I agree with that. He may have had something to do with the Iranian end of Iran-Contra, but IMHO the Contra end was all Bushies -- Bush being recently incumbent as DCI, and Elliot Abrams being just "his kind of guy". Poindexter I don't know about so much, but Bush put a lot of people in the Administration, whereas some of Reagan's California intimates, the original Reaganauts, got chased: William French Smith didn't last long as AG, Richard Allen got chased away by the press jackals over some stray cash in a safe (Connie Chung actually knocked on his front door early one morning and asked Mrs. Allen if she could come in to take a pee), Bill Casey was shuffled over to CIA in Langley (and out of the loop) and that left Ed Meese by himself on WH staff to deal with the archfiend Bushbot James Baker as chief of staff and the salamandrine Tricky Dicky Darman as his Squealer in a White House 2-on-1 game against Meese. The other guy was Stockman, who blew himself up by trusting an old friend, Bill Greider, who turned out to be a liberal journo instead. (Haven't heard much out of Greider again since he burned his friend, have we? -- Greider will go to his f******** grave without hearing another human confidence, methinks.)
Bush, as part of the "power-sharing" compromise at the GOP convention, crowded Reagan's staff with Bushbots, which left Reagan, exactly as you said, defending himself most of the time against "Option C" traps set by Baker and his henchboy, Squealer.
Yeah, I remember that stuff -- funny how the DC press doesn't seem to, even though they reported at the time on the Bushmen's efforts to help Reagan become more "reasonable" in his policy posture. Which just goes to show you, some help you just don't need, the moreso that they are the most talented guys in town.