Word: iranscam
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...Monday Chief of Staff Howard Baker and Iranscam Counselor David Abshire held an hour-long session with the President that focused on eight basic issues raised by the Tower commission report. The next morning Reagan was given what one aide called the "50 nastiest, dirtiest questions that could be dreamed up" about Iranscam. That afternoon he discussed them with Baker and Abshire...
...tenure as spokesman, aides were ordered to try to worm likely questions out of correspondents in advance. "We discovered what reporters have known for years," boasts one former staff member, "that if you ask enough, some people will actually tell you. It's hilarious." This time the dominance of Iranscam reduced the need for pressroom espionage...
...buildup was intense, the suspense high. After four months of hiding in the White House from the storm of questions raised by Iranscam, Ronald Reagan was at last ready to brave the inquisitorial rigor of a full-scale news conference. As the hour drew close, one TV commentator likened the atmosphere to the tension before a Super Bowl kickoff. Then the President strode into the East Room of the White House and put on the kind of performance that is common enough in a real Super Bowl but quite rare for Reagan. He triumphed, as Republican Senator Alan Simpson...
...theater it was an effective show, calculated to convey the impression of a President physically and mentally recovered from his Iranscam doldrums and back in charge. But the substance was something else: predictable, uninformative and at times somewhat disturbing. The President said little that went beyond statements he had already issued in other forums. Again and again he repeated his standard defenses: he knew nothing about the diversion of Iranian arms-sales profits to the contras, and not much more about the millions his Government had been raising from foreign sources and private American donors for the contras...
...questioners came into the East Room still buzzing about a sharp blast the day before from the usually mild-mannered Senator Simpson. He snarled that reporters shouting questions at Reagan during a picture-taking session were doing a "sadistic little disservice to your country" by badgering the President about Iranscam. "You'd like to stick it in his gazoo," Simpson charged...