The Connecticut connection

Suspicious about timing

THE TIMING of the latest terrorism scare seems too good (or too bad) to be true. On Tuesday, Aug. 8, an anti war challenger, Ned Lamont, defeats a pro war incumbent, Joe Lieberman, in the Connecticut Democratic Primary. The next day, Vice President Cheney sneers that Lamont's victory was a victory for the ``Al Qaeda types." Wednesday night, we are suddenly greeted by a lurid tale of the biggest terrorist plot in history.

Then we also saw the abrupt imposition of the biggest indignity yet on the traveling public: The new rules prohibiting air travelers from taking any liquids of any sort on board, not even water. The rules were imposed in the most humiliating way possible, in order to make all of us feel helpless. In a scene reminiscent of something from Nazi Germany, law-abiding travelers who showed no signs of being potential terrorists had their toothpaste and bottled water seized without warning and without any compensation.

TIMOTHY HORRIGAN
Durham, N.H.

Encouraging the moderates

DICK CHENEY and Joe Lieberman tell us that war critic Ned Lamont's victory will ``encourage the terrorists."

Perhaps they have it wrong.

Perhaps, instead, this election will encourage the moderates. It says to them: Here is a country where democratic values are strong enough -- even in times of war -- that a president's policies can be challenged by the common people. Here is a country that can shift its course peacefully -- even in times of great division -- by following constitutional processes that have stood the test of time. Here is a country where the voters -- even in a time of fear -- are not intimidated by the rhetoric of their leaders.

Such a country could be a beacon to the world and encourage moderates everywhere. Our own democratic traditions may yet save us from the terrorists -- and from ourselves.

TOM HALLOCK
Brookline

Dangerous partisanship

IT IS irresponsible the way Dick Cheney used the results of the Connecticut primary to suggest that Democrats are weak against terrorist organizations by not selecting Joe Lieberman.

This constant partisanship is wrong and helps to foment divisions as opposed to facilitating unity against our dangerous foes.

JAMES PALMER
Newton