Word: disavower
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...those comparisons with Watergate needlessly complicate an understanding of Ronald Reagan's problems. Those who make the comparison usually disavow too specific a parallel (the new scandal involves zealots, not scoundrels, etc.). Yet to invoke Watergate implies the playing out of an old scenario (looking for the smoking gun), which leads to only one result, whereas Reagan's destiny can still take a number of turns. Finally, Watergate revives that memory of a period when the press got hopelessly muddled over whether its role was to be observer or participant. It is not anxious to revive that issue...
...whether he now considers the Iran dealings a mistake. I think we took the only action we could have in Iran. I am not going to disavow it. I do not think it was a mistake. No, it has not worked out the way we hoped. But I don't see anything I would have done differently...
...well, he did it for the worthy motives of restoring American influence in a strategically vital nation and securing the release of hostages. "I think we took the only action we could have in Iran," he said in an interview with TIME last week. "I am not going to disavow it. I do not think it was a mistake." Even now he seems unable to appreciate that this action shattered & his own vehemently proclaimed principle of never paying ransom to terrorists, and in the process dented the moral stature and credibility that is the true source of America's unique...
Across the nation, other conflicts have been widening the rift between conservatives and liberals. In one long-running dispute, two radical West Virginia sisters, Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey of the Notre Dame de Namur order, have refused to disavow a newspaper ad they signed in 1984 contending that there are various legitimate Catholic views on abortion. Rome hoped the ad signers would back down gracefully, but Ferraro and Hussey, and perhaps others, insist on a showdown that could end in Vatican-ordered expulsions...
Those concerns grew in March, when Tisch's brother Bob, in an interview with USA Today, declared that the eventual goal of Tisch's policy "is to control CBS." When pressed by CBS board members, Laurence reportedly did not disavow the remark. When pressed further to put into writing his oral commitment to Wyman that he would never buy more than 25% of CBS's stock, he also refused...