Reagan Stresses Family Values While Hart Laments Iran Scandal

While President Reagan used his weekly radio talk on Saturday for a Christmas message, Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), responding for the Democrats, concentrated on the Iranian arms scandal and reminded the Reagan Administration that “democracy is the enemy of secrecy, and vice versa.”

Hart, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said that “full disclosures must be made by everyone in this Administration” involved in the affair. He called on Congress to “conduct nonpartisan investigations thoroughly but expeditiously.”

Calling the scandal--which went unmentioned in Reagan’s talk--only the latest example of abuses of government power by both parties, Hart suggested that such abuses have soured many young people on the political process.

Abuse of Powers

“How ironic that so many who claim to distrust big government so often misuse and abuse its powers,” Hart said. “Sadly, partisanship offers few distinctions here: Attempts to assassinate foreign leaders during the Kennedy Administration; misleading reports about our progress in Vietnam during the Johnson Administration; burglaries and cover-ups during the Nixon Administration, and now, secret arms deals, payoffs, avoidance of the law, ‘Irangate.’

“And we ask why more young people do not participate in politics or even vote in elections. Cynical attempts to manage the news, secret attempts to bypass the law, arrogant attempts to substitute rigid ideology for democratic consensus all bring shame on our government and devalue our credibility with our own and other people.”

Hart voiced hope, however, that “lessons will be learned” by future administrations because “we have no other choice” except to restore public trust to keep democracy functioning.

Met With Gorbachev

Recalling his meeting last week in Moscow with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Hart said it convinced him that the summit in Iceland between Reagan and Gorbachev “represents the potential for a historic reversal in the upward spiral of nuclear weapons.” He said he agreed with Gorbachev that “this issue was too important to our nation and our children to let any time be wasted” in negotiating disarmament agreements.

Family Is ‘Fundamental’

Reagan, who devoted his Dec. 6 talk to the Iranian arms scandal, used Saturday’s broadcast to wish the nation a “merry Christmas” and to reassert his belief in the family as “the fundamental unit of American life.”

The President said the family “has come under virtual attack” from “government rule-writers” and some educators and was losing resources “in the form of taxes,” and “could be and should be much, much stronger.” He said he was giving “serious consideration” to a working group report on ways to strengthen families, but gave no further clue to its contents.

Reagan asked his listeners to recall “one still night long ago” when Christ was born. Then, he read from the Gospel of St. Luke to recount the story of the angel’s bringing “good tidings of great joy” to shepherds outside Bethlehem.