Word: contra
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...Ronald Reagan once said "is part of every decision . . . part of policymaking here" know the magnitude of the problem long ago? Bush wants the nation to believe he did not -- a claim reminiscent of his assertion that he was out of the loop when Iran-contra went awry. To TIME last week, the President professed surprise. "I've started going over the ((deficit)) numbers finally, and they're enormous," he said. "I've been going over the realities of the budget . . . There are constrained resources . . . We've got to be a little careful in terms of not saying what year...
...field day portraying Bush as a lightweight. Nonetheless, it could permit Bush to accommodate a "newly perceived reality" and then allow him to abandon his "no new taxes" promise. If so, the President will undoubtedly be glad to take a passing hit for having been misinformed. Bush survived Iran- contra, when reporters and adversaries were rooting around in his record to prove his complicity. He is even more likely to survive an Ignorance Sting, since most responsible Congressmen and economists have been hoping that he will somehow wake up and do "the right thing...
...Jackson. His time in Washington has given Duffy an appreciation for one of the first principles of reporting governmental affairs: hurry up and wait. Duffy has spent entire days -- followed by long nights -- waiting outside closed doors to learn the latest twist about tax- reform negotiations or the Iran-contra investigations...
Liberals still fulminate about the so-called Teflon factor that ostensibly insulated Reagan from the penalties for his weaknesses and mistakes. This complaint ignores some large facts. No Teflon protected Reagan's approval rating during the 1981-82 recession or the Iran-contra debacle. Moreover, commentators have shouted themselves hoarse warning about the dangers of the budget deficits...
Reagan went into his second term with a lackluster cadre of close advisers determined to "let Reagan be Reagan." The energy level dropped, and so did the level of expertise. Only after the traumas of the Republicans' 1986 loss of the Senate and the Iran-contra scandal upset the chessboard did Reagan put effective knights into play again. But he had lost two precious years in the interim, and with them the initiative in dealing with accumulating problems...