All Reagan, All The Time

I was talking with a co-worker today and she asked what I thought of the wall-to-wall Reagan coverage, and the clamor to name anything and everything after Reagan. I suggested that it might be like somebody wanting to get married after getting laid for the first time.

This is the "fiscally-responsible" Republican Party!

Mark Kleiman shared this link to a piece by Charles P. Pierce, a letter from Ronnie in heaven:

Pennies From Heaven

My friend, I miss you and send you love.

The week has been ... something. I watched it from where I am, in the place beyond. It's wonderful here. I'm working as a lifeguard again, and I love it. It's a little crowded, though, and an awful lot of people seem to want to talk to me, which I'll get to in a minute. But first you and I have to talk. I know what you were trying to do all week, or what you sort of meant to be doing. But, Peg, it's been bad.

Peg. Please, for the love of God -- who's in the next hammock, by the way? -- shut the hell up.

I'm not kidding. The adjustment's been tough enough. First thing, Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney come up and start asking me about kicking off the 1980 campaign down by the earthen dam there in Philadelphia, and about what all that stuff about states’ rights was. I tried to be charming, and I used all the sunny optimism that disarmed even my political opponents, as you know. Mostly, though, they just wanted to talk, so we did. You'll be amazed at what I think is one of the best parts about this place. Two words: no grudges.

Seriously. Most of the Founders are up here (though Franklin's still in Purgatory) and James Madison and I had a nice chat about how he was different from Alfonso Calero. We started with their hairstyles and worked from there. He said he didn't necessarily agree that the Contras were the moral equivalents of his bunch; for one thing, he said, he was a lot better at designing a balance of power than razing a hamlet, and that he wouldn't even know which end of an M-16 you blow into. He pointed out that a lot fewer people died at the Constitutional Convention than did in Nicaragua in the 1980s. I told him about how it was Morning in America again, and he said he was glad to hear it. I think we're playing tennis some time next week. I'll be pretty busy until then. A couple of thousand Guatemalans want to say hello.

Which is why, the next time you see him in the Green Room or around town, you should tell old Ollie not to worry about anything. The Nicaraguans are really nice people, especially all their beautiful children. He's going to enjoy meeting them. And I promise I won't spend too much time kidding him about selling me out at his trial. But he's got to expect me to have a little fun. Does he know how to laugh yet?

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