READERS BITE BACK

Letters

Gold Rush

Thank you for "Bull Rush," by Peter J. Boyer [May]. Rush Limbaugh is our modem version of Jonathan Swift. No wonder his targets squirm; when you are skewered, it hurts.

L. R. STOEVEN III Dixon, California

Rush Limbaugh is conservatism's notso-secret weapon. A conservative with humor used to be an oxymoron. No more. Limbaugh is well-read and intelligent, but he's also funny. Many modem-day liberals, on the other hand, are afflicted with traits that once haunted conservatives. They are angry, hardedged, and humorless. That's a death sentence in politics. Those of us on the right can now say to liberals, with some justification, "Lighten up."

PETER WEHNER Alexandria, Virginia

Limbaugh's bucket-mouthed kind of knee-jerk conservatism is to humor what the Central Park muggers were to physical fitness. The kind of diatribe he drums merrily into his 11.6 million listeners tells us as much about them as it does about him. Realizing that this happens fifteen hours a week, every week, one can only conclude that the man is dangerous. And he is cunning. I am reminded of Henry Adams's warning of nearly a century ago about "the effect of unlimited power on limited minds."

GLEN EVANS Stamford, Connecticut

Thank you for running the Limbaugh story. Rush is my hero!

AL PFISTER Bremen, Indiana

In spite of his supposedly entertaining protests, Limbaugh is a racist, sexist hatemonger.

J. B. AITKEN Durango, Colorado

Consider this a pre-emptive strike against the lockstepping, "politically correct" hordes who will want to rain on my "disenfranchised" parade. Regarding my comment in Peter J. Boyer's piece: For the record, I have nothing but empathy for poor people; until eight years ago, I was "poor" people. What I dislike are people on the left or right who claim anyone with problems is a victim of someone who doesn't have those problems. Limbaugh serves a purpose. He can also be a reprehensible boor when it comes to women, abortion, sex, and drugs. I may laugh at what he says, but that doesn't mean I agree with it.

DON SIMPSON Burbank, California

With ideological standard-bearers like Limbaugh, how can conservatives seriously ask why so many American women, me included, are leaving their ranks in droves? If Limbaugh is representative of repellent New Right thinking, Republican pollsters can expect a mass female exodus in November.

MELISSA BALDRIDGE Houston, Texas

While Rush ridicules the foibles of feminists, gays, animal-rights activists, environmentalists, and the homeless, one group escapes his obloquy: he never makes fun of fat people. Why doesn't this 320-pound bully pick on somebody his own size?

MARSHAL ALAN PHILLIPS Los Angeles, California

As a woman who listens faithfully to Rush Limbaugh, I cannot possibly, according to Susan Faludi, have my head screwed on straight. As a twenty-threeyear-old Indiana University politicalscience graduate, I beg to differ. I am happy to be a woman, yet I refuse to pledge allegiance to a group based solely upon chromosomal composition.

LISA FAYE MILLER Bloomington, Indiana

Gloria Allred compares Rush Limbaugh to Hitler, but she does not detail her reasons. Eleven million listeners on almost five hundred radio stations do not waste their time on someone yearning for the glory days of the Third Reich.

CHRISTOPHER CHICHESTER Albany, New York

Having heard Rush Limbaugh moan about the job done on him by Vanity Fair, I was agreeably surprised to find the Boyer piece reasonably fair and free of the usual blend of rage, fear, and condescension with which this guy is regularly described. Limbaugh is unique, mostly because he's yelling things that millions of people obviously believe, on a medium so drenched in political liberalism that it generally views conservative opinions as aberrant, lunatic-fringe, redneck, or Fascist. And never funny. If the cultural triumph of political liberalism were less complete, Limbaugh would not stand out so much.

SAUL DAVID Sherman Oaks, California

The day after I saw my favorite radiotalk-show host get bashed by Phil Donahue and his left-wing audience, I received my May issue of Vanity Fair. Yes, I am a woman, and, no, I do not feel abused when I listen to Rush Limbaugh. I do not have the "all men are ogres" attitude, and therefore can listen to Rush's antics objectively. Thank you for a fair, insightful article about poor, misunderstood Rush.

JENNIFER DRISCOLL Greensboro, North Carolina

Capitol Hillary

Regarding "What Hillary Wants," by Gail Sheehy [May]: The night Hillary Clinton took that mike to introduce her husband was the night I started listening to Bill Clinton. If a vote for Bill Clinton is a vote for Hillary, let's go for it!

BUDDY OCHOA Los Angeles, California

Yes, I wish that Mrs. Clinton were running for president instead of her husband, but she is not. I don't know precisely what her role in the campaign should be; I am quite sure that it ought not to include letting slip to a reporter innuendos about George Bush's alleged marital infidelities. This sort of dirty job is normally performed by a minor campaign functionary who can then be perfunctorily fired. I have always claimed that I would vote for the Devil against George Bush. Now I find myself trapped along with the Democratic Party in its Faustian nightmare. Frankly, although I may vote for them, the Clintons seem more and more like a couple from hell.

MELINDA CHATAIN Amagansett, New York

The woman a man chooses to be his wife reveals much about his values and judgment, and Hillary Clinton is one major reason Slick Willie will never live in the White House.

LINDA WARREN Arlington, Virginia

If the Shoe Fits

Imelda Marcos's eagerness to point out to Luisita Lopez Torregrosa in "The Thrilla in Manila" [May] that her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, was a rich man well before he became president in 1965 doesn't jibe with my experiences with the former Philippine First Family. Having developed and partially executed the campaign that won the presidency for him, I ever so politely asked to be paid the compensation and out-of-pocket expenses that we had previously agreed upon. Said Imelda, "We are poor people. We have no money left. But don't worry. When Ferdie is elected president, you'll dance in Malacanang." I never did get paid, and I never did dance in the presidential palace they long called home, but had I, it would have been a little like dances with wolves.

LEONARD SAFFIR Boca Raton, Florida

Letters to the editor should be sent with the uriter's name, address, and daytime phone number to: The Editor, Vanity Fair, 350 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10017. The letters chosen for publication may be edited for length and clarity.