The Clothes Have No Emperor Part 8

7/5/83.

"It would be totally uncharacteristic and quite incredible that I would hand anybody a book I knew to be from the Carter campaign and say this might be helpful to the debate."

--William Casey denying James Baker's accusation that he was the source of the Carter briefing book, binder or no binder 7/6/83.

Nancy Reagan, 62, celebrates her 60th birthday.

7/7/83.

Vicki Morgan, 30, is bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Her roommate, Marvin Pancoast whom she met four years ago when they were both patients at a mental hospital confesses to the murder. "Vicki was special," Pancoast recalls fondly. "You just couldn't get enough of her." Until, of course, you could.

7/20/83.

House Majority Leader Jim Wright recalls a conversation in which President Reagan voiced his suspicions about student loans: "'Well, Jim, I don't know,' he said. 'They tell me that a lot of these kids are taking out these loans and putting them in CDs [certificates of deposit] and not even going to college.'"

7/26/83.

At his 19th press conference, President Reagan is asked why there are no women on his 12-man commission on Central America. "Maybe," he suggests, "it's because we're doing so much and appointing so many that we're no longer seeking a token or something."

7/26/83.

Reagan appointee Thomas Ellis acknowledges at a Senate hearing that he belongs to an all-white country club, was a recent guest of the government of South Africa (where he has extensive holdings) and served as director of a group that financed research on the genetic inferiority of blacks. Still, he says, "I do not believe in my heart that I'm a racist." He withdraws his name two days later.

AUGUST 1983.

8/2/83.

Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO) says that Reagan is "perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency ... nothing sticks to him. He is responsible for nothing civil rights, Central America, the Middle East, the economy, the environment. He is just the master of ceremonies at someone else's dinner."

8/2/83.

Claiming to be "perplexed" by continuing accounts of Americans going hungry, President Reagan establishes a Task Force on Food a.s.sistance to explain it to him.

8/3/83.

New York Times: POVERTY RATE ROSE TO 15% IN '82, HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE MID-1960'S 8/3/83.

President Reagan tells a convention of women's clubs, "If it wasn't for women, us men would still be walking around in skin suits carrying clubs." The gals are not amused.

8/4/83.

Rita Lavelle is indicted for perjury in connection with her congressional testimony about the toxic waste cleanup fund.

8/13/83.

Addressing a church group in Anaheim, California, James Watt compares those who fail to speak out against abortion to "the forces that created the Holocaust" by offering no resistance to Hitler.

8/22/83.

Barbara Honegger resigns her job at the Justice Department after writing an Op-Ed piece for The Was.h.i.+ngton Post The Was.h.i.+ngton Post in which she calls Reagan's policies toward women "a sham." Described by a department spokesman as a "low-level munchkin," she holds a news conference three days later to display a photograph of herself with President Reagan. "They called me a Munchkin," she says. "This is me with the Wizard of Oz." in which she calls Reagan's policies toward women "a sham." Described by a department spokesman as a "low-level munchkin," she holds a news conference three days later to display a photograph of herself with President Reagan. "They called me a Munchkin," she says. "This is me with the Wizard of Oz."

SEPTEMBER 1983.

9/1/83.

A Soviet fighter mistakenly shoots down Korean Air Lines flight 007 after it strays into Soviet airs.p.a.ce, killing 269. George Shultz calls Tip O'Neill to tell him about the incident. "What does the President think about this?" asks O'Neill. "We'll tell him when he wakes up," says Shultz. Only after CBS shows President Reagan on horseback at his ranch as the crisis unfolds does he reluctantly return to Was.h.i.+ngton.

9/8/83.

"I think it's great. Now when I whisper sweet nothings in his ear, I know that he'll hear me."

--Nancy Reagan on her husband's new hearing aid 9/15/83.

President Reagan wears his new hearing aid at a state dinner, prompting fas.h.i.+on-conscious guest Merv Griffin to exclaim, "I think everybody's running out to get them whether they need them or not." Despite Griffin's fatuous comment, there is in fact no surge in the purchase of unnecessary hearing aids.

9/17/83.

Vanessa Williams (Miss New York) becomes the first black Miss America.

9/19/83.

Press secretary Sheila Tate acknowledges that Nancy Reagan whose recent weight loss has become the subject of considerable speculation is down from a size 6 to a size 4. She denies that the First Lady is ill.

9/21/83.

James Watt describes the makeup of his coal-leasing commission to a group of lobbyists. "We have every kind of mix you can have," he says. "I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple." As a public furor erupts, a spokesman explains that Watt "was attempting to convey that this is a very broadly based commission."

9/22/83.

Despite James Watt's hastily written letter of apology to President Reagan, Bob Dole joins the swelling ranks of those calling for Watt's resignation. "I don't mind him shooting himself in the foot," says Dole, "but I don't think he should be wounding the President and the Republican party in the process."

9/23/83.

National Kidney Foundation president Dr. David A. Ogden decries as "immoral and unethical" a plan by Virginia doctor H. Barry Jacobs to buy kidneys from poor people among them, residents of Third World nations and sell them to wealthier people who need kidney transplants.

9/27/83.

Running the tired Superman shtick into the ground at a GOP fundraising dinner in Was.h.i.+ngton, Henry Kissinger bemoans the difficulties of commuting "from Krypton."

9/27/83.

"If I thought he was bigoted or prejudiced, he wouldn't be part of our administration."

--President Reagan defending James Watt 9/27/83.

