Liz had a letter to the editor published this morning in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Here's what she wrote:

E.J. Dionne has it right in his Oct. 22 column: The imperial presidency is back.

On my way to work recently, I drove through block after block of boarded up, crumbling houses. Parts of our city look as though they have been bombed out.

Our schools are closing. Our friends have no health insurance. The Institute for America's Future recently calculated that if we were to spend $20.3 billion on reconstruction in the United States (an amount equivalent to what we are spending in Iraq), Missouri would have an additional $379.5 million to help itself rebuild.

Bush says he doesn't want to hear any debate on his well-funded plan to pay for schools and roads and health care in Iraq. He insists tax cuts for his wealthy friends are more important than reducing our national debt.

I keep thinking: The emperor has no clothes.

Liz Smith Currie
Webster Groves