Letters

Contact us via e-mail le*****@oc******.com">(letters@ocweekly. com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Letters will be edited for clarity and length. By submission of a letter, you agree that we can publish and/or license the publication of it in print and electronically. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number.

GENE SPLICING

In his brief recollection of the Reverend Gene Scott (“Down Satan's Fiery Nostril,” Nov. 30), Jim Washburn forgot the most remarkable feature of Scott's televised ministry: the man—a showmanship genius, as Washburn notes—was not only able to appear on live television 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but was also simultaneously able to broadcast live 'round the clock on the radio—with totally different material. Talk about the loaves and the fishes!

Lee Quarnstrom
La Habra

OBSESSED WITH CLINTON

Delicious! Matt Coker takes The Orange County Register to task for picking up the Washington Times' ham-handed story on Bill Clinton's Georgetown speech and writing another anti-Clinton editorial (“Billy-Bashing Bandwagon,” Nov. 23). But then Coker, only two pages away in his Clockwork column, does the same boneheaded thing. Let's prescind from the issue of whether Clinton's speech delivered a typically Clintonian exercise in ambiguity, in which he wanted to telegraph the conflicting messages that (a) we're right to prosecute the war but (b) we probably were hit by some cosmic payback for all our historical misdeeds. In his Clockwork column, Coker reports the imagined dismay of Nixonian Gaddi Vasquez when Jack Vaughn, whom Coker describes as Nixon's Peace Corps director, testified against Vasquez's nomination for director. In fact, Vaughn was Lyndon Johnson's Peace Corps director. Coker could have looked it up, but he simply repeated what other newspapers had misreported. How's it feel, Matt?

K.E. Grubbs Jr.
Irvine

Matt Coker responds: Deliciouser! In blaming Clinton for theWashington Times'—and theRegister's—error, Grubbs repeats the error. Ken, go back and reread theWall Street Journal transcript of the Clinton speech. He never even intimated that Sept. 11 was some sort of cosmic payback for U.S. sins; that's what theWashington Times andRegister editorials claimed he said by taking key phrases out of context and juxtaposing them. As for the Peace Corps director, I should have said Vaughn was appointed by Johnson and served under Nixon. Look that up. It feels fine. How's it feel with you?

Irp! 'Scuse me

In “Hot Water Has Navy in Really Hot Water” (Oct. 5), Anthony Pignataro writes, “Consultants worry that the contamination will make the base unusable for any purpose.” This is inaccurate. For the past three years, the El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA) and its consultants monitored and reviewed the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station site investigation and remediation activities conducted by the Navy at the closed military base as part of its Installation Restoration Program (IRP). The purpose of this process is to ensure that the remedial activities proposed by the Navy for this IRP site are compatible with the reuse approved for El Toro. To date, the LRA and its consultants have found no evidence of contamination that would prevent the development of the closed military base into a commercial airport.

Michelle Emard
El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority

Anthony Pignataro responds: There's a remediation process in place precisely because there's contamination—and not just any contamination, but radioactive contamination that some county experts fear is (a) underestimated in Navy reports and (b) beyond cleanup. Finally, let me offer a clarification on another point in the story: reasonable minds might conclude from the article that Emard ditched me in the course of my reporting. She did not. In fact, she was unable to get back to me by press time.

WE MADE TED DEAD

To say I was disappointed by your article would be putting my feelings mildly (Dave Wielenga's “Is It Time for Ted Crisell?” Nov. 23). I asked that we address the issues, NOT personalities. YOU TOTALLY DISREGARDED MY REQUEST. This is why so few good people enter the world of politics. Yes, I will continue with MY MESSAGE: a message of love, kindness, caring and peace. The tone of your article makes me sound at best a fool and at worst crazy. You present me as a liar and one who does not care about others' feelings. To set the record straight, I endorsed Frank Barbaro for party chairmanship because he is an outstanding leader, not because I was afraid of losing to him. I endorsed Jeanne Costales for regional chairperson BEFORE she called me and requested my endorsement because of all her wonderful, dedicated hard work. My early mentor and friend in politics in Orange County has been Dick O'Neill, whom I hold in the highest regard! Yes, I do know Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and many of the family, along with Senator Ted Kennedy, and consider them friends. I never said to you I was president of the land campus of Chapman University but president of the student bodies of Orange Coast College and Chapman World Campus. I also did play football at Mater Dei High School and for a short time at OCC but had to quit due to injuries. AND, must I remind you, YOU sought me out for an interview; I did not chase after you with my rsum (AND, Jeanne DID ask me to run for the U.S. Congress; I did not come to her with a game plan to run!). I am concerned about the way you set up your article and its tone, and I am sorry I invited you into my mother's home. You were out to destroy me and did a great job writing a very unfair, biased, slanted article. You and the Register have been successful in your jobs destroying Ted Crisell. I will not be seeking public office ever again—you have my word on that! I will continue to work with my church, with the homeless and furthering world peace. Good luck with your life, Dave! Hopefully, you will grow up and learn to write the truth!

Ted Crisell
Huntington Beach

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