To the editor:

Let’s all hope that the Bush administration’s intelligence of foreign affairs is improving now, and that it’s going to be a lot better henceforth than the Republican Party’s intelligence of domestic political affairs.

For example, several days ago my wife received from the Republican Party’s Presidential Task Force a handsome certificate of “Platinum Member” status in that organization.

“You were hand-picked … as a representative of Lawrence,” my wife was told, “because of your long history of helping Republican candidates and especially your strong support for President George W. Bush — not just recently, but since the early days of his 2000 campaign.”

Hold on there! My wife is independent; and as far as I’m aware hasn’t supported the GOP, in any way, since her pre-franchise days skipping rope, playing hopscotch, and scooping up jacks from a sidewalk.

Where did the GOP get the idea that she’s a Republican? From the same kind of sources, perhaps, that Bush’s people obtained their “intelligence” that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy weapons of mass destruction material from Niger.

Let’s show a bit of class, fellas. There are lots of ways to fill the GOP’s campaign chest without trashing the good name of my wife and other members of our present administration’s loyal opposition.

John De Mott,

Lawrence