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Conservatives Want FDR Replaced With Reagan on Dimes
TBO.com ^ | 12/05/03 | Erica Werner

Posted on 12/05/2003 1:51:13 AM PST by kattracks

WASHINGTON (AP) - Conservative Republicans angry over an unflattering television movie about Ronald Reagan want to put his image on the dime in place of Democratic icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Democrats are just as determined to keep FDR's profile in coin purses. "If they want to find another way to honor Ronald Reagan, I'm happy to join with them, but leave the dime alone," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.

Supporters of the "Ronald Reagan Dime Act" said Roosevelt and his government-expanding New Deal represented decades past, while Reagan's conservative, anti-communist administration ushered in society as it exists today.

Triggering the dispute is a TV movie that depicts a doddering Reagan dominated by his wife, Nancy. The movie is being aired by Showtime after CBS canceled its plans to show it last month in response to pressure by Reagan supporters.

"It's what precipitated me introducing the bill at that time and why it was a lot easier to get a lot of support," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind.

Souder said he has collected 89 co-sponsors for his bill to mint a new dime featuring Reagan. Among them are more than a dozen House members from California, where the former president lives secluded and suffering from Alzheimer's disease in his Los Angeles home.

"I believe he represents conservative values as we would see them implemented through a president better than anybody else we've had in American history," Souder said. "He, to conservatives, represents kind of the reverse of FDR, who is kind of the liberal icon. Ronald Reagan is the conservative icon."

McGovern claims 80 co-sponsors on his opposing bill affirming Congress' support for keeping Roosevelt on the dime. The lone Republican among them is New York Rep. John Sweeney, who represents the Hyde Park area that was Roosevelt's home.

Reagan has "already been honored in many ways - he's got an airport named after him, and a building, and there are schools and roads and bridges and other things," McGovern said.

"While it's important to honor President Reagan, I think it's also important that we do so in a way that doesn't dishonor the memory and the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," he said.

It isn't uncommon to change images on currency, but the custom has been to wait until the person being memorialized is dead.

"I certainly would not look at it in any way as dishonoring FDR. He's also one of my favorite presidents," said Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif. "He was also interestingly enough a personal hero of President Reagan's, but frankly I feel more connection with Reagan. He's a Californian, also closer to us now in history."

Souder rounded up support from colleagues for his bill with a letter, headed "Win One for the Gipper," that lambasted CBS for its "vile miniseries."

The dime has borne Roosevelt's profile since 1946, a year after his death, in part commemorating his support for the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio.



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coins; dime; fdr; ronaldreagan
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1 posted on 12/05/2003 1:51:14 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
Picture that...


2 posted on 12/05/2003 1:54:22 AM PST by Prime Choice (Conservative: One who doesn't believe that turning the U.S. into a third-world nation is 'progress'.)
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To: Prime Choice
Wonderful!
3 posted on 12/05/2003 1:55:15 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
I'm all for this kind of "change"...I'm sick of looking at FDR.
4 posted on 12/05/2003 2:00:03 AM PST by Aracelis
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To: kattracks
Supporters of the "Ronald Reagan Dime Act" said Roosevelt and his government-expanding New Deal represented decades past, ...

And besides, the Republicans now have their own government-expanding New Dealer. (No, I don't mean Reagan.)

5 posted on 12/05/2003 2:08:30 AM PST by Moonman62
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To: Moonman62
Which has absolutely nothing to do with this story.
6 posted on 12/05/2003 2:10:15 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
I'd rather see Reagan on a $1 coin, a big one that looks like a buck and can't be mistaken for a quarter.
7 posted on 12/05/2003 2:12:55 AM PST by jaykay (It'll always be Operation Infinite Justice to me.)
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To: kattracks
Yes it does. I quoted a line in the story that seems quite ironic.
8 posted on 12/05/2003 2:13:07 AM PST by Moonman62
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To: Moonman62
The story has to do with FDR & President Reagan. Nothing, or no one else.
9 posted on 12/05/2003 2:24:33 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
The story has to do with taking FDR off the dime and putting Ronald Reagan on it. I'm all for honoring Reagan. He earned it. However, we can't justify taking FDR off the dime by criticizing him for something the Republicans are currently doing.
10 posted on 12/05/2003 2:30:10 AM PST by Moonman62
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To: jaykay
Eisenhower is on the dollar coin -- the big one, not the Woman of the Year Dollar.

Ike's on the buck, Lincoln's on the penny. That's two Republicans.

FDR is on the dime, Jefferson on the nickel, JFK on the half.

But before you think that the 'Rats have a lead, remember that Washington (quarter) and Ben Franklin were both Federalists, which, with the Whig Party intervening, was the direct ancestor of the Republican Party.

Susan B. Anthony doesn't count, since the coin was massively and humiliatingly repudiated -- so much for Jimmy Carter's effort to kiss up to the women's vote. And Sacajawea wasn't even a citizen of the United States; she was a member of an Indian nation. (Shoshoni, I think.) The god Mercury was, well, a deity and above politics, and so are Lady Liberty and the eagle. The Indian heads on the nickel and the small gold coins pre-1933 fall in the same category as Sacajawea: non-citizens.

11 posted on 12/05/2003 2:33:41 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: kattracks
The story has to do with FDR & President Reagan. Nothing, or no one else.

Kind of. It also has to do with Republicans wrapping themselves in Reagan's mantle even as they repudiate it by spending wildly, so Moonman has a point.

12 posted on 12/05/2003 2:40:27 AM PST by Grut
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To: lentulusgracchus
I haven't seen one of those big Eisenhower Silver Dollars in years. Now that was a dollar coin.
13 posted on 12/05/2003 2:42:32 AM PST by jaykay (It'll always be Operation Infinite Justice to me.)
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To: lentulusgracchus
I don't think that Ike coins have been made since the 1980s.

Richard Nixon and LBJ never got any currency.

Ronald Reagan could replace Benjamin Franklin since he was never elected President.

14 posted on 12/05/2003 2:45:06 AM PST by weegee
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To: jaykay
Yes, the ones I used to carry were just tin, but there were a few silver ones minted. I still have a base one somewhere, tucked in as an example with some silver Morgans and Peace dollars.
15 posted on 12/05/2003 2:46:11 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: Grut
Moonman's point and obviously yours, is to inject something into this discussion which has nothing to do with the topic of the article.
16 posted on 12/05/2003 2:48:31 AM PST by kattracks
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To: weegee
Ronald Reagan could replace Benjamin Franklin since he was never elected President.

Well, that would be the half-dollar, presently occupied by Jack Kennedy with the eagle from the Great Seal on the reverse, which I like a lot. Better to put Ronnie on a re-issued Big Buck, and melt all those Susan B.'s and Sacajaweas down as a failed coin type. Let the collectors grab a few examples, and then off to the smelter with them!

17 posted on 12/05/2003 2:48:38 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus
Excuse me. Does anyone have a photo of a Roosevelt dime? I don't think I have ever seen one given I never have any money left after paycheck taxes; thanks in part to his nanny-state policies.
18 posted on 12/05/2003 3:08:23 AM PST by 101st-Eagle
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To: kattracks
Geez Louise, they're not allowed to put a living person on a US coin. And Reagan is still alive ... officially. Can't they at least wait until he's dead?
19 posted on 12/05/2003 3:09:33 AM PST by DonQ
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To: kattracks
Moonman's point and obviously yours, is to inject something into this discussion which has nothing to do with the topic of the article.

And that's the first time that's ever happened on a thread here.

20 posted on 12/05/2003 3:16:04 AM PST by Cagey
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