President losing votes by violating campaign pledges

To the editor:

The hypocrisy of our elected officials in using the Enron farce as an excuse to pass a blatantly unconstitutional campaign-finance bill is incumbent self-protection gone astray. Enron was a drop in the bucket when it comes to corrupting influence. I recently read that Enron was only 37th in political contributions, giving a measly $2.5 million.

The most corrupting influences were trial lawyers and Emily's List, which supports radical women and socialistic Democrats. Others on the list above Enron were mostly unions. Collectively, they gave $50.6 million, with 97 percent going to Democrats. Woe to some of the conservative members of these unions.

The biggest mistake our president has made is signing the campaign-finance bill. He violated our faith in him. He promised to veto the bill. This is going to be a "read my lips" mistake.

I partly understand why he signed the bill. His advisers wanted to take away perceived campaign issues from the Democrats at election time, just as they did on the ill-conceived education bill that also violated the president's campaign promises.

The president is losing his electoral base: the conservatives who elected him. Many say they are going to stay at home on Election Day. Not me. I haven't missed an election since the 1940s. I probably will vote for the other candidates and leave the presidential slot vacant.

WILL E. WADE

Jackson, Mo.