‘Name Has Been Cleared,’ He Says in Radio Talk : Reagan Praises Meese for His Integrity

President Reagan opened his Saturday broadcast with praise for outgoing Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III. He called Meese “a public servant of dedication and integrity,” but Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), in the Democrats’ response, said Meese had “let us down” and urged the choice of a successor able to “restore dignity and integrity to this great office.”

Reagan said: “With the announcement by Ed Meese, now that his name has been cleared, that he will be returning to private life this summer, I would like to take a minute to recognize a public servant of dedication and integrity who has been a close friend for over 20 years.”

In announcing his resignation last week, Meese cited the submission Tuesday of an 830-page report on the investigation of charges against him conducted by independent counsel James C. McKay. Meese said the 14-months-long inquiry had found “no basis for criminal proceedings.”

Denounces ‘False Statements’

The report’s contents had been kept secret by court order, but a portion was published Saturday. Meese, in an interview televised Saturday on CNN but recorded before the leaked information appeared in the New York Times, refused to comment on the report but was critical of “leaks, false statements to the press, the kinds of things that, because of the nature of this investigation, I am unable to answer.”

Responding to questions, Meese said a report that First Lady Nancy Reagan had asked him to quit was “absolutely false,” and said he had come under “absolutely no pressure whatsoever (to resign) from Vice President George Bush or anyone working for him.”

Meese said he could understand the relief a candidate for office would feel when a controversial campaign issue “is no longer viable.” Bush, the prospective Republican presidential nominee, has frequently had to deal with questions about the charges against Meese.

Reagan ignored those allegations in his radio talk, and dealt instead with Meese’s record in law enforcement. He said Meese had “worked for stricter sentencing to put dangerous criminals behind bars,” had fought organized crime, had “led our effort to appoint highly qualified federal judges,” had “led the Justice Department as it aggressively defended civil rights” and had worked with U.S. allies to “detect, apprehend and prosecute” terrorists.

Drug Role Cited

“And in our campaign against the menace of illegal drugs, Ed Meese has been a central figure, serving as chairman of the National Drug Policy Board,” Reagan said.

Reagan went on to disclose that White House employees had been notified Friday that they will be tested at random for drug use beginning in 60 days. He called such testing “a key tool to promote public safety and a drug-free work force” and said he hoped the White House announcement would encourage similar programs in the private sector.

For the Democrats, Rangel, who chairs the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, told the President that Meese “let you down as a personal friend” by failing to perform adequately as the President’s “personal coordinator” in the program against drugs.

Rangel said that the Meese-led drug policy board had failed to spur greater Administration support of anti-drug programs, notably from the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and Education, as well as from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is part of the Justice Department.

Democrats See Failure

“Loyalty is one thing, but when you list those failures of this personal friend, the attorney general, you cannot overlook how he has failed to bring together this team to be engaged in the war on drugs,” Rangel said.

The pervasive problem of drug abuse “is not a local issue, and certainly it can’t be considered a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,” Rangel said. He called on Americans to “stop blaming each other and come together and work together in a joint effort.”

Rangel urged Reagan, when he appoints Meese’s replacement--probably within the next week--to pick someone who “will work with the Congress and help us to prepare legislation that can truly make a national war against drugs.”