NOT DECEIVED BY ISSA'S NEW CLOTHES

I am gratified that Rep. Darrell Issa (Letters, Sept. 21)is not so
intractable to his constituents' interests, at least during an election
year, when he is feeling the heat from Dr. Mike Byron's write-in campaign (
http://www.ByronForCongress.org ).

Now Issa has shown that he is able to alter his previous radical stance
regarding the death penalty for drug users, which he articulated during his
failed 1998 Senate campaign. Issa now advocates a one-strike for those who
sell drugs to minors. Considering that the draconian drug laws are designed
against and enforced primarily upon minorities (otherwise, the political
career of W. would have been cut short while he was still governor), is Issa
prepared to jail for life a young person who recently turned 18 and who
sells some amount of substances to a friend who is nearing the age of 18?

As we saw in Florida, it works for Republicans like Issa when minorities are
unable to vote. We are not deceived by Issa's new clothes as a "moderate"
Republican. Now that he's publicly turned away from death penalties for drug
users, I suppose Issa will return to his main avocation, that of undermining
the Constitution and depriving us of our rights (the so-called Patriot Act).

Ramona P. Griffin

Oceanside