the reagans
the reagans at the 1960 screen actors guild annual membership meeting. (corbis )
urltoken - rnc asks to review' the reagans' - oct. 31, 2003
the poster for hellcats of the navy, the feature film which co - starred the reagans .
there are no critic reviews yet for the reagans. keep checking rotten tomatoes for updates !
james brolin as president ronald reagan poses on the set of cbs'
the reagans .
actor james brolin as president ronald reagan poses on the set of cbs'
the reagans .
republicans have expressed concern that the miniseries, titled
the reagans ,
may inaccurately portray the couple .
the reagans churned out their own biographies of themselves, or of what they imagined themselves to be .
quick fyi for those of you awaiting an announcement concerning the reagans. due to a few minor delays that will be explained we have decided to wait an additional day to announce some exciting information concerning the future of the reagans
john sears, the reagan campaign manager in 1976, told kelley that both the reagans were obsessed with illusions and appearances .
the reagans are headed up the eastcoast for the 2017
score tour
show dates and vip package details will be posted february 24th .
there is no reason showtime' s version of'' the reagans'' could not have been broadcast on cbs earlier this month .
when cbs announced that it would not air its miniseries
the reagans ,
the network denied that it was caving in to conservative protests. instead, its statement declared that the show it had produced
does not present a balanced portrayal of the reagans for cbs and its audience .
as the guardian recounted in a history of the reagans’ dark legacy on hiv, the reagan administration long refused to take seriously growing concerns in the lgbt community about the disease .
gillespie said the miniseries might have omissions, distortions and exaggerations that could cause americans to
come away with a misunderstanding of the reagans and the reagan administration .
mounting pressure and criticism from conservatives has prompted cbs to dump
the reagans ,
the network' s prime - time miniseries on former president ronald reagan .
big announcement concerning some very cool information tomorrow august 22 i think all fans of the reagans will be highly interested, check back tomorrow for complete details .
dr marcus conant, a clinical professor of dermatology emeritus at uc san francisco and one of the first physicians to diagnose and treat aids, recalled the reagans’ dismissal of his concerns .
the new york times, citing unidentified people close to the production of
the reagans ,
reported that cbs executives had previously reviewed the script and viewed the miniseries without raising any objections to the content .
when it canceled'' the reagans,'' cbs said it was not responding to pressure, but making a'' moral call.'' but the three - hour version on showtime does little to support the network' s claim.'' the reagans'' may not be a cinematic masterpiece, but it is hardly an act of treason .
“i don’t know how much of the moral majority stuff the reagans believed, ” bunch said “but they didn’t fight it … that brand of homophobia lasted because ronald and nancy reagan enabled it. ”
her comments in the interview flew in the face of how many longtime gay rights activists view the reagans – as a couple who deliberately turned a blind eye to the aids crisis, with devastating and deadly consequences .
the early years of the aids crisis – when the reagans were silent and the white house spokesman, larry speakes, joked about the epidemic during regular briefings with reporters – were “what the plague in europe must have felt like .
while the viacom - owned network had no comment monday, cbs chairman leslie moonves told cnbc last week that
there are some edits being made trying to present a more fair picture of the reagans .
advocates in the san francisco bay area – who survived the epidemic and had watched friends and loved ones die in great numbers – consider the reagans, through their inaction, responsible for the death of thousands of lgbt people .
as is well known, barbara bush has challenged the accuracy of kelley' s anecdote about how she sent the reagans a christmas wreath, which nancy then rewrapped and sent on to one of her california girlfriends .
the reagans
had been scheduled to air on nov. 16 and 18. november is a ratings sweeps month of special importance to tv networks since it helps to determine how much they may charge advertisers .
hillary clinton outraged lgbt activists on friday with her comments at nancy reagan’s funeral praising the former first lady for helping start a “national conversation” about hiv – remarks that critics say ignore the reagans’ deeply troubling legacy on the 1980s aids crisis .
how balanced is
the reagans
? salon has obtained a copy of the 213 - page screenplay for the miniseries, and we present it here to our readers to allow them to review the primary evidence in this controversy and reach their own conclusions .
although the miniseries features impressive production values and acting performances, and the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the reagans for cbs and its audience ,
cbs said in a statement .
not that “the reagans” needs any additional controversy, but it’s also worth noting this quintessentially american tale was shot in canada. for the most part, it’s a handsome effort, down to the gradual aging of the principals and the re - enactment of the assassination attempt by john hinckley .
