(MONEY Magazine) – I would like to set the record straight about MONEY managing editor Frank Lalli's hatchet job on Sen. Dole and his wife in your August Editor's Notes. Contrary to what readers of MONEY may have been led to believe, Sen. Dole continues to work. Therefore: 1) He does not now receive a pension; 2) There is no certainty he will ever receive a pension in the future; 3) Sen. Dole now receives his salary, interest income and compensation (not pension) for severe combat wounds sustained in World War II -- that is the extent of his income. Regrettably missing from Mr. Lalli's barrage are some important facts. Universal Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) were initiated under Sen. Dole's chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee. When compelling evidence demonstrated that IRAs were not an effective savings vehicle, tax deductibility of IRAs was eliminated by Congress for upper-income Americans in exchange for the far greater benefit of lower rates for all Americans -- the Treasury could not afford both. Mr. Lalli makes no mention of the fact that IRA contributions are still fully deductible for 73% of all American | taxpayers. Mr. Lalli rejected every bit of information provided by this office and bases his attack on Sen. Dole on an unverified, out-of-context quotation from another publication. Also, he omits the fact that Elizabeth Dole refused to take a penny in salary during her entire first year as the president of the American Red Cross. Meanwhile, much to MONEY's delight, some members of Congress are fighting to restore IRAs for the wealthiest of Americans. Walt Riker Press secretary to Sen. Bob Dole Washington, D.C.

MONEY did not state nor imply that the Doles currently collect pensions. We reported the fact that they stand to collect $4 million in their retirement years, around 20 times as much as typical private pensioners get. We also documented and verified the direct quote attributed to Sen. Dole in the Congressional Record and used it entirely in context; despite our repeated requests, the senator declined to speak with MONEY. And finally, when legislators adopted Dole's double-dip logic and rescinded the fully deductible IRA, more than 50% of the savers using IRAs -- 13 million people -- got penalized.

I consider myself a staunch conservative, and Dole has always been identified as a conservative, but obviously he is quite liberal when it comes to lining his own pockets. S.T. Hendricks Metairie, La.

Here is an example of people who used their position in government to feather their nest. Thomas J. Regan Denver