Dear John,
Thanks so much for your letter of July 25. It's certainly a special day in the "Ribaz" household when a "PERSONAL - URGENT" letter with a presorted postage stamp shows up in the mailbox, and a letter dunning us for a contribution no less. It's a privilege to be on your mailing list.
This being our first letter from you, we were surprised that so much of it focused on your opponent and not you. Indeed, the parts warning that your opponent is "plotting to spend and do whatever it takes to bring (your) campaign down" and cautioning that you need to be "ready to counter the distortions, innuendoes and accusations" seemed, well, ironic in light of your campaign's activities.
I mean really John, do you think that your opponent "would rather lose a war than lose a campaign" or, as you write in your letter, that he "will surrender to Al Qaeda in Iraq?" Isn't there an air of doing "whatever it takes" when you run an ad accusing your opponent of raising gas prices by supporting the very drilling policy that you advocated in your 2000 campaign, a policy that President Bush's Department of Energy says won't produce any additional oil for a decade and even then won't affect gas prices by more than a few pennies? Or how about your more recent ad, falsely accusing your opponent of snubbing wounded veterans? Or more sleazy yet, the news that you had an ad script accusing him of using the troops as a prop if he did visit?
You write that you "intend to fight as hard as (you) can," and the recent ads are certainly evidence of that. But I hope that you can also see how a set of damned if you do, damned if you don't ads seem like a below-the-belt punch.
As you've probably guessed by now, the "Ribaz" household won't be sending the suggested minimum campaign contribution of $35. Please don't "whine" at this negative economic outcome. If it's any consolation, we won't be asking for your cheapo gas tax holiday either. By our book, that makes us about even.
We hope that you will continue to write often, but we also hope that future letters and ads will be a bit more positive.
Warmly,
The Ribazes
