Concerning The Herald's endorsement criteria for Jason Overstreet: Would you have made the same comment about an author of the Federalist Papers? "We find that President Madison's pamphlet-waving zeal for the Constitution to be an over-the-top deterrent to a functioning government." Madison's zeal helped gain radification of our Constitution, and created a government that has fundtioned for 250 years.

Concerning your endorsement criteria for John Koster: "We find Koster's resolute devotion to conservative causes to be a detriment to the compromise necessary for progress in Congress." When the Continental Congress replaced the weak Articles of Confederacy with our Constitution, Jefferson was resolute the Bill of Rights be added. Was his "resolute devotion to conservative causes a detriment to the compromise necessary for progress in Congress"? After 85 years of compromises should Lincoln have been less resolute and allowed slavery to expand? "Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism (liberty and unalienable rights), the rule of law and the Christian religion, and a defense of Western civilization from the challenges of modernist culture and totalitarian governments." (Wikepedia) Which of these constants should Koster compromise? How far should we progress away from them?

Lorraine Newman

Bellingham