The Clothes Have No Emperor Part 15

JUNE 1985.

6/5/85.

David Stockman observes that if the Securities and Exchange Commission had jurisdiction over the way the executive and legislative branches of government have handled the deficit, "many of us would be in jail."

6/14/85.

TWA Flight 847 is hijacked to Beirut by Lebanese s.h.i.+tes who show they mean business by killing US Marine Robert Dean Stethem, 23, and dumping his body onto the tarmac. With pa.s.sengers periodically brought forward to meet the press, the 16-day crisis is the first to feature a "hostage spokesman," Texas businessman Allyn Conwell, whose apparent grat.i.tude for his new-found celebrity leads him to express an inappropriate degree of support for his captors' cause.

6/19/85.

"Wow. You know, I may turn my head here to Don Regan again ... For me to try and off the top of my head bring up some of the other benefits ... Now, wait a minute."

--President Reagan asking for help after an Indiana businessman erroneously a.s.sumes he can explain his own tax plan 6/19/85.

"They turned out the lights. That tells me I can't talk anymore."

--President Reagan explaining that he is not allowed to answer any more questions 6/19/85.

An ABC crew is allowed to interview TWA Flight 847 pilot John Testrake. What does he think will happen if a rescue attempt is made? "I think," says Testrake, speaking from the window of the plane with a gun held to his head, "we would all be dead men."

6/25/85.

Henry Kissinger appears on Nightline Nightline to decry the willingness of the networks to turn over chunks of air time to events orchestrated by the media-savvy TWA terrorists. "If the n.a.z.is had invited networks to Auschwitz to watch people marching off to the gas chambers," he asks, "would it be appropriate news coverage to cover that?" to decry the willingness of the networks to turn over chunks of air time to events orchestrated by the media-savvy TWA terrorists. "If the n.a.z.is had invited networks to Auschwitz to watch people marching off to the gas chambers," he asks, "would it be appropriate news coverage to cover that?"

"Absolutely!" says his stunned friend Ted Koppel. "Can you imagine what the outrage of the world would have been? ... I can't imagine that you would think otherwise." Kissinger wisely does not pursue his point.

6/25/85.

Richard M. Nixon provides an update on his health. "I have fully recovered from the s.h.i.+ngles," he says. "There were times when the blisters [on his upper back] would break and I would bleed right through my s.h.i.+rt and suit jackets. I ruined at least four suits."

6/30/85.

The 39 TWA hostages whose captors threw them a farewell party at a seaside hotel are freed in Beirut. During a sound check prior to announcing their release, President Reagan says, "Boy, after seeing Rambo Rambo last night, I know what to do the next time this happens." last night, I know what to do the next time this happens."

Dismissing White House annoyance at the reporting of this latest blurt, ABC bureau chief George Watson says, "He's certainly tempting the hands of electronic fate. The mike is open, the room is completely quiet, everybody in the world is waiting for him to say something, and he says something he doesn't want anybody to hear."

JULY 1985.

7/4/85.

"What I remember about V-J Day is that Mrs. Nixon and I went to Times Square to celebrate, and I got my pocket picked. Never forgot that! In those days we didn't have a great deal of money. Sort of put a damper on the day."

--Richard M. Nixon reminiscing to Time Time on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II 7/6/85.

Nancy Reagan, 64, celebrates her 62nd birthday.

7/9/85.

David Stockman resigns his position as Budget Director to take a job on Wall Street and write his White House memoir, for which Harper and Row pays him over $2 million.

7/9/85.

Ed Meese tells the American Bar a.s.sociation that the authors of the Const.i.tution would find recent Supreme Court decisions affirming the separation of church and state "somewhat bizarre."

7/10/85.

Playboy and and Penthouse Penthouse both claim to be first on the newsstands with years-old nude photos of Madonna. "I think they're very European," says both claim to be first on the newsstands with years-old nude photos of Madonna. "I think they're very European," says Playboy Playboy spokesman Elizabeth Norris of her magazine's layout. "She has hair under her arms." spokesman Elizabeth Norris of her magazine's layout. "She has hair under her arms."