on friday, republican national committee chairman ed gillespie asked cbs to allow a team of scholars to review the film in advance for historical accuracy. otherwise, he said, cbs should run a disclaimer informing viewers that the film is a fictional portrayal of the reagans .
los angeles (reuters) - - drawing republican fire over the accuracy of its upcoming mini - series
the reagans ,
cbs appears ready to present a kinder, gentler portrait of the ailing former president than originally produced - - if the network airs it at all .
however, if moonves goes ahead with plans to air
the reagans
on nov. 16, as planned, the final product will differ substantially from the film that reagan supporters have criticized, with many controversial scenes heavily edited or cut from the production, sources said .
producers zadan and meron said they were disappointed that cbs won' t air their miniseries but added :
we are excited that showtime has agreed to broadcast it and the public will have a chance to judge' the reagans' on its own merits .
in real life, allen “was especially fond of the reagans, ” as reported by the washington post. a good friend of allen remembered, “he often talked about how nice they were to him. ” away from hollywood make - believe, there was no mention of why allen chose to retire his three decades of service as white house butler, other than that it was time. and in real life, allen marveled to his wife how they got to enjoy the champagne that he once served—thanks to the reagans’ gracious invitation .
cbs said in a statement it had decided to move the production to cable tv' s showtime network after concluding that the miniseries
does not present a balanced portrayal of the reagans for cbs and its audience. subsequent edits that we considered did not address those concerns .
“there is no question that they knew many people with aids and were probably very close friends with them, ” he continued. “i haven’t heard anyone say the reagans were homophobic. but it was a political calculation. this wouldn’t sell to republican voters. ”
the furor over the mini - series arose after the new york times reported last month that the film portrays the reagans in a largely unflattering light. in one scene, reagan says of aids patients ,
they that live in sin shall die in sin .
but there is no evidence he ever expressed those views .
as cbs learned the hard way, it’s impossible to divorce the political and creative components in analyzing “the reagans” — an uneven and, yes, unflattering biography that the network tossed to showtime in a game of corporate hot potato. taking score ideologically, the project depicts nancy reagan as a dragon lady and the former president [ … ]
it is important to remember, moreover, that for the duration of their washington reign, until it came to a thudding halt on the afternoon that edwin meese announced that money from the sale of arms to iran had been diverted to the contras, the reagans were treated with kid gloves, not least by the press corps that covered them .
james brolin as president ronald reagan appears in a scene from cbs'
the reagans ,
in this undated publicity photo. the two - part miniseries about former president reagan and his wife, nancy, airs nov. 16, 2003 and nov. 18. (ap photo / cbs, jan thijs )
as cbs learned the hard way, it' s impossible to divorce the political and creative components in analyzing
the reagans
- - an uneven and, yes, unflattering biography. the project depicts nancy reagan as a dragon lady and the former president as an amiable dunce, yet it is also the story of a couple fiercely devoted to each other .
like any made - for - tv historical saga spanning four decades, “the reagans” makes brutal choices about what to throw away and keep. beyond that, this is billed as a “dramatic interpretation of events based on public sources, ” so no social studies teacher should be tempted to assign this to a class .
undoubtedly, staunch reagan loyalists would have assaulted anything that didn’t present the 40th president as worthy of a place on mount rushmore — something cbs should have recognized going in. still, it’s only fair to note there’s very little here, however pointed, that hasn’t been leveled against the reagans before — including the vitriol they endured during his presidency .
no word on when the miniseries will air on showtime, or how cbs will fill the valuable four hours of november sweeps real estate ”the reagans” vacated. it’s also not clear if moving the movie to a more sparsely viewed pay cable channel will quiet the complaints of historical inaccuracy or quell the boycott calls, or if conservatives will mind having the movie air on the home of ”queer as folk. ”
the only comment from the reagans themselves has come from former first lady nancy reagan, who in a brief statement issued last week to the fox news channel said ,
the timing of (the mini - series) is absolutely staggering to me. obviously, it' s very hurtful .
she apparently was referring to the fact that the 92 - year - old former president is severely ill with alzheimer' s disease .
there is something splendidly democratic about the
unauthorized biography.'' it is premised on skepticism about the official versions of public lives. its real theme is hypocrisy, which cannot be established, of course, without an
invasion of privacy.'' about the reagans, surely, unauthorized biography is amply justified; indeed, it is even a case of just desserts .
