No Mystery at All in Reagan

Here’s a real story about Ronald Reagan you won’t read in that new, wacky, windbag biography of America’s 40th president and California’s 33rd governor:

About 30 years ago, the governor was presiding over a Cabinet meeting while some agency head droned on about prison staffing. Back against the wall sat a young lieutenant governor’s aide, Steve Merksamer. He remembers it well:

“This guy mentioned that, ‘We have chaplains for Protestant inmates and chaplains for Catholic inmates.’ Reagan had on these half glasses and his eyes went up. He said, ‘Hold on. What were you saying again about chaplains?’ ”

After the comment was repeated, the conversation proceeded like this:

Reagan: “You didn’t mention Jewish chaplains.”

Official: “Sir, we don’t have much of a need.”

Reagan: “Are you telling me there are no Jewish prisoners?”

Official: “No, sir, but there are very, very few. We can have our Protestant and Catholic chaplains take care of their needs.”

Reagan: “Well, that’s just not acceptable to me. I want that changed. If we have Jewish inmates--even if there’s just one Jewish inmate--I want Jewish chaplains.”

Merksamer remembers “dead silence” until the governor spoke again: “Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And that was it,” Merksamer says. “I’m 23 years old, watching Ronald Reagan in action for the first time. He illustrates great compassion and sensitivity and empathy and leadership all in about 20 seconds. And then he goes on. And don’t think that didn’t have a profound impact on me, particularly as a Jew.”

Later, Merksamer became chief-of-staff to Gov. George Deukmejian. And last time he checked, California’s prisons still had Jewish chaplains.

*

This true tale came to mind as I watched Reagan biographer/fabricator Edmund Morris on “60 Minutes” last Sunday, asserting that his subject was not “compassionate.” Also, that he was “inscrutable . . . a mystery . . . truly one of the strangest men who’s ever lived.”

In the book--”Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan”--Morris finds the man to be “an apparent airhead.”

Yet, he also calls him “a great president.”

Go figure.

The author--despite an enviable 14-year work schedule, unlimited access to the Reagan White House and a $3-million advance--admits he never could figure out one of history’s most remarkable Americans.

Perhaps that’s because Morris, 59, a Kenyan who moved to America 31 years ago, never had written about politics or the White House. His acclaimed biography of Theodore Roosevelt ended short of TR’s presidency. Perhaps he’s just the latest individual--most of them elitists or liberals--to underestimate Reagan, to puzzle at how a B-actor of simple roots and right-wing leanings could rise to such heights. Perhaps he was looking for Citizen Kane’s “Rosebud.” Searching too hard for the wizard behind the curtain.

There was nothing behind the curtain because Reagan always was out front. You got what you saw: A sincere man of conviction and tenacity who could relate to common people and focused on a few goals that had lured him into politics--beating the Commies, cutting taxes and reducing government. He succeeded in the first two. He failed in the third because deficit spending was the price he paid for bringing the Soviets to their knees and ending the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Not much of a mystery.

*

I’ve read the Newsweek excerpts, but probably won’t read the book. Having covered Reagan for 20 years as governor and president, my shelves are full of good “Gipper” books, including excellent biographies by Washington Post reporter Lou Cannon and (for the early career) Times City Editor Bill Boyarsky.

I’m old-fashioned. I want to know whether a book’s fact or fiction. Morris obviously was overwhelmed by his task and choked. Then he took the easy course by inserting fictitious characters and events into the narrative.

Save your $35 and buy a new Reagan license plate for $50. It goes to a good cause--children’s tours at the Reagan Library. And the mugshot of the smiling cowboy on the plate will be as informative as the arty 874-page book.

One more story, from Dennis Revell, husband of daughter Maureen Reagan: After they’d watched “60 Minutes,” their daughter Rita asked, “If granddad wasn’t sick and he saw this, what would he have said?”

Maureen: “He’d probably have said, ‘Well, gee, I kinda liked that fella. I wonder why he didn’t like me?’ ”

Reagan liked practically everybody. That was one of his secrets. But it was no mystery.