Filibuster Battle: The Desperate Hours

By Nicholas Stix Late Sunday night, I sent the following letter to the New York Times. To the Editor: According to Frank Rich (“How Gay is the GOP?” op-ed, May 15), anyone opposing the Democratic Party’s ongoing violation of the President’s prerogative to name federal judges through the filibuster is a homophobe and a closet homosexual. Rich is engaging in a form of backdoor gay-baiting. But beyond that, as a New Yorker, I am deeply saddened and embarrassed. I came to New York 20 years ago, based on its history as an intellectual center. I mourn that city. In today’s New York, veiled threats and pretentious epithets pass for intellectual discourse. In Judge Welch’s words, Have you no decency, Sir? Have you no shame? P.S. I forgot to say “constitutional,” as in President Bush’s constitutional prerogative to name federal judges, but the Times never prints my letters, anyway.