Posted on 06/13/2004 9:04:38 PM PDT by Pokey78
What was the meaning of the past remarkable nine days? You cannot stop the American people from feeling what they feel and showing it. From the crowds at Simi Valley to the hordes at the Capitol to the men and women who stopped and got out of their cars on Highway 101 to salute as Reagan came home--that was America talking to America about who America is.
It was a magnificent teaching moment for the whole country but most of all for the young, who barely remembered Ronald Reagan or didn't remember him at all. This week they heard who he was. The old ones spoke, on all the networks and in all the newspapers, and by the end of the week it was clear that Ronald Reagan had suddenly entered the Lincoln pantheon. By Friday it was no longer a question, as it had been for years, whether he was one of our top 10 presidents. It was a question only whether he was in the very top five or six--up there with Lincoln and Washington. An agreement had been reached: the 20th century came down to FDR and RWR.
What is important now is that we continue to speak of the meaning of his leadership. Not bang away about what a great guy he was--there are a lot of great guys--but what huge things he did, not because he had an "ideology" but because he had a philosophy, a specific one that had specific meaning. He was the great 20th-century conservative of America. He applied his philosophy to the realities of the world he lived in. In doing so he changed those realities, and for the better. This is what we must pass on.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Peggy makes an enemy at the end. Actually, she cements an enemy. I pity the fool.
Dammit! I was going to use that for a tagline, but you beat me to it.
Most excellent article, as always; thanks for the ping, pokey!
And to be fair...I think that Mark Steyn borrowed the sentiment if not the line for Ronald Reagan.
There was a Tony Dolan and a Ken Khachigian who were Reagan speechwriters. Other than Peggy Noonan, Ben Elliot, and Peter Robinson, that's all I can find.
Rohrbacher was almost pro-Saddam in the run-up to war. I hadn't been exposed to him then and I was like, who is this RINO?
I will grant you this -- the column was quite long. Some of it could easily have been trimmed. The part about the other speechwriters remind me of things I have written in posts here that when I'm reviewing it decide that they are better off left on the cutting room floor. Still, that she decided to leave it means she cared about it very deeply.
The column was titled The Ben Elliot Story, so this was central to the theme. I think that since she was writing about the death by a thousand cuts suffered by this guy she considered a mentor, smacking back at the hacks in the Reagan WH also must have been central. Perhaps not for her, but for Ben.
Right you are. As far as I know its first appearance came in Reagan's 1981 Inaugural, although it could've been a carryover from a previous speech. See Paragraph 13:
So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.
My favorite passage is three paragraphs up (Para. 10):
From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?
Some scores in Washington need settling, and it is appropriate to settle scores with guys who are still in public life. If these guys are trading on their relationship with Ronald Regan and a frauds then they deserve to be outed to protect his legacy.
I agree- I was loving the stories about Reagan and those that knew him and then that last part. Tacky.
Peggy Noonan, what a lady!
*Save & file* bump
great article.
Not this time. Taking public shots at former colleagues is extremely low rent.
the hack and the haircut guy... pictured together in a later post...
what is a hack but a non-native going to new york to make a living and possibly scoring big...
t
jmho and i didn't read the article...
I must be experiencing double vision - I see two.
No it was from Reagan himself. The word nation was used rather than country.
There are several pictures of Reagan with Rohrbacher on the congressman's web site. Are these the pictures being touted on TV? http://www.house.gov/rohrabacher/
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No, Reagan used this in one of his speeches during the 80s, or even before.
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Of course, Peggy Noonan could have written it for Reagan in the first place.
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Isn't gossip vicious! ...and fun. Just between you and me, I would take a guess at Ken Khachigian as the Hack, he is a former Nixon and Reagan speechwriter who is essentially a political consultant in California. From what I have seen of him, he appears inarticulate [see his October 03 interview with Brit Hume on the Arnold sex disclosures by the LA Times--google his name and it will come up fairly quickly] and greasy. But I really don't know. I only say this as names that could be ruled out or in with further info.
And though I have only heard good things about Peter Robinson who is credited with "tear down this wall" speech, he may be the haircut. He did write two books, How RR changed my life" and another about his struggles in the GOP. I haven't read either one, but if Peggy felt that he should have given credit to Bently when talking about how RR changed his life, that may be it. Also he was a speechwriter from 82 to 88. The only rule out clue is that the Berlin Wall speech was in 87 not 88, so it may not be him, or else she is giving [mildly] disinformational clues. Who knows?
Boy, that was a zinger about the Hack. I guess Peggy is not inviting him to her next party.
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