MCCAIN'S VIRTUE

P .J. O'ROURKE's article "24 Hours on the 'Big Stick'" (April 28) may have done more for my perception of John McCain than everything I've heard so far. During the primaries, I initially supported a different Republican's candidacy. When McCain became the presumptive nominee, I searched for something to grab onto. I might have found it in O'Rourke's article. O'Rourke's advice that conservatism is more than "lower taxes" and should also be equated with "self-discipline, responsibility, good order, [and] respect for our national institutions" is a welcomed opinion.

Even some of the conservative talking-heads could improve keeping that in mind. McCain may not be the second coming, but those who expect such from a president probably are lacking responsibility and discipline anyhow.

McCain can remind us of what it is to be an American. You can't take that away from him. Another one of McCain's important virtues is that he doesn't talk about America like it was rotting, intolerant, and declining. The other candidates seem to remind us everyday how pathetic we've become. How do you find inspiration in that?

MICHAEL BIEVER
Wheeling, Ill.

NEWSMAN PATRIOT

ANDREW FERGUSON's article on the Newseum ("The Media Builds a Monument to Itself," May 5) brought back memories of my visit to the Newseum back when it was located in Arlington, Virginia. I was shocked then at its insipidness and absence of any substance.

What caught my attention during that earlier visit was the plaque commemorating James Rivington, the founder and publisher of Rivington's New York Gazetteer, later named the Royal Gazette, which had a few words about his being one of the nation's very first newsmen and publishers. What the plaque failed to say was that Rivington's paper was one of the most vociferous and ardent Tory rags during the War for Independence--always detailing George Washington's defeats, ignoring his victories, praising any British victory, and publishing British propaganda and the poetry of John Andre, the chief of British intelligence in New York.

Neither did the Newseum mention that Rivington's newspaper provided cover for the fact that he was one of Washington's most important spymasters and a patriot. Rivington worked closely with another of Washington's spies, Robert Townsend, whose cover was as a gossip columnist for the Gazette. It was Rivington who secretly obtained the British naval signaling codes and passed them to Washington, who in turn passed them to the French fleet, which used them to defeat the British fleet in the battle of the Chesapeake. That rare French naval victory prevented the British from resupplying their troops at Yorktown, aiding in their defeat in the final battle of the War for Independence.

Had there been computers in Rivington's day, the Newseum could have displayed his mouse pad. But that any newsman might serve his country as a spy and patriot, even in time of war, is absolutely out of the question today. The media have now gone so far as to make such patriotism grounds for banishment from the profession.

GENE POTEAT
Alexandria, Va.

HEAR ME ROAR

I AM A WOMAN. Like many women, I have a vagina; nonetheless I found Matt Labash's essay "Hurricane Eve Hits New Orleans" (May 5) enormously entertaining.

The tedious and unseemly Vagina Monologues and its ten-year celebration of all things vaginal insults women. Glorifying a woman's private parts as though they represent everything that we are reduces us to just that, which is the ultimate degradation. Surely there are other ways to combat domestic violence.

Shame on Eve Ensler and her absurdly self-indulgent Vagina Warriors.

MARIE HARRINGTON
Sylva, N.C.

CHINA'S SHAME

ETHAN GUTMANN's article "Carrying a Torch for China" (April 21) aptly observed that the Beijing Olympics had lost their innocence right in 2001, when the Chinese government continued to persecute people instead of really improving human rights. Now we just see the harvest of what was planted many years ago.

TORSTEN TREY
Arlington, Va.

REPULSED BY WRIGHT

I DON'T SEE how anyone without an agenda could deny the facts, as laid out by Matthew Continetti in "Right about Obama" (May 12), that show Barack Obama knew about his pastor's hateful ideology from the start. Certainly this "garlic-nosed Italian"--me, a Democrat of 34 years--sussed out Obama as the inauthentic soul that he is from the beginning.

Obama's close association with Rev. Wright is in itself a deal breaker. Moderates like me will be leaving the Democratic party in droves.

We Hillary supporters who know our candidate--warts and all--will remain loyal. We have her back, and if not this time, we'll propel her to the presidency after McCain's one term fails miserably.

JULIANNE BARBATO
Las Vegas, Nev.