Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to begin regulating poisonous gases which are being intruded into the atmosphere. I hope they mean it. And I hope they begin in their own back yard, by regulating the poisonous gases being emitted by congressmen such as Senator Harry Reid.

Senator Reid yesterday made the most outrageous comparison between those who are holding the line against health care reform and those who opposed the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. This kind of rhetoric is beyond hyperbole; it is absurd, sophomoric, and mean. The Senator from Nevada will not apologize for his comment; indeed, in a later press conference, he stood adamantly by it.

Either Senator Reid is an unthinking buffoon or simply a jerk. Either way, he exemplifies the kind of rhetoric we are hearing more of these days from the nation's capital - empty of substance, meant to inflame or embarrassment, convenient and cruel, in a word, stupid. This is the kind of rhetoric we have often heard from certain segments of the political right, including certain Christian voices, and which those on the left routinely decry and denounce.

So let's see if the EPA really means it. Before they go fining, taxing, or shutting down various industries, or denying permits and licenses to others, the EPA should put a muzzle on the Harry Reids of Washington. Because if they can smell the foul odor and posionous content of such political gas in their own back yards, how could we possibly expect them to do any better with the nation's economy?

T. M. Moore