LETTERS: QUESTIONS OF CHARACTER

To the editor:

The results of the upcoming presidential election will undoubtedly reveal a great deal about contemporary American culture and values. The choices are obvious. On one hand we have Bob Dole, a man who has spent his life in public service beginning with nearly sacrificing his life on the battlefields of Europe during World War II. He has a reputation for getting things done and being a man of integrity and honesty. On the other hand we have the current president with a reputation for being very adept at telling lies and riding the current public-opinion polls toward positions that will help him get re-elected. On the issue of character, Bob Dole has it. Bill Clinton is one.

The real question is: Does the public are about character issues? Has our contemporary culture drifted so far as to no longer care if the highest office of U.S. government is held by a man who can't be trusted to tell the truth? How many scandals, how many financial improprieties, how many sexual-harassment lawsuits, how many broken promises and how many partial-birth abortions will it take for the American public to finally declare this man unfit to be president?

There is no doubt that in 1992 some 43 percent of the voters were conned by the smoothest con man ever to run for president. What we got was not a New Democrat. We got a warmed-over, 1960s radical and his domineering partner eager to implement their socialist ideas on an unsuspecting public. Well, we have had four years to learn the truth about the Clintons. Of course, you won't find out the truth from the major network news sources that act as the most ardent apologists and defenders of the Clintons. The truth can be found in Gary Aldrich's "Unlimited Access" and R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.'s "Boy Clinton," both hard-hitting indictments of the Clinton's political and personal corruption.

Many believe that it is too late in the game to change the outcome of the presidential election. I still have hope and believe that undecided voters can tip the balance in favor of Senator Dole. If not, then this old but still true saying will apply to the voting public: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

JOHN HELDERMAN

Whitewater