“Your Oct. 18 editorial, ‘Only a step from a brink,’ agrees with U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu that the government shutdown was a manufactured crisis. Congratulations on correctly diagnosing the disease that ails this nation.

“However, it’s difficult to cure the patient if you don’t know what caused the disease in the first place. This malady, this cancer on our country, is the Republican Party — and Louisiana Republicans, in particular.”

– Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the chair of the Louisiana Democrat Party, in a letter to the Baton Rouge Advocate.