R. Rouff writes to protest my "monotonous criticisms" of Hillary, which "neglect the fact that while Bill was governor of Arkansas, he and Hillary had a solid record of championing progressive governmental initiatives, this in a state that was for many years poverty stricken and, in terms of social services, grossly underserved." Significantly, "Arkansas' previous claim to fame before the Clintons was the racist reactionary Orville Faubus."

The latter point is well taken, but I still need to be convinced that it's Hillary rather than Bill, the native Arkansan, who should take credit for these achievements -- about which Arkansans in general seem strangely silent, by the way. As for the monotony of my criticisms, I plead guilty -- but it must be realized that I was an early Hillary fan whose laudatory statements and articles about her beginning in 1992 are on the record in the U.S. and the U.K.

I belong to a group much dwelled on of late in political commentary: the white, middle-aged, Democratic professional women whom Hillary by her own dishonest and manipulative behavior (and not through the occult intervention of any right-wing conspiracy) has managed to totally alienate. More and more are speaking out now, but my changing views were clear in "Ice Queen, Drag Queen," my April 1996 New Republic cover story that produced a squealing letter to the editor from Hillary's smarmy show-biz chum, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

Joy Loth, already quoted above, remarks: "Hillary is the Forrest Gump of politics. Was she really at the rally for Martin Luther King? It seems she's been there, done that, and is that whenever it suits her political purposes." Joyce Hathaway writes from Alexandria, Va.:

I am always amazed at the tributes paid to Hillary for her work with children. She has subjected her own daughter to an awe-inspiringly dysfunctional family life. She and Bill subjected a very young Chelsea to questioning (grilling) at the dinner table and claimed that people, saying similar things about her father, were part of a vast conspiracy of liars.

All things considered, I think Hillary exhibits a total lack of understanding of what kids are all about. Why is this never mentioned?

I'm afraid I laughed uproariously at Fred Schreier's mischievous sally:

I find it odd that in the eight years of the Clinton residency in the White House we have seldom if ever heard Chelsea speak. Is she a mute? Her father never shuts up -- so maybe he is not the biological father.

Finally, to leave our Clinton cell for this week, an item in the New York Post's Page Six reported that Westchester County Republicans have offered "a suggestion for what Bill and Hillary Clinton should call their new home in Chappaqua: Disgraceland."

The exchange on gun control in my last column produced many fascinating responses. Crow Carter, who describes himself as a "professional handgun instructor with many female graduates," applauds Tim Hartin's letter for its description of "the irrational fear of weapons dubbed 'hoplophobia' by Jeff Cooper, known as the 'Father of Modern Handgunning' [from the Greek 'hoplon', meaning weapon or tool]." Carter supports my interpretation of the Second Amendment:

If one reads the Founders one cannot escape the realization that this amendment, second only to the First, which it protects, was placed where it is precisely to allow the people to take back their government should it fall into the hands of some future Hitlerian despot.

Meanwhile, Gunowners of America, the junkyard dogs of the Second Amendment, asks about your Democratic Party, "What part of 'infringed' don't they understand?"

Bill King similarly declares:

I have thought for some time that this is a cultural issue. In the home I grew up in, the presence of a gun was quite normal. Many of my relatives were farmers, and killing animals for food was also normal. All of my cousins and I were introduced to hunting first as helpers in camp; then as drivers of game; and finally as hunters. We were taught what to do and learned the rules of the game.

A person from an urban background in which guns are only encountered along with a request to part with money can't understand just how benign a gun is to me. I have several guns and have never understood why the controllers are concerned with how many guns a man owns. After all, most of the troops who conquered Germany only had one gun.

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