Letter: GOP leadership has turned party upside down

Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007 | 7:47 a.m.

What happened to the party of Lincoln? What happened to the party of Eisenhower, and what happened to the party of Ford? And, above all, what happened to the conservatives of the Republican Party?

I was born, raised and lived the first 30 years of my life as a conservative. When I think of people like Alex P. Keaton on "Family Ties" - with his briefcase, talking of tax breaks, junk bonds and mergers and acquisitions - I used to think of frugal and responsible people like my parents, always trying to do the right thing.

Now as I listen to the news and read the newspapers, the conservatives are cast rightly in a more sinister light. Scandals, lies , mass deception and hypocrisy are the rule of the day. It is hard to believe that so many of us are fooled by these people.

Today we have the gutter language of such conservative stalwarts as Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly as the voices of conservatism, and the lies and actions of the scandal-prone Bush and Cheney administration as the face of conservatism and, unfortunately, the face of this great country of ours. Here is wishing that the once noble and principled GOP R.I.P.

Joe Beltran, North Las Vegas