Editorial
The Iraq obsession
The Pentagon's real military leaders are warning that a war to overthrow Saddam Hussein would be more difficult than the armchair generals claim.

Editorial notebook: Robert Friedman
The grapefruit of wrath
The rest of the country now gawks at Florida the way it used to gawk at California: with dread, fascination and there-but-for-the-grace-of-God gratitude for living at a safe remove from all the accumulating strangeness, sleaze and hazards to our health.

Letters
Convention would be boon to bay area
As you know, Tampa-St. Petersburg is involved in the bidding to host the 2004 Republican National Convention. Bidding on and winning convention business is a highly competitive endeavor. And at a time when the dwindling economy makes every piece of new business an important contributor to the local bottom line, our success becomes even more important.

Adam C. Smith
Let the races begin
Democrats may have lost some of their fury, but there is still hope for an engaging campaign season.

Martin Dyckman
Let the races begin
Qualifying has closed for Florida elections, and, in far too many races, so have the voters' options. Improved election machinery doesn't mean much when a candidate, unopposed, is elected without a vote.

Bill Maxwell
William Luther Pierce's legacy of evil will live on
Organized American hate has lost its greatest hero ever.

Robyn E. Blumner
Visit with Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs illustrated our division
CAIRO, Egypt -- Have you ever had a conversation with a group of people with whom you shared no common perspective? Not only do you disagree with their view of how things are and should be, but as they speak you realize you share a totally different view of history.

Philip Gailey
Corporate contributions tarnish the best of them
It's hard to be virtuous when you can't stay away from the bordello. That's the problem Democrats have in trying to seize the political high ground on the influence of corporate money on American politics. They have been almost as compromised by corporate dollars as the Republicans. The main difference is that Republicans enter the corporate money bordellos through the front door, while the Democrats sneak in and out of the back door.