Newt Gingrich

I loved the column by your newest humorist, Cal Thomas (April 23). He said that Newt Gingrich might be burned out but that wouldn’t make any difference to the “revolution.” Besides, Gingrich could be compared to a comet, a “dying star” making quite a show as it “streaks” across the sky.

Comets aren’t dying stars nor do they streak, but when you’re writing such funny stuff who cares? Thomas might have something with his hilarious simile, though. Astronomers say that a comet is a “dirty snowball” and a star can be described as a “ball of hot gas.”

DAVID J. SIMMONS

Ridgecrest

* On Jan. 2, Michael and Arianna Huffington told The Times that Republicans need to work on their message “to do better at capturing the moral high ground.” They complained that President Clinton was in better command over “words like compassion.”

Arianna Huffington’s recent words sound more like those of a Democrat than of a Republican. In her castigation of Gingrich (Column Right, April 28), Mrs. Huffington offers, “It is morally irresponsible for the party that wants to end failed social programs not to address what will replace them.”

With Republicans in the “Doledrums,” I doubt that her conservative cohorts will accept this eloquent call to action. What then are the Huffingtons to do to gain respect--become Democrats?

BARRY S. NAIDITCH