Iran-Contra Connection: Reagan’s Watergate?
Now that everyone is pointing fingers of blame and responsibility regarding what is merely the latest, and most outlandish, Reagan Administration fiasco, I have a couple fingers of my own to point.
First, at the American public. Through all of the dubious and sleazy operations, foreign misadventures and blundering that this Administration has indulged in from Day One, the public has kept its collective head firmly implanted in the sand. And every time, no matter what the consequences, President Reagan has walked away unscathed, his high popularity and job approval ratings intact.
Second, congressional Democrats, for all their high-minded outrage, should not be let off the hook. Their paltry performance in opposition to this right-wing, aggressively ideological Administration has to rate as one of the sorriest spectacles in American political history. Time and again, they allowed Reagan to cajole and bully them into voting for one piece of crackpot legislation after another, often against their own better judgment and instincts.
Under the circumstances, the President and those around him can hardly be blamed for thinking that there was nothing they couldn’t get away with.
MARCIA SIMONSON
Los Angeles
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