Free Republic

Congressional Democratic leaders today ordered a formal investigation into whether Ronald Reagan's Presidential campaign made a deal with Iran in 1980 to delay the release of American hostages until after the election. Thomas S. Foley, the House Speaker, and George J. Mitchell, the Senate Democratic leader, said they had designated the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to supervise separate but coordinated inquiries. "These allegations are both persist ent and disturbing," the two leaders said in a joint statement. "We have no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, but the seriousness of the allegations, and the weight of...

Ronald Reagan would be familiar with some of the challenges facing Donald Trump lately. Imagine an establishment-busting presidential candidate rolling up the primaries but polling 20 points behind the presumptive Democratic nominee. The controversial Republican front-runner is considered so radical that the party establishment eyes a brokered convention, perhaps to nominate a failed candidate from the previous election. Sound familiar? Welcome to March 1980. In retrospect, Ronald Reagan’s presidency seems inevitable, but the prevailing wisdom in the Republican Party 36 years ago was that he was leading the party to certain defeat. Going into the 1980 race, some Republican leaders...