Bush Should Fear Nancy Reagan’s Ire

[russian33]

http://www.observer.com/pages/conason.asp
by Joe Conason


....Invidious comparisons aside, the Bush team may confront yet another problem if they are tempted to exploit Reagan’s legacy. Her name is Nancy Reagan.

Officials who underestimated or ignored the former First Lady often learned they had made a bad mistake as their heads bounced down the White House driveway. They complained about her astrologer, her designer frocks, her epicene Manhattan friends and her expensive new porcelain. But she maintained an influence over her husband enjoyed by no other adviser.

The persona she projected in those days may not always have seemed attractive, but she usually exercised her extraordinary power in ways beneficial to her husband and, more importantly, to her country. Bright and tough, she showed little patience for the useless time-servers and right-wing extremists who had survived the transition from California. Despite her upbringing in a very conservative family, she was a political moderate in the Reagan milieu. Last year, she sensibly quashed the right-wing enthusiasm for replacing F.D.R.’s profile on the dime with her that of husband.

[ronnykmarshall]

1. Great article

Nancy isn't going to let W ride on the death of her husband.

[physioex]

2. She also came out for stem cell research...EOM

[carolinayellowdog]

3. My dream: Nancy, Patti and Ron endorse Kerry

Nancy won my respect when she saved Virginians and the nation from Oliver North, who appeared likely to defeat Robb in 1994 before Nancy said he was no hero in her eyes but a liar.

[Snellius]

6. Ron Jr. may be the big benefiary of the royal Reagan name

He and Patti, who both opposed their father's politics, have always been pretty cool.

[playahata1]

9. Tell us more about Nancy's history with Ollie.

How did HE get on her wrong side?

[lastliberalintexas]

4. I doubt it

Money still trumps all for diehard repubs.

After all, Sarah Brady disagrees with them on an issue of great importance to her, but that hasn't kept her from still supporting them. Nancy Reagan will be no different.

[russian33]

5. I don't know...

..living with her husband's disease for 10 years, and when the government could possibly help in some way (stem cell research), getting the shaft...might just do the trick

[lastliberalintexas]

7. And Sarah Brady

has lived with her husband in a quasi-vegetative state for 20 years. It hasn't changed her politics, and I doubt this changes Nancy Reagan's either.

Yes, she'll lobby hard for stem cell research, but I doubt she would do anything to prevent the elction of a repub. Kind of like the Log Cabin Repubs- doesn't make any sense, that's just the way it is.

[calimary]

11. But with GREAT respect to Sarah Brady, she's no Nancy Reagan.

Nancy Reagan is the widow of the Great White Saint.

She will now be even further elevated in the minds of ALL America, not just the right wing (which now will be MOST hesitant to criticize her for her stem-cell stand - superficial assholes, MANY of them already realize it'll only make them look bad).

She DID indeed have "pillow talk power," and went up against many big guys, including the once-seemingly invincible egotistical blowhard Donald Regan. She was a teensy little lady in physical stature, but she packed a bigger punch than Mohammed Ali. She had an ameliorating effect on some of her husband's more radical opinions - for example, he never pressed all that hard for Roe V Wade to be overturned. Reason? She was pro-choice and probably reminded him in a very silky, subtle way. She was like the CIA. You crossed her, or her husband, at your peril. And now she's the Grieving Widow. A latter-day Jackie. And people can't help but embrace her. ESPECIALLY in OUR generation. How many of us baby-boomers now have to contend with an aging relative or parent who is also afflicted with Alzheimers, or some other really ICKY disease that takes 'em down long, slow, and hard? How many of us will be sitting by some elderly loved one's bedside, unable to do anything but watch them die? We can all relate.

I'm just about as liberal as they come, and I resented her "just say no" crap and her Marie Antoinette-Lite image. But I'm holding Nancy Reagan closely in my heart and in my prayers. She's earned it. Especially recently, with her increasing fearlessness against the ghouls who'd make a big PR splash and a lot of hay and probably also a lot of money off her husband's memory. All that crap about putting him on our money and Mt. Rushmore ad nauseam. More power to her! When her time comes, she will have gone out having done some REAL good, and perhaps, having atoned for some of her husband's sins of neglect. She's uniquely positioned to have an impact on this issue, and she should be applauded for her willingness to take a stand, politics be damned.

The knuckle-draggers and Bible-thumpers who would DARE to slam her now because she's taking a "pro-baby-killer" stand can just go fuck themselves.

I salute her. She's won me over.

[chookie]

8. Supporting Bush means betraying Reagan

They're all jumping on the Reagan bandwagon -- YET they won't do the most obvious thing to do something great in his name -- to eradicate the disease that destroyed him. Fucking hypocrites!

It's all bullshit. His Chimperial Highness has been trying to hijack the position of Holy Icon of the GOP for 3 years -- he hasn't as much as mentioned Ronald Reagan in his term of office.It's a little too late to start now.

Nancy holds the trump card. She can bring these bastards down. She can get them to back down on stem cell ban. She'll play it, too. Nancy has a lot of shit on these guys -- the ones who almost brought her husband's administration down as they took advantage of his illness and ran black ops out of the Oval Office. They operated out of the shadows then, although they're out in the open now....

[Norquist Nemesis]

10. Cat fight!

Isn't that why Laura was sent out?

Give Nancy a few days to grieve and gather some strength. She'll be behind the scenes in full force. They ain't seen nothin' yet!

[playahata1]

12. MICHAEL J. FOX is a DEMOCRAT?

All these years I thought he'd played the Alex Keaton Yuppie Republican role off-screen as well as on.