7/10/85.

Coca-Cola announces that while it will continue to market the new c.o.ke that everyone hates, it will also bring back the original formula under the brand name "Coca-Cola Cla.s.sic."

7/13/85.

Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof organizes Live Aid a 16-hour rock 'n' roll telethon broadcast from London and Philadelphia to 152 countries, and featuring most of the hot acts of the day. The event raises tens of millions of dollars for Ethiopian famine victims. Among the bands reuniting for the day are Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. "Isn't it great to be here?" says Ozzy Osbourne. "Now, here's 'Paranoid.'"

7/13/85.

Acting President George Bush presides over a seven hour and 54 minute mini-Administration while a large polyp and two feet of colon are removed from acting President Reagan.

7/15/85.

Revealing that Reagan's polyp was malignant, Dr. Steven Rosenberg says, "The President has cancer." Reagan has a slightly different take: "The polyp had cancer."

7/15/85.

A frighteningly ill-looking Rock Hudson shows up at a Hollywood press conference to help his friend Doris Day promote an upcoming cable show. Ten days later, a hospital in Paris, where the actor has flown for treatment, announces that he has AIDS.

7/16/85.

Nancy Reagan who has decreed that only she and Donald Regan are allowed to visit her husband brings him a Snoopy jigsaw puzzle.

7/19/85.

George Bush announces that New Hamps.h.i.+re high school teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe has been chosen as the first "citizen" astronaut. "I'm still kind of floating," she says. "I don't know when I'll come down to earth."

7/22/85.

An arrest warrant is issued in Los Angeles for Ed Meese, who owes $130.50 for an unpaid $10 jaywalking ticket he received in 1980. He pays the fine.

7/29/85.

Despite one of its main engines failing six minutes into its flight the first malfunction during take-off in the s.p.a.ce shuttle program the Challenger lands safely after an eight-day journey.

7/31/85.

Ryan White, 13, a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, is barred from returning to school in Indiana.

AUGUST 1985.

8/1/85.

With President Reagan sporting a bandage on his nose, Larry Speakes acknowledges that "a small area of irritated skin on the right side of the President's nose was removed." According to presidential physician T. Burton Smith, no biopsy was performed on the "little pimple type of thing." Nancy Reagan reiterates that no biopsy none! was performed.

8/5/85.

President Reagan reveals that a biopsy performed on his nose skin proved that the irritation was skin cancer. "I violated all the rules," he says of the pimple. "I picked at it and I squoze it and so forth, and messed myself up a little bit ... And then my little friend that I had played with began to come back." While some previous President could conceivably have used the non-word "squoze," it seems certain that none ever referred to a cancerous nose pimple as "my little friend."

8/5/85.

Ed Meese flies to Arkansas to chop down marijuana stalks for the cameras. Bad weather forces him to settle for posing with a pile of already confiscated plants.

8/6/85.

Larry Speakes who had minimized the seriousness of the President's nose cancer to the point where he claimed, wrongly, that no anesthesia had been required during its removal reacts badly when reporters accuse him of misleading them. "If you look very carefully at my words," he says, "you will find that there is a substantial body of accurate information there." Reporters just laugh.

8/15/85.

In a speech broadcast world-wide by satellite, South African leader P.W. Botha rejects any significant tension-easing reforms. President Reagan doesn't bother to watch.

8/19/85.

The New York Times begins a series exploring baseball's love affair with cocaine. Among the revelations: begins a series exploring baseball's love affair with cocaine. Among the revelations: *Tim Raines of the Expos would slide into bases head first to protect the vial of c.o.ke he carried in his pocket *Manager Billy Martin searched Yankee players' lockers and bags during games *Cocaine orders were frequently placed from and delivered to the Royals' clubhouse where, according to the dealer, "players talked about baseball while using drugs, and talked about drugs while playing baseball."

8/19/85.

