Kudos from the parallel universe
Here's an odd fact: I graduated from Hope College in Holland, Mich., in 1975, the same year that House Intelligence Committee chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Michigan, graduated from my old school. But wait--it gets weirder. He and I were both political science majors, one of the smaller departments on campus. And...I don't have a clue who he was. We're talking a college at that time of 2,200 students and a political science department in which perhaps 20-30 members of each class were majors. It's not hard to get noticed under those circumstances, but Hoekstra managed to keep studiously under the campus radar.
This isn't a case of the Big Man on Campus, i.e., the student body president, going into politics later in life and running for Congress. I was active on the Hope College Anchor, the student newspaper. I knew a lot of people and knew of a lot more, but not him. What's more, I can't find anyone else who really remembers him. I asked around at the 25th reunion, at which he spoke. Nah. In contrast, consider Robert Shuller, Jr., son of Rev. Robert Shuller and now successor to his father at the Crystal Cathedral and Hour of Power TV show. He was also in my class, and likewise kept a low profile. Yet people knew he was around. Hoekstra was all but invisible. He did appear once in the Hope College yearbook, in the "Other Students" section, but that's the only evidence of him I was able to find.
So my theory, naturally, is that a parallel universe existed at Hope College at that time. I was in one, and Hoekstra and the "Other Students" were in the other. All of which makes a good segue to the real topic of this post, which is Hoekstra's angry letter to George W. Bush complaining about secret intelligence gathering programs that appear to be illegal and which are separate and beyond those already disclosed by the New York Times and others.
I have to say, I didn't see this coming. Hoekstra seemed like a Bush true believer. When the story first broke about the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on the phone calls of American citizens, Hoekstra rushed to defend Bush. At the time, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Holland Sentinel, his hometown paper and my former hometown paper. It was published, and maybe it had some impact. Read it and be the judge:
To the Editor:
Having listened to Rep. Pete Hoekstra this morning on National Public Radio defend the Bush Administration's decision to violate the law and eavesdrop on Americans without court approval, this Holland native has these questions:
Is there anything George W. Bush could do that Rep. Hoekstra would not rush to defend?
And does he want to be remembered as a bitter-end defender of Bush as he drives at breakneck speed down the Nixon Road, or does he want to be remembered as a statesman who put the public interest above the interests of his party?
David DeKok,
Harrisburg, Pa.
Well, I got my answer, but it wasn't the one I expected. Congratulations! Pete, I suspect you'll be leaving the Bush universe soon and returning to the parallel universe in which I and most Americans reside. Welcome back. I guess our professors Al Vanderbush and Bob Elder must have had an impact on you after all. Jack Holmes will forgive you eventually. Even when you lose your chairmanship after the Democrats take back the House this November, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing and avoided becoming Bush roadkill.