‘Go Nuclear’

Re: “Go Nuclear,” Lawrence Kudlow, Opinion, April 29, 2005. Blocking 45 senators from speaking their minds on the Senate floor may be expedient, but is it in the Republican’s best interest?

Ronald Reagan was much beloved by his country. He might have had a third term. Why not? Because the Republicans passed presidential term limits in reaction to FDR.

STEVEN BLUMROSEN
Wantage, N.J.

‘Ward Churchill Exposed’

Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Sun [“Ward Churchill Exposed,” Opinion, March 30, 2005], dismissed Ward Churchill’s entire record because his B.A. and M.A. degrees were awarded in communications – which means, ipso facto to Ms. Ravitch, “that he lacks any academic qualifications as a historian or social scientist.” Communication is not a faux academic field; many people hold advanced degrees in it, along with tenured positions at universities. Does Ms. Ravitch live on a planet where only people with Ph.D.s in history are allowed to write about the past? Ms. Ravitch, having earned a Ph.D. in history (Columbia University, 1975) is a member of that select club. My Ph.D. in communications may be good for shining Ms. Ravitch’s shoes, I suppose, if I am lucky.

BRUCE E. JOHANSEN
Frederick W. Kayser Research Professor
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha, Neb.

President Bush the Evangelical?

I was startled by William F. Buckley’s April 28 opinion piece in The New York Sun, “President Bush the Evangelical?”

It was hard for me to believe he has not realized the violations of the principle of the separation of church and state that is a bedrock of American democracy. As for me, this Republican administration is moving our country in the direction of 1. oligarchy, 2. autocracy, and 3. theocracy.

This administration does not know the meaning of democracy.

MURRAY KRIM
Manhattan