A Buffalo, New York police officer shoots himself in the foot while chasing a bare-chested man wearing fatigues and carrying a rifle. The "gunman" turns out to be an actor delivering a "Rambo-gram."

8/20/85.

Seeking to block economic sanctions against South Africa, Rev. Jerry Falwell calls Bishop Desmond Tutu "a phony" and urges Americans to buy Krugerrands (South African gold coins).

8/24/85.

President Reagan tells an interviewer that the "reformist administration" of South African president P.W. Botha has made significant progress on the racial front. "They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country," says the President, "the type of thing where hotels and restaurants and places of entertainment and so forth were segregated that has all been eliminated."

8/25/85.

The White House confirms reports that during his oft- recalled days as head of the Screen Actors Guild, President Reagan doubled as an FBI informant (T-10) whose area of expertise was Communist influence in post-World War II Hollywood.

8/25/85.

"I would consider myself in the forefront of the civil rights movement in the country today ... There is no one who is more adamant in defense of civil rights, no one who is more opposed to discrimination in any form, no one who is more the champion of minorities, and of all citizens for that matter, than I am."

--Ed Meese to David Brinkley, who is too much of a gentleman to laugh in his face 8/26/85.

"Not totally, no."

--Larry Speakes on whether President Reagan really thinks racial segregation has been eliminated in South Africa 8/29/85.

20/20 broadcasts a segment featuring Geraldo Rivera running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. broadcasts a segment featuring Geraldo Rivera running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

SEPTEMBER 1985.

9/2/85.

"I think Harry would be very pleased."

--President Reagan in Independence, Missouri, standing in front of a statue of Truman who, he absurdly claims, would smile on his tax cuts for the rich 9/4/85.

a.s.sessing President Reagan's standing in the latest Gallup poll, Larry Speakes says, with no irony, "He didn't get to 65 points with a song and a dance and a nice smile."

9/4/85.

Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch whose recent efforts to buy seven Metromedia TV stations have been blocked by a law limiting foreign owners.h.i.+p of broadcast licenses becomes a US citizen.

9/8/85.

Theodore Streleski is freed from a California prison after serving seven years for beating a Stanford professor to death with a hammer. Explaining his lack of remorse, he says, "I say Stanford treats students criminally. If I express remorse, I cut the ground out from under that argument. I would not only be a murderer but a dirty lying dog. I am a murderer. I am not a dirty lying dog."

9/9/85.

Promoting his appearance in the movie When Nature Calls When Nature Calls, Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy says the story about him eating rats as a child "has grown way out of proportion." Explains Liddy, "I only ate the left hind quarter. Of one rat."

9/12/85.

Responding to Mario Cuomo's criticism that his tax plan will hit the middle cla.s.s the hardest, President Reagan says, "If I may use a word that people our age will remember, 'Balderdas.h.!.+'" Responding to Reagan's response, Cuomo says, "Balderdash? He used that in a movie once. The President has a perfect right to use any words he wants. I have a different lexicon."

9/17/85.

At his 32nd press conference, President Reagan calls SDI "a weapon that won't kill people. It'll kill weapons."

9/18/85.

"I thought that Le Duc Tho had discovered some hidden physical attraction for me. He couldn't keep his hands off me."

--Henry Kissinger revealing a little-known aspect of the Vietnam Peace talks 9/19/85.

At the urging of Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James) and Tipper Gore (wife of Tennessee senator Albert), the Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing about whether stickers should be placed on alb.u.ms warning parents about dirty rock lyrics. Says Sen. Paul Trible (R-VA), "I believe this may well be the most important hearing conducted by the Commerce Committee this year.

9/21/85.

"I never liked him. I don't like him now. And I never will like him."

--Barry Goldwater on Richard M. Nixon 9/26/85.

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) adds an amendment to an appropriations bill forbidding the use of any funds for the benefit of "any cult, organization or other group that has a purpose, or that has any interest in, the promoting of Satanism or witchcraft." It is adopted without debate.