About a month ago, on June 4 to be exact, I wrote a letter, reproduced below, to the Honorable Gary Ackerman of the United States House of Representatives. Recall that Gary came to Manhasset with little fanfare courtesy of a 2002 redistricting as the Pete King Show left town.

We know from last week's Manhasset Press that Gary "championed" a law that posthumously awarded the Congressional gold medal to Constantino Brumidi. Bravo! In addition, Gary is hard at work championing feel-good legislation that would authorize the Justice Department to sue OPEC members, lambastes those evil oil speculators and a docile CFTC, is opposing greater trade with Colombia despite its successes against FARC, and, no doubt, is considering the sponsoring of legislation to bail out, yet again, those who repeatedly built their homes along the Mississippi flood plain.

In any event, I am still awaiting a response as a gallon of regular gas exceeds $4 a gallon and a barrel of oil exceeds $140. Should Mr. Ackerman ever pause from his busy schedule taking photos, dispensing flags and sponsoring resolutions to reply to me, I will be sure to let you know. Having said that, if our choice is between Gary cutting a ribbon and Gary supporting another bad law or policy, I say give him the scissors.

For those of your readers who wish to follow Gary's efforts, www.house.gov is a good place to start.

Letter to Representative Ackerman follows:

I could not help but notice how you voted on a number of recent legislative initiatives. You voted to override President Bush's veto of the widely criticized farm bill and you voted in favor of the mortgage bailout bill, the suspension of oil deliveries into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the subsidization of Florida homeowners. Whether viewed from the parochial interests of your constituents or from a national perspective, these are votes that are seemingly difficult to justify.

As to the farm bill, when the editorial boards of both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times agree that the law is a pork-laden giveaway to farmers enjoying record crop prices, we have something approaching a national consensus. Since I am not aware that your district includes any farms, what rationale supported your vote?

As to the oil bill, again, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have criticized this bill as an election-year pandering that will have no impact and may do harm. As best as I can tell, the suspension of deliveries has had no discernible impact upon the price of oil. Indeed, as a national priority, are we trying to discourage gas consumption? While I doubt that Manhassetans will ever give up their SUVs, I would like to believe they would be willing to pay for this indulgence with higher prices at the pump. Why did you vote for this? To his credit, at least Senator Obama resisted this easy path.

As to the mortagor relief bill, I suppose I can understand how reasonable people can differ over an almost philosophical issue of whether responsible taxpayers should subsidize those of our fellow homeowners who borrowed well beyond their means in a second mortgage cash-out or speculative frenzy. However, I doubt that very many of your wealthy constituents in the tony hamlets of Great Neck and Manhasset need or would qualify for relief.

You also voted in favor of a bill to subsidize Florida and other homeowners in hurricane-prone coastal areas by re-insuring risks underwritten by Allstate and State Farm. While I would love to own a waterfront home made more affordable through below-market insurance rates paid for by my fellow taxpayers, my present reality is that I own a single, 70-year-old, landlocked home in Manhasset. Mind you, I am not complaining, but how does enabling Floridians to build homes in hurricane alley with taxpayer money help me or our country?

Finally, I am wondering what role, if any, you played in adding earmarks to the defense authorization bill after the House passed the bill through the medium of the conference report.

I am curious about your reasons for voting as you did. I am sure your other constituents are as well.

Vincent J. Coyle, Jr.