Letters

HOW HE DOES IT

"Clinton survives by lying--consistently, shamelessly and pathologically. Any other explanation is rationalization." PATRICK J. CLEARY Springfield, Va.

How Bill Clinton does it is by utilizing the principle that has successfully guided his life so far: putting himself first [NATION, Feb. 1]. How ironic that the same guideline that led the President into lies and adultery will now, with the help of a too tolerant America, save him. DAVID VAN HOOSER Nashville, Tenn.

Though the effort to oust Clinton will prove highly damaging to Republicans, it may turn out in the long run to be of great historical benefit. Just as experience has taught us to try to avoid "another Vietnam," this episode will teach future Congresses to seek to avoid impeachments that lack popular support, are contrary to the national interest and are unwinnable. ROBERT H. WOLFE North Woodmere, N.Y.

I am unable to feel pride in having Clinton as our President. After everything is over and done with, he will become a shadow leader, continuing to promote only himself. MARJORIE VAN DEUSEN Traverse City, Mich.

During the past several months, the congressional Republicans have shot themselves in the foot so many times that there is only a bloody stump left. And they represent the best the Republican Party has to offer! FRANK APISA Piscataway, N.J.

I am sick of seeing President Clinton on the cover of TIME. Isn't there anyone else more deserving? JANET STEPHENS Ottawa

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, "The letter of the law is too cold and formal to have a beneficial influence on society. Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relations, there is an atmosphere of moral mediocrity, paralyzing man's noblest impulses." I submit that our Congress needs to reach higher to have a beneficial influence on our society and that it has so far been paralyzed by ignoble impulses. COREY BRUNISH Lake Oswego, Ore.

How does he do it? He lies. He lied to his family, and he lied to his friends. He lied to his Cabinet, and he lied to Congress. And he lied to me. Then he lied about his lying. How does Clinton do it? Very well. JIM MORROW Phoenix, Ariz.

The same question, how does he do it?, can be asked about Saddam Hussein. F. RANDALL HARRIS Oshkosh, Wis.

The answer to how Clinton does it is evolution. He is a politician who studied America's brand of "political Darwinism" and acclimated himself to the form-over-substance environment of our process. Unfortunately, this is not a criticism of Clinton so much as an indictment of the pathetic U.S. electorate. Character and veracity are "issues" only if the voters make them so. We have chosen to ignore them, and Clinton is the by-product of that decision. CHRIS RENALDO Atlanta

The money spent so far on investigating Clinton and on his impeachment trial could have been used to feed countless hungry people as well as build schools, roads and hospitals in some of the poorest countries of the world. For the U.S. to waste so much money on a useless exercise only emphasizes the gap between rich and poor nations. LOREDANA LAWSON Zanzibar, Tanzania

The House managers, in the name of love for the law, have erupted into a volcano of hatred. That lynch mob doesn't stand for the compassionate American people the whole world knows. ALDO PUGIOTTO Lachine, Que.

President Clinton, CEO of the nation and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, has defiled both his positions. The only honorable thing to do would have been to resign. But history will ensure that justice will be done. HENRY M. GIUDICE Berlin

The impeachment mess reminds me of a William Blake verse: "A truth that's told with bad intent/ Beats all the lies you can invent." It certainly applies to the holier-than-thou Republicans. RICARDO OLARAN Buenos Aires

CHALLENGES FOR THE G.O.P.

According to your columnist Jack E. White, the President's impeachment trial was about racism and bigotry [DIVIDING LINE, Feb. 1]. Silly me. I thought it was about whether or not the President perjured himself and obstructed justice. What was I thinking? Please, can we get past all the efforts to cloud the issue and instead focus on the facts? Don't try to change the subject. RICK DUDLEY Vista, Calif.

White's wild assertions about the Republican record on civil rights compel a response. His hate-filled diatribe ignores the fact that it was Republicans, led by Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, who broke the Democrat filibuster delaying the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that without Republican votes, neither it nor the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would have become law. White's naked partisanship also ignores the 4 million Americans who have been given a fresh start, liberated from lives of dependency on welfare by Republican reforms in social programs. What ought to trouble us all is the increasingly divisive and shrill rhetoric of today's Democratic Party candidates. Last year in Missouri, they ran ads suggesting that G.O.P. victories would lead to church bombings and cross burnings; in Maryland, they grossly distorted the civil rights record of our candidate for Governor. Meanspirited racial appeals have no place in politics, nor in your magazine. JIM NICHOLSON, Chairman Republican National Committee Washington

A huge thank-you to White for his excellent article on White House deputy counsel Cheryl Mills' holding a mirror to the G.O.P. record on civil rights in her defense of Clinton. I heard House Republican Bob Barr on a talk show claiming he doesn't hate the President. Poppycock! Of course he hates Clinton. The horrendous hypocrisy of this entire matter was exactly as White stated. Why should lying about sex be worse than lying about something far worse--racial bigotry? SCOTT GADDEN North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

It is ironic that the Republican party, also known as the G.O.P. (Grumpy Old Puritans), is the chief victim of its own sanctimonious moralizing. MICHAEL GORDEUK Westfield, N.J.