Polio victim Bob Brostrom arrives at the White House on crutches to present 120,000 pieces of mail supporting James Watt. If Watt loses his job for saying "cripple," argues Brostrom, then hospitals for "crippled children" should change their names.

9/29/83.

Society gossip columnist Suzy reports that Nancy Reagan is down to a size 2.

OCTOBER 1983.

10/4/83.

At a meeting with congressmen to discuss arms reduction, President Reagan in office for almost three years says he has only recently learned that most of the USSR's nuclear a.r.s.enal is land-based. This elementary information is essential to any rational thinking about disarmament.

10/9/83.

Claiming that his "usefulness" to President Reagan "has come to an end," James Watt resigns. "The press tried to paint my hat black," he says of his troubled tenure, "but I had enough self-image to know the hat was white." He later a.s.sumes a crucifixion pose for photographers.

10/9/83.

Ed Koch having almost choked to death at a Chinese restaurant two years earlier eats so much food and drinks so much wine at an Italian restaurant that he faints in the men's room.

10/11/83.

"I'd tell them to 'just say no.'"

--Nancy Reagan, introducing her catch phrase the magic words that will make the nation's drug problem go away 10/13/83.

Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker is informed that President Reagan has appointed William Clark as unqualified for this job as for all his others to be the new Secretary of the Interior. "You're kidding," says Baker. "Now tell me who it really is."

10/16/83.

Larry Flynt takes out a full-page ad in the nation's major newspapers to announce his candidacy for the presidency. Explaining that he is running as a Republican because he is "wealthy, white" and "p.o.r.nographic," he pledges to "outdo James Watt. I promise to have a black, a woman, two Jews, a cripple, a h.o.m.os.e.xual, an Oriental ... and and a Mexican in my Cabinet." a Mexican in my Cabinet."

10/17/83.

President Reagan appoints retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Robert McFarlane as his third National Security Adviser, and names Rear Adm. John Poindexter to the NSC staff.

10/18/83.

President Reagan is asked if he will pressure Turkey to help resolve unrest in Cyprus. "Oh," he says cluelessly, "I wish the Secretary of State were here."

10/19/83.

Asked at his 20th press conference if he believes that Martin Luther King Jr. had Communist ties, President Reagan alludes to a court order sealing transcripts of phone taps until 2018, quipping, "We'll know in about 35 years, won't we?" And what about the safety of the US Marines in Beirut? "We're looking at everything that can be done to try and make their position safer," he says. "We're not sitting idly by."

10/23/83.

A truck bomb at the US barracks in Beirut kills 241 Marines.

10/24/83.

In the face of serious political strife on the island of Grenada, Larry Speakes calls press speculation about a US invasion "preposterous."

10/25/83.

Claiming that US medical students there are in grave danger, President Reagan diverts attention from the Beirut fias...o...b.. launching an invasion of Grenada. Lest there be any doubt about Presidential involvement in this decision, photos are released showing a pajama-clad Reagan up at 5:15 a.m.! being briefed on the situation. Curiously, reporters are prevented from covering the invasion.

10/26/83.

American students from Grenada kiss the tarmac upon landing in South Carolina. Scoffs school bursar Gary Solin, "Our safety was never in danger. We were used by this government as an excuse to invade Grenada." President Reagan says US troops "got there just in time" to prevent a Cuban takeover.

10/31/83.

"He only works three to three and a half hours a day. He doesn't do his homework. He doesn't read his briefing papers. It's sinful that this man is President of the United States."

--Tip O'Neill on Ronald Reagan NOVEMBER 1983.

11/2/83.

Pretending that he didn't do all he could to prevent its pa.s.sage, President Reagan signs a bill making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. When the crowd sings "We Shall Overcome," the President does not join in.

11/3/83.

Rev. Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, claiming that he wants to "restore a moral tone" to the national discourse.

11/3/83.

President Reagan explains that the action he ordered in Grenada was not an invasion but was, rather, a "rescue mission." As for a UN resolution deploring this action, "It didn't upset my breakfast at all."

11/3/83.

"Be sure to wear clean, hole-less socks, as you will be required to remove your shoes before entering."

--Memo from Nancy Reagan to reporters covering her upcoming visit to a Tokyo art exhibit 11/7/83.

The New York Times reports a city plan to improve the lives of South Bronx residents by pasting vinyl decals featuring cheery images of curtains, shades, shutters and plants on the boarded-up windows of abandoned tenements. Says a housing official, "Perception is reality." reports a city plan to improve the lives of South Bronx residents by pasting vinyl decals featuring cheery images of curtains, shades, shutters and plants on the boarded-up windows of abandoned tenements. Says a housing official, "Perception is reality."

11/7/83.

For the second time in four months, Vice President Bush breaks a Senate tie by voting to resume the production of nerve gas.

11/10/83.

President Reagan phones Vice President Bush's mother, Dorothy, to a.s.sure her that her boy did the right thing by voting in favor of chemical weapons. "He didn't talk about nerve gas," says Ma Bush, "but I knew what the idea was."

11/12/83.

Reporter William Geist reveals that South Bronx residents have suggested the expansion of the decal program "to provide designer clothing decals to place over ... tattered apparel," along with "large Mercedes-Benz decals to strap to their sides" and "decals of strip sirloin for them to eat."

11/20/83.

One hundred million people see the town of Lawrence, Kansas destroyed in The Day After The Day After, an ABC movie about the aftermath of a nuclear attack. The Administration terrified that the film might remind people how scared they are of President Reagan's hostility to arms control trots out Secretary of State George Shultz afterward to a.s.sure viewers there isn't going to be a war.

11/22/83.