Subject: Re: Cowardly Democrats: Larry, I thought you were a Democrat. Yet you continually refer to Democrats as cowardly. If you are truly interested in building the Democratic Party in Atlantic County and your own community shouldn't you show more loyalty and keep your critique within the Party rather than giving support to the Republican Party. MC

RESPONSE: An argument often made that loyalty to the Party trumps loyalty to principle; sorry, that is a view point that is respectfully not agreed with here. Adlai Sevenson said that ANYONE WHO IS IN A POSITION TO GET ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE IS NOT FIT TO SERVE.

Hopefully the draw of making a better society is what the initial pull of serving in government is. However the compromises that seem necessary to get elected all too easily wear away one's principles and integrity. It is incumbent on those of us who care about democratic issues to publicly hold candidates feet to the fire regarding issues of integrity; especially those who are in our own Party.

We are all human and the siren whisper of temptation all too readily is ceded to over the clarion call of principle. Our humanity means that the choice in any election is not between good and evil candidates...but rather between bad and worse candidates. Maybe if more of us grasped that seeming harsh reality there would be less apathy and higher turn outs in elections.

The appeal of candidates in both parties who have seemed at times to capture the public imagination is often a candidate who seems to have the ability to speak candidly about issues, from Perot, to Wellstone, to McCain and now we have Howard Dean.

All too often as these individuals seem to become viable the handlers from the Party step in and they reverse their course...sell their integrity. Look at Dean who used to say that Affirmative Action should be based not on race but on class. That Medicare and Social Security retirement ages should be raised. Now, however as a viable Democratic candidate he feels the need to cave to the GREEDY GEEZERS & AFRICAN AMERICANS and has reversed course on those reasonable postions. Sorry, that's Cowardly and Dean was right in both of those positions before and now seems less attractive here...indeed he may well seem less worse than the other craven Democratic candidates.