from its framing device of a befuddled president reagan receiving word of the tower commission' s damning report on the iran - contra arms - for - hostages scandal to its portrait of reagan as a leader convinced that god spared him from death by assassination so he could bring the cold war to a peaceful conclusion ,
the reagans
script provides plenty of ammunition for both sides in this controversy .
for kelley has chosen for her subject an evil genius of authorization, of spin control, of image management, of madison avenue - style propaganda. in response to the well - packaged, high - gloss imagery contrived and promoted by the reagans and their admirers, it is only fitting to have the well - packaged, high - gloss trashing of that imagery by kelley. the spinners are being unspun .
those objecting to cbs’ planned november ratings sweeps miniseries ”the reagans” included nancy reagan herself, various conservative organizations and talk show hosts, and the chairman of the republican party, all of whom said the biopic would be a smear job without having seen it. still, in announcing on tuesday that it was pulling the miniseries and licensing it to sister cable network showtime, cbs insisted that it was not giving in to pressure .
tonight' s made - for - television movie incited conservatives to threaten a boycott, which led the network to cancel it. consigned to showtime, a premium cable channel owned by cbs' s parent company, viacom,'' the reagans'' turns out to be neither a liberal screed on reaganomics nor a character attack on former president ronald reagan and his wife, nancy .
for all there is to dislike and debate about “the reagans, ” it remains mind - boggling that a network would pull such a project days before its planned airdate. that it finally gets its day in court on showtime, the pay channel that picked up adrian lyne’s remake of “lolita” after studios balked, is by any measure the kind of victory likely to embolden those who would stifle such material .
while gillespie - - who acknowledged that he has not seen
the reagans
and has formed his opinion of it based solely on news reports - - had a number of complaints, he said he was most concerned about a comment attributed to reagan in one episode. there is no evidence that the president told his wife during a conversation about aids patients ,
they that live in sin shall die in sin ,
gillespie said .
in the next few days we will reveal the name of our newly penned record deal, you all will recognize the the name it' s a very well known label. i will also reveal the name of our new drummer he fuckin rocks as well as tour dates that will begin in january and will bring the reagans home to dc for multiple dates and last but not least all new merch that will be available at shows and our new website. so be ready to fucking thrash or die literally! ! !
still, balance would have strengthened kelley' s picture, not weakened it. of course part of the vitriolic reaction to kelley' s book originates not in sympathy for nancy reagan, but in, well, embarrassment. for the trouble with ronald and nancy reagan between 1980 and 1988 was there for all with eyes to see. kelley' s book is rudely reminding many people that they preferred to avert their gaze. it is a taxing book, i imagine, for the people who praised the reagans or covered them, who were complicitous with the hype and the illusion, with the condition that garry wills called the country' s
collective suspension of disbelief.'' it is not pleasant, after all, to look back at that materialism and elitism and remember that we called it virtue and style. the american people twice demanded overwhelmingly that the reagans inhabit the white house; and this is a free country. but in a free country you not only get nancy reagan, you also get kitty kelley .
a few words of caution: this script is undated, and, though it most likely represents a
shooting script
matching the version of the miniseries that was originally planned for broadcast, we cannot be sure that the script itself was not further edited, and it' s likely that additional changes were made during editing. showtime, the cable network that has acquired
the reagans
from cbs, has announced that it will
collaborate with the filmmaker to create a final film ,
so the showtime version is likely to differ further from this script .
this was a cut up version of the tv miniseries concentrating only on the white house years. the reagans come off very human - totally devoted to each within their hysterically dysfunctional family unit - as the screenplay moves quickly ticking off all the important events during their life in the white house. james brolin gives an amazing impersonation capturing the quivering voice and the president' s sense of naivety without reducing him to a joke as the media portrayed him. however, the film belongs to judy davis. she takes the part of nancy reagan and runs with it at full throttle playing a ferociously ambitious woman resembling the joan crawford of
mommie dearest
…
according to newsweek, lawyers vetted the miniseries three times, and the ”they that live in sin” line was edited out, but cbs chief leslie moonves, who took over the editing (director robert allan ackerman quit in protest), was apparently still not satisfied. ”although the mini - series features impressive production values and acting performances, and although the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the reagans for cbs and its audience, ” the statement read. ”subsequent edits that we considered did not address those concerns. ”
as cbs learned the hard way, it’s impossible to divorce the political and creative components in analyzing “ the reagans ” — an uneven and, yes, unflattering biography that the network tossed to showtime in a game of corporate hot potato. taking score ideologically, the project depicts nancy reagan as a dragon lady and the former president as an amiable, square - jawed dunce blessed with a gift for gab. yet underneath that harsh glare lurks a humanizing touch, for it is also the story of a couple fiercely devoted to each other — albeit often at the expense of those around them .
