Word: watt
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...Watt was soon issuing apologies all around, including a fairly abject one to President Reagan. "I have made a mistake, Mr. President," Watt wrote, "and I ask the forgiveness of those on the commission as well as you." Watt said his remarks were "extraordinarily unfair" to Reagan, whose policies "are designed to lift the scourge of discrimination from our midst." That may have been Watt's belated recognition that he had not helped the White House in its current campaign to curry favor among women and minorities...
...Watt's off-the-cuff zingers have been a frequent source of pain for the Reagan Administration-not to mention those who have been at the receiving end of them. Unabashedly, indeed excessively, partisan in his politics, Watt has been known to distinguish between Democrats and Republicans as "liberals and Americans." He has compared environmentalists to the forces that created Nazism in Germany. Last year Watt provoked a furor of almost international dimensions after he wrote a letter to then Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Moshe Arens. Watt deplored the possibility that "liberals of the Jewish community" might oppose...
This year, American Indians were outraged after Watt called their reservations, afflicted with high rates of unemployment, drug abuse and alcoholism, examples of "the failure of socialism." Watt apologized. In April, even Nancy Reagan was miffed after Watt banned the Beach Boys from July 4 celebrations at the Mall in Washington, D.C., on the ground that they attracted "an undesirable element." For that gaffe, Reagan awarded Watt a cast statuette of a foot with a hole shot in it. Again, Watt apologized...
Republicans usually have found reasons to excuse Watt's verbal pyrotechnics, or at least let them pass. But this time, some were not so forgiving. Seven G.O.P. Senators joined longstanding Democratic calls for Watt's resignation. A motion to that effect almost reached a vote on the Senate floor before Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker Jr. got wind of the attempt and hastily gaveled the session into recess. Nonetheless, said Republican Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota, "these last remarks have pushed me over the edge...
...President has shown no sign that he is giving up on Watt. White House Spokesman Larry Speakes said Reagan found Watt's comment "embarrassing" but accepted his apology. The President is loyal - to a fault, say some of his aides-to those who are loyal to him; Watt has definitely been that. There may also be a tactical reason for Reagan's tolerance for his ill-spoken Interior Secretary. As the Administration has taken increasingly centrist positions, Watt has provided a kind of ideological protection for Reagan's right flank...