Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America by Craig Shirley
Authors: Craig Shirley
Tags: Undefined
Ads: Link
Casey thought he was running the campaign from Virginia while Stu Spencer and the boys on the plane with Reagan thought they were running things. Roger Stone, running New York and Connecticut, and many others in the field had a generally poor impression of Casey. Behind Casey's back, they called him “Bill Spacey” and “Mumbles.” (Apparently Jim Baker used to do a dead-on impression of Casey.) Stone later quipped to Kenny Klinge that no one needed to worry about CIA chief Casey giving away state secrets to the Russians because they would never “understand a fucking word he was saying.”
Years later, Casey was briefing the Reagan cabinet and, according to Jim Baker, sounded as if he had “marbles in his mouth.” Reagan turned to his then–chief of staff, Howard Baker, and said, “Howard, I have never been able to understand Bill Casey.” The chief of staff replied, “Mr. President, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard.”
Still, Casey brought order to the chaotic mess left behind by his predecessor, John Sears. And later, as Reagan's head of the CIA, he too embraced Reagan's vision of the rolling back of Communism in the Western Hemisphere and the eventual destruction of Soviet Communism.
Casey even to this day is underappreciated as a courageous Cold Warrior.
A LMOST THIRTY YEARS LATER , some wounds are still not healed and some will never be.
Many conservatives never liked or trusted RNC head Bill Brock, and he reciprocated the sentiment. Rich Bond, hero of George Bush's astonishing win in Iowa, ended up estranged from Bush's eldest son, George W., even as Bond had in many ways become the unofficial fifth Bush son. According to Bond, there was also “bad blood” between Jim Baker and Karl Rove stemming from 1980. Baker and Lyn Nofziger ended up despising each other, with Nofziger late in his life saying bluntly, “I don't think he's an honorable man. And you can quote me.”
John Sears and Senator Paul Laxalt never recovered from their falling out. In 2007, twenty-eight years after Sears had tried to supplant Laxalt as chairman of the campaign, the former senator asked me to lunch and I suggested that Sears join us, thinking the wounds had healed. Laxalt replied, “Oh, Craig, there's just been too much water over the dam.”
Gerald Ford never really got over his animosity toward Reagan. Neither did Carter.
Meanwhile, Gordon Humphrey has become a recluse in New Hampshire, dodging old friends. John Sears became a lightning rod for criticism, with people to this day either worshipping him or worshipping the quicksand he walks on.
Still, Sears was one of the few in 1980 who saw the Reagan crusade as epochal, a “game changer” in the parlance of the modern era. Almost everybody else simply saw it as just another presidential campaign, to battle over and to do battle with each other.
Old Reagan hand Jeff Bell summed it up in the Weekly Standard : “Many of us on Team Reagan often found ourselves at each other's throats.”
Some of that happened in the Bush camp, too. Dave Keene and George Bush had a tempestuous relationship, to say the least. Keene told me he was convinced that Bush thought he was an “asshole.” Bush may have had some reason to think that. During the campaign, Bush complained to Keene that he was always criticizing him. Keene replied that he “did not know my job description included kissing your ass; I thought there were a lot of people around that would do that for free.”
W AS THE 1980 ELECTION settled on ideology or was it simply a rejection of Carter? The evidence is overwhelming that the election was by and large a rejection of big-government liberalism. As Tom Brokaw told me in an interview, “It was the end of the New Deal.” The young TV reporter had covered Reagan for KNBC in Los Angeles, and when he moved up to the network, he warned the easterners not to underestimate Reagan. They scoffed. Americans had come to see that after
Years later, Casey was briefing the Reagan cabinet and, according to Jim Baker, sounded as if he had “marbles in his mouth.” Reagan turned to his then–chief of staff, Howard Baker, and said, “Howard, I have never been able to understand Bill Casey.” The chief of staff replied, “Mr. President, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard.”
Still, Casey brought order to the chaotic mess left behind by his predecessor, John Sears. And later, as Reagan's head of the CIA, he too embraced Reagan's vision of the rolling back of Communism in the Western Hemisphere and the eventual destruction of Soviet Communism.
Casey even to this day is underappreciated as a courageous Cold Warrior.
A LMOST THIRTY YEARS LATER , some wounds are still not healed and some will never be.
Many conservatives never liked or trusted RNC head Bill Brock, and he reciprocated the sentiment. Rich Bond, hero of George Bush's astonishing win in Iowa, ended up estranged from Bush's eldest son, George W., even as Bond had in many ways become the unofficial fifth Bush son. According to Bond, there was also “bad blood” between Jim Baker and Karl Rove stemming from 1980. Baker and Lyn Nofziger ended up despising each other, with Nofziger late in his life saying bluntly, “I don't think he's an honorable man. And you can quote me.”
John Sears and Senator Paul Laxalt never recovered from their falling out. In 2007, twenty-eight years after Sears had tried to supplant Laxalt as chairman of the campaign, the former senator asked me to lunch and I suggested that Sears join us, thinking the wounds had healed. Laxalt replied, “Oh, Craig, there's just been too much water over the dam.”
Gerald Ford never really got over his animosity toward Reagan. Neither did Carter.
Meanwhile, Gordon Humphrey has become a recluse in New Hampshire, dodging old friends. John Sears became a lightning rod for criticism, with people to this day either worshipping him or worshipping the quicksand he walks on.
Still, Sears was one of the few in 1980 who saw the Reagan crusade as epochal, a “game changer” in the parlance of the modern era. Almost everybody else simply saw it as just another presidential campaign, to battle over and to do battle with each other.
Old Reagan hand Jeff Bell summed it up in the Weekly Standard : “Many of us on Team Reagan often found ourselves at each other's throats.”
Some of that happened in the Bush camp, too. Dave Keene and George Bush had a tempestuous relationship, to say the least. Keene told me he was convinced that Bush thought he was an “asshole.” Bush may have had some reason to think that. During the campaign, Bush complained to Keene that he was always criticizing him. Keene replied that he “did not know my job description included kissing your ass; I thought there were a lot of people around that would do that for free.”
W AS THE 1980 ELECTION settled on ideology or was it simply a rejection of Carter? The evidence is overwhelming that the election was by and large a rejection of big-government liberalism. As Tom Brokaw told me in an interview, “It was the end of the New Deal.” The young TV reporter had covered Reagan for KNBC in Los Angeles, and when he moved up to the network, he warned the easterners not to underestimate Reagan. They scoffed. Americans had come to see that after
Similar Books
