LETTERS: LOGIC ABOUT GOP HIGH COURT IS FAULTY

To the editor:

In a front-page story your associate publisher, Sen. Peter Kinder, claimed that the Supreme Court decision regarding the Kansas City desegregation case was a Republican victory. Apparently he reached this conclusion because the five justices in the majority had been appointed by Republican presidents. Of course, this logic ignores the fact that two of the four dissenting justices also were appointed by Republicans.

It also overlooks the fact that is was a Democrat, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, who was relentless in his pursuit of Supreme Court action in this case. Furthermore, as another article noted, Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan also expressed "strong support for the ruling."

To paint this particular issue in broadly stereotyped partisan terms is simply and obviously incorrect. Whether Kinder's conclusion was the result of faulty political analysis or some other unknown motive, it does not serve well the cause of informed political discussion.

RICK ALTHAUS

Cape Girardeau