Ed Meese Slams CBS Movie
Wes Vernon
"If he were well and didn't have this terrible illness, they wouldn't
dare publish that because he would come out and deny it," the close Reagan
confidant told NewsMax.com in an exclusive interview. "And so they're
taking advantage of his condition."
Reagan, 92, is bedridden and suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
"It is typical of the far left that they cannot afford to have Ronald
Reagan be seen as successful." That success, Meese
added, "refutes all of their lies about politics, economics and about
people."
In fact, the former chief of staff for Gov. Reagan, top White House aide and
later attorney general sees the CBS miniseries as a frantic and desperate
attempt to counteract "a lot of factual material" that has come out
about the 40th president, "including his letters, a recent updated
biography by Lou Cannon, a book by Peter Robinson, other books that have come
out [such as] the Time magazine article on his letters and all this sort of
thing, which paints the true picture of Ronald Reagan."
All of this thoroughly documented material, says Meese,
shows Reagan "in a light that is anathema to those on the left, and I
think that's why this is really a very cynical and very malicious plot, really,
to try to darken his reputation."
Meese had seen the video trailer of the miniseries
and shot down its "inflammatory" and "vicious" charges
point by point. His observations:
1. The "second-rate actor" myth is belied by the fact that he did
"very well" in the movies from the late '30s into the '50s, and was
well regarded "by his peers and colleagues in the film industry."
2. "Totally untrue in both cases" is the claim that Reagan had to
be pushed into running for governor and president by his wife. A group of
business leaders in
3. To the best of Meese's knowledge,
4. Meese is "sure" Regan never used the
"G-- D--n" cuss word around his wife "because he never used it
even among men." Haig's resignation was
ultimately accepted in 1982 only after Reagan had refused to accept it
"two or three times."
5. Meese says of course he was not privy to family
conversations, but the "odd" quotes that pop up in the miniseries are
totally out of character for the man.
6. The script writer for the CBS hatchet job admits that the depiction of
Reagan as having a calloused attitude toward AIDS victims was something she
just made up. And Meese adds that the entire issue of
AIDS did not come in through Nancy Reagan. It was Surgeon General C. Everett
Koop who "brought that issue to the Cabinet" and it was handled
"like a whole bunch of other issues in the Cabinet."
7. Contrary to the miniseries' assertion that Nancy Reagan pleaded with the
president to support giving condoms and needles to drug addicts to combat the
spread of AIDS, Meese "would seriously doubt it
because [in fact] she was very much against supplying needles, particularly
because of her 'Just Say No' anti-drug activities."
8. Distortion in the extreme fits the description of the assertion that Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev pleaded with Reagan to "stop this arms
race." The truth, says Meese, is that
"Gorbachev offered all kinds of arms concessions and then at the last
moment ... said the condition would be that Reagan would have to give up on the
Strategic Defense Initiative" to protect America from a missile attack.
Reagan did not fall for it. That's when he walked out of the summit conference
in
9. Not true, Meese says, is the assertion that
Mrs. Reagan told White House aides: "You don't call the president to tell
him something. You call me." Again, "totally out of character"
for both Reagans, according to Meese.
10. Nor is it true that Reagan did not know the name of his own national
security adviser, Robert McFarlane.
11. Reagan never called Oliver North "that lying son of a gun" and
"regretted having to return [North] to the Marine Corps," Meese stated.