EDITOR,

It is illuminating that, in the middle of a campaign that has Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, raising and spending more money that he has ever had to do, his attack dogs, like letter-writer Benjamin Rose, spend so much effort trying to bring down an American hero like former Congressman Pete McCloskey.

Rose complains about McCloskey and his purported anti-Israel positions while there is no single American outside of government who has done more to work for brokering a just peace in the Middle East than McCloskey.

If Rose’s concern is that there is an attack on Israel’s right to exist, that is true. Just listen to the rhetoric coming out of Iran. But Rose knows, because he heard it from McCloskey as reported in the Tracy Press, that McCloskey was the one who convinced Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat to sign on to U.N. Resolution 242 that recognized Israel’s right to exist.

This type of mud-slinging politics is typical of Pombo. Remember, it was an associate of Pombo and his campaign consultant, Wayne Johnson, who tried to bring down state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi in 1993, after Pombo had just beaten Patti Garamendi in his first congressional election. Pombo is not satisfied with just defeating an opponent in a fair fight, he digs around and continues to punish or bury that opponent.

Just like that case, he gets some henchman to do his dirty work. And just like that case, there is a lot of rumor but very little substance to back it up.

I wish Pombo were as upright as McCloskey, but he always sends Rose to spread his dirt.

Wes Rolley, Morgan Hill