although speakes had spent nearly six years enhancing the president’s image, his own unhedged assessment of the first couple undid much of that work. reagan, he writes, was an “inexperienced and sometimes downright disinterested president. ” nancy was a back stabber, obsessed to the point of absurdity with guarding her husband’s reputation. the reagans’ children, the president’s staff—everyone is fair game for speakes: maureen reagan is a “punch - you - in - the - nose type” who intimidates even george shultz; edwin meese, “an ideologue” who earned the nickname poppin’ fresh for his pillsbury doughboy girth .
even before deciding to pull the miniseries, cbs had agreed to cut one scene in which reagan displayed indifference to people with aids, saying (in a line that the screenwriter admits reagan never uttered) ,
they that live in sin shall die in sin .
some media observers have argued that cbs' s decision not to show
the reagans
represents a low point in the history of the network once considered tv' s most fearless and independent source of news. (see salon' s cover story by rebecca traister. )
while the authors’ styles vary, their portraits of the reagans have a certain consistency. with the exception of nancy’s former chief of staff, james rosebush, whose recent first lady, public wife is a coffee - table paean to the woman he once served, they limn the president and mrs. reagan in a harshly unflattering light. reagan is seen as a cheerfully detached character who has mastered the role, if not the substance, of the presidency. his diminutive helpmate is described as a tireless warrior who uses press leaks, political legerdemain and astrological guidance to protect her husband and dispense with the couple’s enemies .
the decision not to cast younger actors to portray the reagans when they first met is a strange one, since judy davis and james brolin are age appropriate for the white house years, but at least it gives us an opportunity to spend more time with these talents. neither is at the top of the game, to be sure, but they' re having fun portraying and often times eviscerating the iconic characters. it' s enjoyable watching the pure mean - spiritedness this has, sometimes brimming on plagiarizing mommie dearest. bad writing, cheap wigs and judy davis' s over - the - top turn make this the camp it ought to be .
the popular impression,'' he writes ,
is that the reagans are so close that they drive everyone else out, even the children. that may be unfair to nancy reagan. her presence gives others an excuse for not being able to get beyond a barrier that was built long before she came into his life.'' and she did send a letter to kitty dukakis when she revealed her problems with drugs and alcohol; and she did drop a note to a washington reporter who learned that she had breast cancer, and even gave her a scoop; and she was kind to the beleaguered quayles when they arrived in washington .
it is a movie. more precisely, it is a made - for - television movie that squeezes real life characters and historical moments into a convenient dramatic arc: a love story lived out against a backdrop of the cold war, california politics and washington intrigue.'' the reagans'' is reasonably accurate, at times engrossing, at other times silly and sometimes even dull. it is not a thoughtful look at a critical moment in american history. it is a domestic drama about a loving couple beset by hollywood agents, republican backers, scheming advisers and, most of all, their angry, needy children .
trash, maybe; but not fiction. kelley' s books should be read in the spirit in which they are rendered. just as the reagans offered a mixture of show business and politics, so kelley offers a mixture of gossip and biography. the problem with her books is that they fall between the stools. they are neither completely tacky nor completely scholarly. to read them as one would read a tabloid is to miss the instruction that they contain. to read them as one would read a work of history is to risk distorting the record. kelley' s achievement, i guess, is to have honed the bastard genre of biography in the culture of celebrity. she brings to mind baudelaire' s advice to readers of newspapers, that you can learn a great deal from them if you read them with the proper contempt .
and another significant misimpression of kelley' s work should be immediately corrected. she is not any more salacious in her treatment of her subject (and her subject' s husband) than other biographers have been in their treatment of theirs. she does not practice sexual history more than, say, william manchester did in his life of winston churchill, or steven naifeh and gregory white smith did in their life of jackson pollock. her unsubtle and unsophisticated book, in fact, broaches subtle and sophisticated questions. how did the reagans use their power? how were their personal lives at variance with the conservative morality that was at the core of ronald reagan' s political philosophy and popular appeal? to what extent did they sell the presidency and commercialize the white house? how much political illusion is permissible in a democracy ?
