They're not socialists, they're progressives!

Dear Speaker Newt,

I hear you're worried about socialists infiltrating the editorial boards of the nation's newspapers. So am I. I don't think there are enough of them out there.

I'm not even sure there are enough of them on our editorial board at The Capital Times, the progressive/liberal voice in the People's Republic of Madison. But by your definition, we'd probably fill the bill.

We're skeptical of capital gains tax cuts. That seems to be the heart of your definition of socialism. We think the members of society, acting through their governing institutions, have an obligation to help out each other. We think those same governing institutions have a duty to use their clout to look out for the health and safety of the citizens - a clout that can be a useful balance to the profit imperative that can sometimes cause corporations to cut corners.

We think there are some services government can actually do a better job of providing than the private sector. Consider the socialistic interstate highway system, for instance.

You may find this kind of thought "socialistic" but our readers know it to be rooted in the Progressive movement that shaped politics in the Midwest back at the turn of the century, when the captains of industry and their political lackeys made sure the government looked out for their interests first. (You know how that works, don't you, Newt?)

My worry is not that too many of us progressives or liberals or socialists haunt the editorial board rooms of American journalism. To my taste, there are too few.

There's surely no shortage of conservative views out there. Have you had a chance to listen to Rush lately? To Gordon Liddy? Have you read the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal? The Manchester Union-Leader? Those aren't exactly bastions of socialism.

Why, even here in Wisconsin, one of the few liberal voices among the state's papers, the Milwaukee Journal, just disappeared into a newly merged Journal Sentinel, with a much more conservative editorial philosophy. That leaves us at The Capital Times as the last editorial bastion of Progressivism in the state. While you probably don't lament that, it's hardly evidence of the socialist takeover of the editorial pages of this country.

But I suspect your definition of "socialist" is so broad that it includes anyone who opposes your politics and your policies. There seems to be a growing number of those types not only in editorial conference rooms, but also in homes and workplaces across the nation. Maybe you think by using a scare word like "socialist," you can mute their dissent.

Let me offer you a bit of advice from a state that has had experience with a politician who used scare words. (His name was Joe McCarthy.) They work for a while, but eventually they come back to haunt the user.

Phil Haslanger Editorial Page Editor The Capital Times, Madison, Wis.