to believe Barnes would take up all that space demeaning a similarly appointed man with Barnes's enumerated drawbacks—like O'Neill, Evans, and Ashbrook...

...Can she not acknowledge that Bush won more electoral votes than Gore...

...Sidak's mockery of it falls even flatter than her joke about Strauss...

...Torie Clarke's record includes press spokesperson for former President Bush at the White House and the '92 campaign, the same job for Sen...

...Can she come to grips with the fact that we don't all live vicariously through Hollywood or follow her thought patterns—believing that by chance, Bush fell into the chair of the president...

...but it was hardly offensive...

...Trade Representative's Office, as well as successful stints at the National Cable Television Association and (I must add) as my boss as general manager of Hill & Knowlton in Washington...

...If Barnes knew anything about her, he'd call her—as everyone does who knows her—"Torie...

...PETER J. HANSEN Chicago, IL...

...i.e., no experience in the field, Bush seeking only diversity, other white males treated shabbily, same guidelines as those of the hated Clinton...

...If America didn't discover the virtue of the white lie until Leo Strauss showed the way, then truly he was a great benefactor...

...Since this is something fathers have been telling their sons since time immemorial, I didn't find Sidak's attempt at humor especially successful...

...Quite the contrary, Barbra confirmed the reasons why I have run from the left...