first of all, of recent presidents, the reagans and these bushes—the old bushes it was true of to a certain extent—are really close, tight. the husband and wife are a real team and a real marriage. they talk about things, live their lives together. laura bush, from what i can just reconstruct by studying the record and the biographical evidence, probably was the single person that had the biggest influence in turning her husband into a serious adult with a public sense of mission. she really turned his life around, because he always had leadership qualities in the sense that he was someone who knew how to bring out the best in other people’s performances and had a real gift of dealing with people, but he never really got serious until he gave up some of his extended adolescent habits of conspicuous consumption and whatnot, after she got hold of him. and i’ve got to think that where needed, she will always be there .
the “evil empire
paragraph was in the first draft, the reagan papers show .
the decision to pull the series sparked the same polarized response as the biopic itself, reports cbs news correspondent jerry bowen .
though the national board of review named it one of the top 10 films of the year .
the reagan library documents show that the president - - possibly with advice – removed parenthetical putdowns of the
intelligentsia ,
the
glitter set ,
the
unilateral disarmers ,
the
old liberalism
and the anti - religious sectors of the news media in the united states .
the true believers resented the influence of the pragmatists. they saw the pragmatists as trying to remake and restrain the leader they helped elect. the true believers wanted a chance to set reagan loose .
from the beginning. well before the first year, early on—they developed the idea that we’d have a steering committee for the state of the union. that helped .
exhibit a of the journalistic delinquency of those dizzy years, when it was morning in america and washington was a city of flatterers and flacks, must be first lady, a portrait of nancy reagan, a glossy picture book that appeared in 1986 under the name of chris wallace, who is, please recall, a journalist .
the reason she looks adoringly at her husband is because she adores him,'' reads the caption above a picture of the reagans, wearing red sweaters and sitting with their tv trays. and there are the testimonials :
nancy' s anything but frivolous. she' s very level - headed, she' s very sincere, she' s very down to earth, and why she seemed frivolous i don' t know'' (bonita granville wrather) ;
nancy reagan has a terrific sense of humor, a terrific sense of style, is very giving, and is very tuned in to the world around her'' (charles z. wick) ;
she' s one of the most special people that i' ve ever known in the world'' (michael deaver); and so on .
in the spring of 1982, the president already was feeling the reins on his rhetoric. the first draft of his address to the british parliament labeled the soviet union the world' s “focus of evil. ” he liked the text. but parliament never heard those words .
on march 8, 1983, ronald reagan called the soviet union the focus of evil in the modern world. the evil empire speech disturbed the political universe. and yet the critical words almost went unsaid. -
and as the reagan papers show and former reagan aides confirm, the speech was the climax of a continuing debate, in and outside the white house, about how the president should talk about the soviet union .
insight on the news is the name of the publication. in any event, there’s a copy here .
mark joseph is the producer of reagan: the movie. paul kengor is the author of the crusader: ronald reagan and the fall of communism and god & ronald reagan: a spiritual life, the two books upon which the film is based .
gillespie said that if cbs denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program' s presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate .
the first half of the draft was on domestic policy, including abortion and school prayer. the second half was on world affairs, principally the nuclear freeze and the “evil empire .
read the script for the movie that was too hot for cbs to handle .
and yet all the sanctimonious complaining about kelley' s book misses the point .
at the white house, aram bakshian, the speechwriting director, went over the draft. bakshian saw four references to the soviet union as evil. he particularly liked the term
evil empire .
both the new york times and washington post film critics detected authenticity in the emotions she conveyed on screen. the times declared that she “knows the loneliness of grief, ” while the post critiqued that she “is splendid as the understanding widow. ”
the reagan library papers provide fascinating insights into the drafting of what may have been the most important presidential statement of the cold war. they also reveal that, despite the unremitting influences on him, the president himself decided what he would say .
the commentary podcast breaks down the liberal psychological breakdown that followed justice anthony kennedy’s retirement, and the activist left’s response to the trump administration’s border crisis by advocating the abolition of ice. have republicans caught a break as their opponents go over the edge ?
this decision is based solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted around a draft of the script ,
the network said .
gillespie said cbs should review the miniseries for historical accuracy, or the network should run a disclaimer that the program is fiction .
calisphere is a service of the uc libraries, powered by the california digital library .
