His Name Gets Respect--and Lots of Telephone Calls
Sri Lanka called to offer gifts; French businessmen requested a meeting. Ronald K. Ragen turned them down.
“They wanted the other guy,” said the Portland, Ore., lawyer, who just happens to be staying at the same hotel as the President. “It happens all the time.”
Ragen, vacationing with his family, is staying at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. President Reagan, here for the 40th anniversary observances of the United Nations, is staying in the Presidential Suite in the adjacent Waldorf Towers.
“When we arrived, they sent us to the tower by mistake,” Ragen said. “They ushered us back quickly.”
But the hotel switchboard has not been as successful in discerning the difference between the lawyer and the chief executive. Ragen’s phone has been ringing off the hook.
As far as anyone knows, the President has not had to field any of the lawyer’s calls.
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