In his March 15 column “Make GOP menu for 2012 more palatable,” conservative commentator and (evidently) part-time restaurant critic Jonah Goldberg examines the Republican Party field for 2012. Goldberg starts by reciting a German cliche about “food-envy” and concludes with an Irish saying about hunger.

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Anyway, in between, Goldberg scrutinzes most possible GOP presidential nominees except perhaps the most likely — Mitt Romney, ex-governor of Massachusetts. Goldberg candidly described the various weaknesses of the others. And had he bothered to examine Romney, he may have noted that the “Mitt-ster” will certainly have to explain his creation of an Obama-like health plan to those crusty GOP primary voters. He will also have to finesse the manner in which he has performed “triple-Lindy-like” back flips on each and every social issue staunch conservatives claim to care about — guns, abortion, gay marriage, etc.

Yes, hard-core GOPers can be a tough bunch. Recently, Republican pollster Frank Luntz quizzed a “focus group” of Republican primary voters in Iowa as to how many of them believed our current president was Muslim. Nearly half of those assembled raised their hands. Luntz was speechless, knowing he had inadvertently revealed many GOP primary voters for what they are — mean-spirited and stupid. Yes, the GOP nomination will be a race to the bottom — won by the one who can prove he or she is the biggest jerk.

It’s ironic Goldberg also referred to conservative heroes such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Goldwater was a member of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood, making him wholly unacceptable to be nominated by today’s GOP. And even Reagan chose to “bail out” Chrysler and Harley-Davidson, making him at least questionable in the current environment.

So good luck, GOP. I’ll watch it all from my favorite restaurant.

Staff Sgt. Al Fecteau

Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan

Helping Japan’s people a must

Now that the sobering effect of the earthquake and tsunami has hit and reality has set in, it is time to think of what we can do to help our Japaneese friends. What few clothes, little money and canned goods we can give would surely be appreciated by those unfortunate people.

It is hard for me to even consider what these people are going through. Please help and do what you can.

Petty Officer 1st Class Ronald M. Preston (retired)

Yokosuka, Japan

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