early in john adams presidency, he faced the prospect of war with france after the french navy had increased its efforts of stopping american ships trading with the british empire after the signing of the jay treaty. adams attempted to send delegates to negotiate with the french, but the french minister demanded bribes before negotiations would begin. the americans refused, and the information was leaked to the public, becoming the xyz affair — x, y and z standing for the names of french officials in documents released by the adams administration. american and french naval forces engaged in an undeclared war for several months, known as the quasi - war, before the situation was finally settled. during the period of hostilities, both the federalists and the republican - democratic parties used the events to heavily push their own narratives .
while the vietnam war was controversial during his presidency, it wasn’t until after lyndon johnson left office that the true level of controversy was revealed. the pentagon papers were splashed across the front page of the new york times, indicating that the president had systematically lied to the american people about american involvement and actions in the southeast asian region .
the tv network insisted it was not bowing to political pressure over the script, details of which were revealed in the new york times last month, but said the decision was made after viewing the finished film .
and other phrases slashed from the parliament speech were resurrected in the evil empire speech .
whoever crossed out the section expected it to be deleted before the president saw the draft, but dolan would not allow it .
the letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. please try again .
this challenge came in the course of the debate over ratification of the inf treaty which the democrats, led by senator sam nunn, decided to use in pursuing their longstanding battle with reagan over whether or not the abm treaty of 1972 permits sdi to be tested in space. thus as the price of ratifying the inf agreement while reagan was in moscow at his summit with mikhail gorbachev, the democrats added the “condition” that treaties must be interpreted according to the “common understanding... shared by the president and the senate at the time the senate gives its advice and consent to ratification. ”
check out highlights from some of the best recent trailers including mandy, the predator, zoe, and the king of thieves .
when american military forces defeated the spanish empire in the spanish - american war, the united states found itself with a large naval and marine force in the philippines. the filipinos quickly created their own independent republic, expecting for support from the united states. instead, william mckinley ordered american forces to occupy the philippines, and in the end a brutal and repressive war was waged by american forces against the philippine republic and the ensuing insurgency. the war was so immensely unpopular that citizens offered to buy the philippines from the government to give it its independence .
the m74 northern extension, a five - mile, six - lane motorway on the southside of the clyde river provides a cautionary tale of likely outcomes for the clyde gateway project. the road' s link to the initiative has been emphasised repeatedly by key catalyst agencies. in the glasgow and clyde valley structure plan, the motorway is described as a
key component
77 of infrastructure for the clyde gateway initiative. meanwhile, scottish enterprise claimed that the m74 was a
vital prerequisite
78 of the clyde gateway initiative, and that their funding for the initiative would not be forthcoming if the road did not proceed. moreover, the clyde gateway business plan clearly states the importance of the m74 to their infrastructure plans, including the east end regeneration route which is dependent on the m74 completion :
the extension to the m74 and the east end regeneration route will make clyde gateway one of the most accessible urban centres in scotland .
79
the “evil empire” paragraph was never part of the westminster address. but in the 32 - minute orlando speech, it was the centerpiece. it was the longest sentence - - so long that, on the day of the speech, only one television network, cbs, let viewers hear all 72 words :
instead, i was still doing commentary outside through the campaign and then was contacted after the election when they began the transition activities .
there are some fairly frequent mentions throughout the briefing materials about the idea that a speech deadline often forces the issue with competing actors .
- - also eliminated from the london speech was the reference to the soviet union as a
militaristic empire” whose ideology justifies any wrongdoing. in the evil empire speech, the empire concept returned in a more powerful form .
it was widely reported at the time of the cultural commission that bridget mcconnell wished to exert some influence over the process, with fears being expressed that the commission was a thinly veiled bid to axe the scottish arts council .
the office of speechwriting regularly placed drafts of presidential speeches in piles for circulation throughout the bureaucracy. certain white house staffers were responsible for looking over the texts and routing them to the agencies that might want to comment. if the staffers didn' t notice the subject matter, the drafts might not go far .
cbs said its decision to cancel the movie was
based solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted around a draft of the script .
sven kraemer, arms control director on the president' s national security council, was asked to review the draft, giving special attention to the section on the nuclear freeze debate .
not surprisingly, the congressional minority opposed to any u. s. aid for the contras began to leak details of the operation. but the decisive leak came in april from an odd source, senator barry goldwater, who was then chairman of the senate intelligence committee, in an odd place, the floor of the senate. the way it happened is a classic cautionary tale of the risks to the secrecy of covert operations in any reporting requirement .
the best known and most scurrilous of them all, the brutalizing of robert bork, also provided the clearest example of white house passivity. 1 the long - term effect of this case on the judiciary and on the level of political debate remains to be seen, but the immediate result was that the senate stopped bothering to hold hearings at all on some judicial nominees who could be described as controversial under the post - bork rules of the game .
one group, the media research center (search), asked major advertisers to review the script before buying commercial time during the broadcast .
dolan said he believes a few senior advisers muffled the sterner words of his first draft. the problem, he said, was that “the pragmatists
in the white house were afraid to let reagan be reagan while they steered
the true believers
away from the president .
the leak was unfortunate, but more damaging yet was the reaction of the liberals, led by senator daniel p. moynihan, goldwater’s co - chairman on the bipartisan intelligence committee, who announced that they had never been informed by the cia about its participation in the mining .
sometimes the squabbling even spilled over into the press. in 1982, for example, there were two alternative drafts of the state of the union address. i never bothered to correct it, but bill safire got this one wrong in the pages of the new york times .
that’s right. i think insight on the news was the name of the feature page or something and that’s where he was writing it .
contributing to the split of the republican party in 1912 was the ballinger controversy. chief of field divisions of the general land office, louis glavis, accused president william taft’s head of the department of the interior, richard ballinger, of interfering in an investigation into coal mining in idaho. taft had glavis fired for insubordination and exonerated ballinger. press scandal followed, and the progressive wing of the republican party would split and join the democrats by the 1912 election .
liberals may still decry the “imperial presidency, ” but the reality is that since the last months of the nixon administration in 1973 - 74, the presidency has been hampered by two major congressional restrictions on its ability to function. one, involving domestic affairs, is the budget and impoundment control act; the other, involving foreign policy, is the war powers resolution. both passed despite president nixon’s vigorous opposition, and both vastly expanded the powers of congress at the expense of the president’s. to top it all off, the art of prosecutorial politics, developed during watergate, was perfected by congress during the reagan years as yet another effective weapon in the struggle for power against the executive .
“i told the speechwriters that day,' look, the freezeniks are making real inroads into the evangelical heartland, and the president needs to address this issue,'
remembered cizik .
as for bin laden, reagan had nothing to do with him. reagan aided the afghans fighting the soviet invaders, demoralizing the soviets and clearly exposing the communists' fundamentally oppressive goals .
while living apart from her mother created anxiety, being so close to washington permitted the future first lady to at least attend the annual easter egg roll contest on the white house lawn during the years that grace coolidge hosted the event .
, which took its audience. not helping matters were the negative reviews the film got at the time, though the film' s visuals were praised and influenced the look of many science fiction films for years to come. this became
“but we knew that what the liberal democrat leaders just couldn' t figure out: the sky would not fall if america restored her strength and resolve. the sky would not fall if an american president spoke the truth. the only thing that would fall was the berlin wall .
incident number two was a meeting with dr edward n brandt jr, the oklahoma physician who oversaw the first federal response to aids as assistant secretary of the department of health and human services. virginia apuzzo, who was executive director of the national gay and lesbian taskforce during the early days of the epidemic, arranged the meeting .
in 1919, the u. s. navy launched an investigation into claims of homosexual interactions between naval personal and civilians at newport, r. i. , initiated by then - secretary of the navy, franklin roosevelt. the methods of the investigation — keeping it almost exclusively within the navy — drew criticism from the press, and in the end the investigators themselves were accused of homosexuality after the reports were filed. wilson, already facing criticism for his handling of world war i, found himself drawn into the scandal when the inhabitants of newport wrote to him directly, complaining of the navy’s handling of the investigation .
the flap over the $ 9 million miniseries began late last month after the times raised questions about portions of the script that were unflattering to president ronald reagan and former first lady nancy reagan .
pride causes foolishness - - pride in the sense of one of the deadly sins .
the budget act of 1974 was crafted by congress to rob the president of the ability to limit spending, while making it possible for a fragmented collection of congressmen to spend and at the same time to evade the responsibility for doing so .
once again, then, ronald reagan permitted a further weakening of the powers of the presidency .
significantly, however, none of csgs objections related to the main thrust of the article, namely, the harnessing of the citys culture to tourism and regeneration agendas and the intrusion of private interests into what was previously a public sector domain .
