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The Gipper Notes the Pest in His Shadow
He was, no doubt, fully aware of just how ignoble the pest and how massive the shadow.
On occasion, I will pull my copy of The Reagan Diaries from the shelf and turn to whatever day and month it happens to be to see what Mr. Reagan had going on in his world at this point in his presidency (relative to Mr. Trump’s). It just so happened that today’s entry referenced a familiar name:
Tuesday, March 6 [1984]
This modern age! Spend half a day in the office then by mid afternoon I was addressing the Nat. Assn. of Evangelicals in Columbus Ohio, then at Dinner in N.Y., a Repub. $1000 a ticket fundraiser & went to bed in the W.H.
Before flying to Columbus, met with Sens. Bill Cohen & Joe Biden. They’ve been to Russia & are all wrapped up in “Arms Reduction.” I suspect that at least one of them (J.B.) doesn’t believe I’m sincere about wanting them. We had an N.S.C. meeting & then I was off on A.F.1. The Evangelicals were most warm & cordial. I had 4 standing ovations. The group in N.Y. was also receptive. I met Nancy in N.Y. & we came back to Wash. together.
Russia! Looks like we are getting yet another Manchurian Candidate from the D Team. I wonder what other stops Joe made on that trip. (I also wonder if that is the same trip on which Kennedy offered up a little treason to the Ruskies. If so, what did Joe know and when did he know it?)
Anyway, this sent me to the index in search of other references to Feeble Joe. There were two more substantive notes. (I will shorten them to just the material of interest.) The next chronologically was:
Wednesday, July 30 [1986]
Our staff meetings were a little more meaty than usual what with S. Africa, Congress stirring about sanctions etc. To add to that the Sen. Has opened the hearing on my appt. of Rehnquist to be Chief Justice. The 1st meeting was last evening—highlighted by vitriolic attacks on TV by Sens. Kennedy, Metzenbaum & Biden. They really are a lynch mob. …
There you see Joe’s despicable history regarding judges in its first trimester. Reagan called it right…and surely the Bulwark crowd would have wet their panties over such insensitive language.
And lastly:
Monday, June 15 [1987]
1st meeting with Ken D. & the V.P.—Howard late getting back from Tennessee. Some talk about Sen. Biden—now cand. for Pres. I saw him on CNN last night speaking to the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard U. He’s smooth but pure demogog—out to save Am. from the Reagan Doctrine. …
Other than not being quite so smooth anymore, not much has changed.
Clearly, Mr. Biden has been transparently anti-Reagan since Reagan ruled the land. (And he’s a Russian plant to boot.) No real Reagan Republican would ever feign even reluctant support for placing Joe in The Gipper’s Office…especially over a registered Republican doing conservative works for four more years. If one tells you he does, he is a fraud and a liar…or just another friendly neighborhood stool pigeon. (Friendly recommendation: Stop feeding the stool pigeons.)
Good day.
P.S. Just for a little bit of extra history in Reagan’s words, I will add the final paragraph from that June 15 entry:
A meeting with bipartisan Cong. Leaders—Byrd, Jim Wright, Bob Michel, Bill Armstrong etc. We talked mainly about the budget & the Dems of course took no blame for the deficit. I sort of corrected them on that with the 50 years history of deficit spending under Dem. control.
Greatness.
Published in General
Thanks for the reminder of what a great President we had in Ronald Reagan.
I think of the eleven politicians Reagan mentions in the above quotes, Biden is the only one still alive. He really is old…..
And still a demagogue, albeit a more confused and senile one.
Reagan warning us about demagogues like Biden? What ever shall Gary do?
Thank you very much for this. I didn’t know about that book, so it will go on my Kindle. I read “Reagan in his own words” a while back and it is a real antidote to the media reporting about how he was just a “dumb actor”
Or as an antidote to people that believe he suffered from Alzheimers while in office. The first thing my late mother lost after her diagnosis was her ability to write.
“Russian plant” isn’t justified, but there’s no question that “demagogue” is richly deserved. Wonder if he’ll give the, “they’ll put y’all back in chains” routine another airing during the debates.
Just joking (mostly)…but I do have more credible evidence here than Mueller ever had.
Well he was a generation younger than most of them.
My favorite Reagan diary entry: