In his Sept. 12 column in the Times, Mr. Nichols decried what he perceived to be a lack of tolerance when some fans were upset with two Seahawk players who gave a numbered jersey to Bush. In the same article, Nichols went on to call Rep. McDermott "treasonous" and to call Jane Fonda "Hanoi Jane." Why is it OK for Nichols to be intolerant of people, but wrong for folks of alternate political persuasion to express their views?

Nichols quotes Mack Strong as saying, "Any time you have a world leader come to your city, you should welcome him whether you like the person or not." Perhaps Strong and Nichols are not aware that Bush is not a world leader. He stands virtually alone in the civilized world with no support. And at home, less than 1/3 of Americans approve of his leadership, and of course the majority of Americans did not elect him in the first place.

Nichols also decries "constant vilification of conservative ideas...." Actually, Mr. Nichols, most Americans are OK with traditional conservative ideas, such as preservation of national parkland and control over the power of large corporations (T. Roosevelt), concern over the political power of the "Military Industrial Complex" (Eisenhower), the need to talk to your enemies, (Nixon in China), bringing opposing points of view into a bi-partisan executive (Lincoln), the need for clean, corruption-free government, etc.

No, it is when George Bush departed from traditional conservative principles, he brought us the most corrupt government in the history of the country, has outed CIA agents, brought the country into a totally illegal war through lying and manipulation of the truth, spied illegally on our citizens, created a record treasury deficit for our grandkids to pay back. Personally, I think it was the right thing for citizens to express outrage at the presentation of a jersey to a person who has committed such "High Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Tom Spohn

Burien