Steve Malzberg
Monday, June 7, 2004

--President Ronald Reagan.. February 3, 1994 at the RNC Gala (basicquotations.com)

With the passing of former President Ronald Reagan come the heartfelt words, sentiments and tributes from those who truly admired the man. But don't think for a minute that everyone who sings Mr. Reagan's praises really means it.

If you listen carefully you can hear the past words and true feelings of some, as their warm tribute in death becomes unraveled and tangled with the reality of what they thought of President Reagan when he was alive.

Senator John Kerry issued a statement which says in part, "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate." Almost believable if he would have stopped there, but he didn't.

"He was the voice of America in good times and in grief...Today, from California to Maine - from sea to shining sea - Americans will bow their heads in prayer and gratitude that President Reagan left such an indelible stamp on the nation he loved."

It's too bad that a check of the record shows that Senator Kerry apparently didn't care much for the 'Reagan Stamp' while it was being used.

According to a recent story on NewsMax.com by Dave Eberhart, "Kerry was generally a thorn in the popular former president's side." Eberhart points to Reagan's air strike on Libya in April of 1986, which reportedly almost got Moammar Gadhafi himself.

It was in retaliation for Libya's role in a terrorist attack in Germany that killed an American soldier and wounded 51 in a disco. Kerry had a problem with the method of striking back.

In a letter, Kerry said, "It is obvious that our response was not proportional to the disco bombing...there are numerous other actions we can take, in concert with our allies, to bring significant pressure to bear on countries supporting and harboring terrorists."

The good Senator was also, not surprisingly, against Reagan's defense budget, while at the same time underestimating the threat of the Soviet Union. Eberhart pulls up some Kerry campaign literature from 1984. "We are continuing a defense buildup that is consuming our resources with weapons systems that we don't need and can't use.

"The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military and a presumed 'window of vulnerability' which we now know not to exist."

He claimed that Congress lacked the moral courage to challenge the Reagan requests on defense and called some of those requests, "wasteful, useless and dangerous." Kerry also claimed that the buildup of our defense made Americans feel "more threatened by the prospect of war, not less so." (Wow, he hasn't changed one bit has he?)

Yes, Kerry would have cut some $50 billion from the Reagan defense budget according to Eberhart, while gutting the Strategic defense Initiative (Star Wars) altogether.

And the man who would be our president was against Reagan every step of the way when it came to our fight against communism in Grenada, (he called our invasion there a bully's show of force) El Salvador and Nicaragua.

So what exactly was it about that 'indelible Reagan stamp' that Kerry admired so much?

And what was it that Bill and Hillary Clinton admired so much in Ronald Reagan? Their statement read, "He personified the indomitable optimism of the American people...We will always remember his tremendous capacity to inspire and comfort us in times of tragedy, as he did after the loss of the space shuttle Challenger. Now he too has 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of G-d,' and we can rest assured that, as joyous a place as Heaven is, his wit and sunny disposition are making it an even brighter place to be."

Sounds great. It's too bad that Hillary reportedly has had some pretty nasty things to say in reference to President Reagan in the past.

According to the book Hillary's Scheme by NewsMax.com's Carl Limbacher, one time Clinton bodyguard L.D. Brown, a former Arkansas State Trooper, says that in the 1980's Bill Clinton actually did admire Reagan, and got along well with Vice President Bush. But not Hillary. According to Brown's 1997 book, "Crossfire: A Witness in the Clinton Investigation," the Clintons had been invited to a party at Bush's estate in Kennebunkport.

"Hillary flatly refused to go," says Brown in his book. Brown then quotes Hillary as saying, "F---him Bill. He's Reagan's G--D---Vice President."

In a separate incident, Brown says he showed Hillary a picture that he had taken with Nancy Reagan. Clinton allegedly told him that he should burn it. Brown also writes in his book that during a trip to D.C. in the 1980's, he recalls taking a taxi with Hillary and young Chelsea Clinton from the airport. Passing the White House, Chelsea wanted to get a closer look, but her mom shot back, "..we'll take a tour when someone decent lives there."

Only one former president has refused to issue a formal statement on the passing of the 40th man to hold the office. Number 39, Jimmy Carter told reporters on Sunday that it was a sad day for America and that his successor, "..was a formidable political campaigner who provided an inspirational voice to America when our people were searching for a clear message of hope and confidence."

Maybe it's best that Carter refrained from the formality. According to "The Real Jimmy Carter," written by Steven F. Haywood, the outgoing president couldn't hide his distaste for the man who would replace him.

"Carter appeared obsessed by his defeat at the hands of the former actor. He told the historian Douglas Brinkley in 1995 that "allowing Ronald Reagan to become president was by far my biggest failure in office."

Brinkley writes in his book on Carter, "The Unfinished Presidency," that, "Everything Reagan did drove Jimmy Carter crazy." On the 1986 Iran-Contra scandal, Carter told Brinkley that it showed, "Reagan was capable of just about anything underhanded."

Haywood notes that Carter (like John Kerry) criticized Reagan's retaliatory bombing of Libya in 1986, calling it a "serious mistake." And he says that in 1987 Carter did something no other former president has ever done. He sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

While it's important and appropriate to mourn the death and celebrate the life of the greatest president in my lifetime, it's also necessary to remember that there are those jumping on the bandwagon, who never really had any use for Ronald Reagan or the greatness that he stands for.

"It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad, and the collapse of imperial communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile because they just might wind up lowering our flag."

--Ronald Reagan February 3, 1994 at the RNC Gala

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