'plain o joe'
Membership Revoked
Bush Leagues
Nancy Reagan to Bush: 'We Don't Support Your Re-Election'
By TERESA HAMPTON & WILLIAM D. McTAVISH
Capitol Hill Blue Staff
Jul 30, 2004, 08:12
The widow of former President, and Republican icon, Ronald Reagan has told the GOP she wants
nothing to do with their upcoming national convention or the re-election campaign of President George
W. Bush.
Nancy Reagan turned down numerous invitations to appear at the Republican National Convention and
has warned the Bush campaign she will not tolerate any use of her or her late husbands words or
images in the President’s re-election effort.
“Mrs. Reagan does not support President Bush’s re-election and neither to most members of the
President’s family,” says a spokesman for the former First Lady.
Reagan’s son, Ron, spoke at the just-concluded Democratic National Convention and
writes in next month’s Esquire magazine that “George W. Bush and his administration
have taken normal mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. They
traffic in big lies.”
Ron Reagan is joined by his sister Patty in opposing Bush’s re-election effort. Only brother
Michael Reagan, a conservative talk show host, supports the President and claims Ron is
manipulating his mother.
Unlike the other Reagan children, Michael is not Reagan’s biological child. He was adopted
by Reagan during the actor’s first marriage to actress Jane Wyman and often complains that his
stepmother, Nancy, likes Ron best.
“He is her favorite,” Michael Reagan told Fox News. “Ron can do no wrong. I mean, basically that's it,
Ron can do no wrong.”
Ron, however, claims George W. Bush has destroyed the Republican Party his father helped build.
“My father, acting roles excepted, never pretended to be anyone but himself,” Reagan writes in Esquire.
“His Republican Party, furthermore, seems a far cry from the current model, with its cringing obeisance
to the religious right.”
The Reagans’ split with Bush and the party centers around stem cell research which many believe can
help find a cure for Alzheimer’s, the disease that crippled President Reagan in his final years. Bush and
the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party oppose use of new stem cells. The Reagans, with
the exception of Michael, support such use.
There’s more to the feud than that, however. Nancy Reagan has told close followers she believes Bush
and the current Republican leadership have divided America with their extreme views. She has told
Republican leaders she wants nothing to do with the party or Bush.
During the week of Reagan’s funeral, the former First Lady “went ballistic” when she learned the Bush
campaign was test marketing new ads that used Reagan’s photos and speeches in an effort to show he
supported Bush and his re-election. She personally called Republican Party Chief Ed Gillespie to
demand the ads be destroyed.
Republican strategists admit the ads were produced but never ran. They were pulled after scoring
poorly with focus groups where viewers found them in “poor taste.”
“Mrs. Reagan doesn’t care why the ads were pulled. She just wanted to make sure they never went on
the air,” says a spokesman for the First Lady. “She does care about whether or not the memory of
President Reagan is used for political purposes.”
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4935.shtml
Nancy Reagan to Bush: 'We Don't Support Your Re-Election'
By TERESA HAMPTON & WILLIAM D. McTAVISH
Capitol Hill Blue Staff
Jul 30, 2004, 08:12
The widow of former President, and Republican icon, Ronald Reagan has told the GOP she wants
nothing to do with their upcoming national convention or the re-election campaign of President George
W. Bush.
Nancy Reagan turned down numerous invitations to appear at the Republican National Convention and
has warned the Bush campaign she will not tolerate any use of her or her late husbands words or
images in the President’s re-election effort.
“Mrs. Reagan does not support President Bush’s re-election and neither to most members of the
President’s family,” says a spokesman for the former First Lady.
Reagan’s son, Ron, spoke at the just-concluded Democratic National Convention and
writes in next month’s Esquire magazine that “George W. Bush and his administration
have taken normal mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. They
traffic in big lies.”
Ron Reagan is joined by his sister Patty in opposing Bush’s re-election effort. Only brother
Michael Reagan, a conservative talk show host, supports the President and claims Ron is
manipulating his mother.
Unlike the other Reagan children, Michael is not Reagan’s biological child. He was adopted
by Reagan during the actor’s first marriage to actress Jane Wyman and often complains that his
stepmother, Nancy, likes Ron best.
“He is her favorite,” Michael Reagan told Fox News. “Ron can do no wrong. I mean, basically that's it,
Ron can do no wrong.”
Ron, however, claims George W. Bush has destroyed the Republican Party his father helped build.
“My father, acting roles excepted, never pretended to be anyone but himself,” Reagan writes in Esquire.
“His Republican Party, furthermore, seems a far cry from the current model, with its cringing obeisance
to the religious right.”
The Reagans’ split with Bush and the party centers around stem cell research which many believe can
help find a cure for Alzheimer’s, the disease that crippled President Reagan in his final years. Bush and
the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party oppose use of new stem cells. The Reagans, with
the exception of Michael, support such use.
There’s more to the feud than that, however. Nancy Reagan has told close followers she believes Bush
and the current Republican leadership have divided America with their extreme views. She has told
Republican leaders she wants nothing to do with the party or Bush.
During the week of Reagan’s funeral, the former First Lady “went ballistic” when she learned the Bush
campaign was test marketing new ads that used Reagan’s photos and speeches in an effort to show he
supported Bush and his re-election. She personally called Republican Party Chief Ed Gillespie to
demand the ads be destroyed.
Republican strategists admit the ads were produced but never ran. They were pulled after scoring
poorly with focus groups where viewers found them in “poor taste.”
“Mrs. Reagan doesn’t care why the ads were pulled. She just wanted to make sure they never went on
the air,” says a spokesman for the First Lady. “She does care about whether or not the memory of
President Reagan is used for political purposes.”
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4935.shtml
