Random commentary and senseless acts of blogging.

The first Republican president once said, "While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement.
-Ronald Reagan

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Saint Ronald

William Bennett recently spoke as follows on Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Let me put you in a position of being a script reader. Early scripts of a new CBS miniseries on the Ronald Reagan family, Nancy and Ronald Reagan, obtained by “The New York Times.”
You have one scene where Reagan is confronted by his wife, Nancy, about dealing with the disease AIDS, to which the actor playing Reagan supposedly replies-apparently he really did in the movie-”They that live in sin shall die in sin.”
In another exchange, Reagan’s Hollywood agent, Lew Wasserman, who is deceased now, that’s why he is in this movie, because he can’t sue. “People know you’re an informer for the blacklist,” he says to his client, Reagan. And Reagan says, “I’ve never called anybody a Commie who isn’t a Commie.”
BENNETT: Yes.
MATTHEWS: This is supposed to be the idiom of Ronald Reagan, our recent president.
BENNETT: Shameful. You know, there they go again. Shame on them. I mean, when does it stop? I mean...
MATTHEWS: Did you ever hear him say “Commie?”
BENNETT: Never heard him say anything like that.
MATTHEWS: Did you ever hear him say anything homophobic?
BENNETT: Never heard him say anything that would be of any value...
MATTHEWS: Did you ever hear him say that gay people deserve what they get if they get HIV?
BENNETT: No, no, no. Never heard him say anything that would be any value to any liberal trying to do him in ever. Always kind, always generous.

Jerry Falwell is equally shocked by the AIDS quote:

Anyone who ever knew President Reagan knows that such language would never emanate from this heroic man. While Reagan detractors enjoy portraying him as a bumbling and unfeeling man, the truth is he was a compassionate and respectful leader who would be taken aback by such language. (In fact, not even a wild-eyed religious radical like me has ever made such a blatantly horrific statement.)

In fact, religious radical and former Reagan Communications Director Pat Buchanan has said far worse, but that's another subject. At the moment, it might be appropriate to remind Messrs Falwell and Bennett, who may have been busy playing slots and fleecing believers at the time, of this memorable incident from Mr Reagan's career:

The [Patty Hearst] abduction occurred in February 1974. One of the SLA's demands was a free food program. Patty's father, Randolph Hearst, publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, arranged for such a project in Oakland. Governor Ronald Reagan responded to the long line of people waiting for free food: "I hope they all get botulism."

And let us not forget Ronald Reagan'splan, so wise and compassionate, for dealing with dissent:

If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement.

"Why would Reagan be portrayed as a death-wisher? " cries an anguished Brent Bozell. Perhaps because that's what he was.

  posted by Alex at 1:29 PM