Who reads those "Letters to the Editor"

Do you write "Letters to the Editor"? Do you know who reads them? Steve Duin
tells us in his commentary Sweet-talking the mob, one voter at a time

Pam Fromuth is not a fan of the Bush administration, largely because she's paying attention to the news out of Iraq and the administration's attempts to sugarcoat it. On the evening of the second presidential debate, Fromuth was aghast when Andrew Card, the president's chief of staff, came on CNN and declared, "We had a very speedy victory in Iraq."


Say what? "We got to Baghdad faster than the pundits predicted," Card continued. "I can remember just weeks before the ultimate victory, there were people that were saying . . ."

"You think Iraq is already a victory?" interrupted CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"It's a victory," Card insisted. "It's being run by Iraqis today. It's not part of a Saddam regime. It's not a place where weapons of mass destruction are going to be put together. It's not a place where terrorists are going to say we can come here and find safe haven and attack the rest of the world. Right now, the terrorists are fighting there to prevent the democracy from taking hold in Iraq. And that's a lot different than having them fight us in New York City."

Fromuth, who lives in Northeast Portland, was appalled by those comments. She fired off a 44-word letter to The Oregonian that ran Oct. 17. "If victory came quickly in Iraq," Fromuth concluded, "why does the United States have more than 130,000 troops still there? How stupid do these people think we are?"

Six days later, Fromuth received a manila envelope from the White House. "First Class," it read. "Do Not Bend."

"I figured," said Fromuth, a former Mondale volunteer, "that one of my good friends, knowing my rabid feelings about Bush, had sent me a signed photograph."

Not at all. Inside the envelope, backed by a sheet of cardboard and suitable for framing, was a typed letter on gold-embossed bond paper from the White House chief of staff, purportedly signed by Andrew Card himself.

"Your comment to the editor from this week's Sunday Oregonian just reached my desk," Card began. "I appreciate the nature of your statement and would like to take this opportunity to respond.

"Military victory did come quickly in Iraq. Our advance to Baghdad and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein came more rapidly than many would have imagined," Card continued. He reviewed signs of progress in Iraq -- 30,000 "newly trained" Iraqi police, health care "available to all Iraqis" -- before signing off:

"The American and coalition troops in Iraq are there to help bring security and stability, and they will not leave until the job is done. President Bush wants to see them home as soon as possible but not at the expense of the security of our Nation or that of Iraq. May God Bless you and your family, and May God Bless Our Armed Forces.

"Sincerely, Andy Card."

Now, you might think Fromuth would be thrilled by such personal attention from the very man who whispered, "America is under attack," to the president in that Florida classroom back in September 2001.

You might think she would be impressed that someone would take the time, at taxpayer expense, to monitor letters to the editor; look up her address; personalize a reply to her criticism; pack it with cardboard; and slap 83 cents in postage on the envelope.

If so, you don't know Pam Fromuth.

Ken Lisaius, a White House spokesman, cautioned me against "leaping to the conclusion that this was a staff-driven process. I'm not familiar with this particular incidence, nor would I comment on private correspondence. What I can tell you is that Secretary Card does correspond with numerous Americans in his role as chief of staff."

To be quite frank, that has Fromuth creeped out. "With all the problems we have, this guy has nothing better to do than write letters to housewives in Portland?" she asked. "Why is he writing to me? Does he think he's going to change my mind? My husband thinks it's a little warning: 'We know who you are.' "

Which only goes to show you, I guess, that Card is going to have a much tougher time declaring victory in Northeast Portland than he has in Iraq.

Something to think about in the Age of Aschcroft.