REP. BARR'S QUESTIONABLE APPELLATION

The type of "void" Rep. Bob Barr's defeat will leave in the Republican
Party will be welcome, from my libertarian viewpoint ("Barr's defeat said
to leave void in GOP," Nation, Thursday).

Those who refer to him as a "civil libertarian" (as quoted in the article)
could by the same reasoning refer to Adolf Hitler as a humanitarian. Mr.
Barr single-handedly voided the votes of D.C. residents who overwhelmingly
passed a medical marijuana initiative. Mr. Barr has been a tyrant's tyrant
toward reefer reason, choosing to embrace blindly the worn-out
reefer-madness propaganda of a bygone era. Now that he has been given the
boot by his constituents, it's likely he'll get an appointment from his
fellow "civil libertarian" Attorney General John Ashcroft, who also was
booted from office by his constituents.

Thousands of real libertarians across the country contributed to the
campaign to oust from Congress this man who would deny the sick and dying a
nontoxic means of improving the quality of their lives.

Mr. Barr will fit right in with the drug-warrior bureaucracy, which is run
by people who profit at the expense of those who dare exercise civil liberty.

RICK L. ROOT

Director for Orange County, Calif., Americans for Safe Access

Westminster, Calif.