The ultraconservative wing of the Republican Party seems lost. These old gray men are so convinced they're doing the right thing and so obsessed with the idea of trying to let the American people see how evil their President is that they've lost touch with reality. If they can't put their anger aside and forgive Clinton, this impeachment process will eventually result in their own end. FRANS VAN RUMPT Santpoort, the Netherlands

WORKING FOR THE TEAMSTERS

Your item on the Teamsters union and Democratic Party campaign finance [NOTEBOOK, Dec. 21] had several inaccurate references to my employment by the union. The source and amount of the fees paid to me for my work during the 1992 presidential campaign is a matter of public record. By the beginning of 1993, my fees for work during the 1992 campaign had been paid in their entirety by the campaign. I did not do any work for the Teamsters in 1993.

It was not until the spring of 1994 that I undertook a Teamsters inquiry, which ended in the spring of 1995 (and resulted in the recovery of $13 million). In my investigations I was not concerned with anything other than corruption in the Teamsters Union, and all fees paid to me by the Teamsters were for work done for, and only for, the Teamsters. JACK PALLADINO Palladino & Sutherland Investigations San Francisco

CRIMINAL SENTENCES

As reported in your story "A Get-Tough Policy That Failed" [LAW, Feb. 1], mandatory minimum sentences are a travesty of justice. Not only do they not prevent criminal activity, but they are also very costly to our society. It is senseless to have these people locked up instead of being able to work and pay taxes. Talk about living in a police state! ERIC HANDEL Easthampton, Mass.

Reading about the failure of mandatory-sentencing laws made my heart skip a beat. I realized that the sad situation described so vividly would soon affect my family. My son Eric, who turned 20 just a few weeks ago, is looking at a sentence of six to nine years in prison. Eric, like many other young people, fell prey to adult drug runners, who continue to walk freely the streets of America's small towns. Eric had no criminal record. This is a terrible injustice. EDNA BUNTAIN Paris, Ill.

NEW GUYS ON THE BLOCK

Your article on entrepreneur Louis J. Pearlman and his recording studio-boot camp for developing boy bands was very one-sided [MUSIC, Feb. 1]. It was obvious that the guys who wrote it don't like young male pop groups. The article made it sound as if their fans are all under 15 and the groups would be around just a short time because they aren't really that good. I don't know about the other singers, but the Backstreet Boys have lasted for almost seven years, and they're doing better than ever. They have fans of all ages, not just little kids. SHANNON KARNER, age 15 Summerland, B.C.

As I write this letter, I'm listening to Mozart and eating carrot sticks, and I'm only 13. You portray girls like me as screaming 'N Sync addicts who have bubble gum plastered to their teeth. I'm sick of it. The majority of girls I know care more about their grades and getting into college than they do about a bunch of guys who can't carry a tune. RACHEL OSTROW, age 13 Pound Ridge, N.Y.

Musicians are no longer original, talented and spontaneous. Instead, they are ungifted "mimbos" [male bimbos] who must go to specialized camps to learn choreography and teen seduction in their quest for fame and wealth. ROBERT LUHRS VIEGAS Recife, Brazil

DON'T UNDERESTIMATE CHINA

You reported on China's program to buy new weapons and strengthen its military [WORLD, Feb. 1]. Today's Chinese race for arms could very well be tomorrow's American race for survival. Americans are financing the military buildup in China every time we buy an item made there. Several hundred made-in-China coffeemakers could equal one AK-47. We must never underestimate the Chinese just because their military equipment may be crude. The Viet Cong's weapons were crude, and look at what happened in Vietnam. JAMES A. CARROLL Green Creek, N.J.

SEEDS THAT CAN'T REPRODUCE

I read with horror your article about the terminator gene the Monsanto Corp. is developing to remove the ability of a plant's seeds to reproduce [ENVIRONMENT, Feb. 1]. Your statement that no "serious scientist" thinks dire forecasts of accidental widespread sterilization of natural flora will come to pass brings to mind many other past assertions. Weren't we told that DDT was a safe pesticide and that pouring tons of waste into our waters was a safe form of disposal? The only thing a "serious" scientist should be thinking today is that we really know very little about the long-term effects of our technology. STEVE GORDON Holland Landing, Ont.

Monsanto's attempt to safeguard its investment in genetically engineered seeds by making sure they can't reproduce seems understandable and justified. It is intended to provide the company with protection similar to that available to developers of hybrids; in most instances, only the first progeny of a hybrid is a marketable crop, and subsequent seed crops do not carry the parents' useful characteristics. Monsanto's effort to protect what is rightfully the company's may help to stimulate further plant research, to the betterment of agriculture and horticulture. TIB SZEGO Lindsay, Ont.