hanley recounts the infamous story of cutteslowe walls. cutteslowe was an area of oxford where adjoining council and private estates were built in the early 1930s to accommodate the growing population of the town, then prospering on the expansion of the first generation of motor factories. these two estates were hardly distinguishable but the developer behind the private estate thought differently and without planning permission constructed in 1934 two walls (topped with metal spikes) across the main road, pavements and gardens between the two estates to completely isolate the council tenants. this illegal wall stayed put until the late 1950s .
that used to happen occasionally on the plane with spiro agnew, when buchanan and safire were on the plane in 1970, the midterm elections .
yes, several. most memorably, the one on the economy was very important before the 1982 midterm elections, where he basically managed to hold the losses even though we were in a recession, because his stay the course message resonated .
the crown jewel of presidential scandals, richard nixon’s watergate forever changed the public perception of the executive office. nixon ordered the break - in of the democratic national committee headquarters at the watergate office complex in washington, d. c. while the act itself was bad, it was the ensuing cover - up attempted by the nixon administration that became truly infamous, with nixon’s constant dodging of questions and reluctance to hand over evidence eventually leading to the obvious threat of impeachment and nixon’s resignation, the only president to resign from office .
in short, the senate can withhold its ratification, or it can insist on renegotiation, but it cannot negotiate with the administration over what the senate would like the treaty to have said, thereby binding the u. s. but leaving the soviets free to adopt a less restrictive interpretation .
killing reagan is a slight departure in the book franchise, in that the 1981 attempt on reagan’s life was unsuccessful. the book explores the assassination attempt by john hinckley on the newly elected president, and how it impacted reagan’s time in office .
the merits of the constitutional debate were on nixon’s side, but he was then at the nadir of his watergate fortunes and congress was determined to make the most of the opportunity to increase its own powers at the expense of the presidency. accordingly, the budget law passed in 1974 completely prohibited impoundments and created “deferrals” and “rescissions” in their place. henceforth presidents could only delay spending by issuing a deferral, but either the house or senate could pass a resolution ordering that the money be spent. a president could also rescind an appropriation, but for the recission to be effective, both the house and senate would have to vote their approval within 45 days. absent any action by the two houses, the president would be required to spend the funds after the 45 - day period .
to be sure, no one then anticipated the “criminalization of policy differences, ” as north would later describe the phenomenon to his congressional tormentors. nevertheless, it was clear after corinto and the boland amendments that the procedure - based approach by congress to the real issues raised by the events in nicaragua would handicap the administration’s policy. in the event, congress was able to starve the contras of consistent aid long enough to force them to surrender. this will likely be remembered as the major foreign - policy disaster of the reagan years, and the irony is that the “great communicator” never managed to force the yes - or - no, up - or - down vote by congress that would have established a clear line of responsibility if the contras were forced off the field of battle .
nevertheless, before the vote on the condition, reagan’s chief of staff, howard baker, announced that the white house did not oppose its inclusion, and it passed the senate overwhelmingly. having paid the price in the coin of presidential power and constitutional integrity, reagan was awarded with the treaty in time for a symbolic signing ceremony in moscow .
the sisters of perpetual indulgence performing an ‘exorcism’ in union square san francisco during the democratic national convention. photograph: courtesy of the sisters of perpetual indulgence
the war powers resolution, requiring congressional approval for the commitment of u. s. forces in combat abroad for longer than 60 days, and its progeny (notably the five boland amendments limiting presidential discretion in aiding the democratic resistance in nicaragua) have had the same paralyzing effect on foreign policy that the prohibition of impoundments and the evisceration of the veto have had on controlling the budget. to be sure, no president has made the mistake of acquiescing in the constitutionality of the war powers resolution, which was passed in 1973 over the veto of president nixon. but certainly they have all had to condition defense strategy on the possibility that congress might indeed some day try to enforce its provisions.
the reagans is a 180-minute television film about u.s. president ronald reagan and his family which cbs had planned to broadcast in november 2003 during fall " sweeps " , but was ultimately broadcast on november 30 of that year on cable channel showtime due to controversy over its portrayal of reagan . 
the reagans is a 180-minute television film about u.s. president ronald reagan and his family which cbs had planned to broadcast in november 2003 during fall " sweeps ", but was ultimately broadcast on november 30 of that year on cable channel showtime due to controversy over its portrayal of reagan.
the reagans is a 180-minute television film about u.s. president ronald reagan and his family which cbs had planned to broadcast in november 2003 during fall " sweeps ", but was ultimately broadcast on november 30 of that year on cable channel showtime due to controversy over its portrayal of reagan.