FOR THE RECORD

Guess who turns out to be The Great Satan in eyes of American people: the Ayatollah Khomeini. Administration’s major crime wasn’t diverting funds to the Contras, it seems, but selling arms to Iran. . . . William Schneider of American Enterprise Institute says Administration underestimated Americans’ feeling about Khomeini: “Most polls show that Iran ranks even lower than the Soviet Union.” . . . Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey: “The public could understand giving money or arms to Afghanistan or some other part of the world, but they can’t understand our dealing with Ayatollah Khomeini.” . . . Gov. William Jank-low of South Dakota: “There are not five people out there who want to send arms to Iran. The only way we want to give them arms is dropping them from the bay of a B-l bomber at thirty thousand feet.” . . . Latest CBS/New York Times poll confirms this: Nearly four times as many (26 per cent) thought the arms sale to Iran was the “worst” aspect of the situation as thought the funneling of funds to the Contras was (7 per cent). That same poll showed the President’s approval rating settling at 47, up one point from November 30 poll. How ever, it also showed that 47 per cent of the people thought Reagan was lying about Contra sale, while 37 per cent believed him. . . . In White House Communications Chief Patrick Buchanan’s now famous Op-Ed piece defending the President, he singles out Sens. Strom Thurmond and Ted Stevens as Republican politicians who did not “head for the long grass” at the first sign that their “President was in trouble.” … On President Reagan’s complaint in Time magazine that newsmen were like “sharks circling” with “blood in the water,” Eugene Patterson of liberal St. Petersburg Times commented that that was an apt description and added, “It’s about time.” Patterson thinks the President “has had a free ride for six years.”

Jack Kemp, who went public with a presidential exploratory team last week, also took a couple of knocks. Howard Phillips of Conservative Caucus, who says he is closer in political philosophy to Kemp than to Robert Dole, criticized Kemp for not giving the party leadership on Contra question “before the whole idea of American support for these people goes down the drain.” . . . Kemp, a longtime and effective supply-sider, also lost support of Arthur Laffer, who has pledged his troth to George Bush. . . . On Democratic side, Gary Hart still leads the pack with 32 per cent, to 27 for Cuomo and 26 for lacocca, but just ten months back the figures were: Hart 46, Cuomo 23, lacocca 17. . . . Teddy Kennedy is out testing waters for Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, a very dark horse who has, however, says the Boston Globe, “all but been endorsed by former New York City Mayor John Lindsay.”

Featured Tags

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

ACLU

Gay Marriage

Presidential Election

Guess who turns out to be The Great Satan in eyes of American people: the Ayatollah Khomeini. Administration’s major crime wasn’t diverting funds to the Contras, it seems, but selling arms to Iran. . . . William Schneider of American Enterprise Institute says Administration underestimated Americans’ feeling about Khomeini: “Most polls show that Iran ranks even lower than the Soviet Union.” . . . Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey: “The public could understand giving money or arms to Afghanistan or some other part of the world, but they can’t understand our dealing with Ayatollah Khomeini.” . . . Gov. William Jank-low of South Dakota: “There are not five people out there who want to send arms to Iran. The only way we want to give them arms is dropping them from the bay of a B-l bomber at thirty thousand feet.” . . . Latest CBS/New York Times poll confirms this: Nearly four times as many (26 per cent) thought the arms sale to Iran was the “worst” aspect of the situation as thought the funneling of funds to the Contras was (7 per cent). That same poll showed the President’s approval rating settling at 47, up one point from November 30 poll. How ever, it also showed that 47 per cent of the people thought Reagan was lying about Contra sale, while 37 per cent believed him. . . . In White House Communications Chief Patrick Buchanan’s now famous Op-Ed piece defending the President, he singles out Sens. Strom Thurmond and Ted Stevens as Republican politicians who did not “head for the long grass” at the first sign that their “President was in trouble.” … On President Reagan’s complaint in Time magazine that newsmen were like “sharks circling” with “blood in the water,” Eugene Patterson of liberal St. Petersburg Times commented that that was an apt description and added, “It’s about time.” Patterson thinks the President “has had a free ride for six years.”

Jack Kemp, who went public with a presidential exploratory team last week, also took a couple of knocks. Howard Phillips of Conservative Caucus, who says he is closer in political philosophy to Kemp than to Robert Dole, criticized Kemp for not giving the party leadership on Contra question “before the whole idea of American support for these people goes down the drain.” . . . Kemp, a longtime and effective supply-sider, also lost support of Arthur Laffer, who has pledged his troth to George Bush. . . . On Democratic side, Gary Hart still leads the pack with 32 per cent, to 27 for Cuomo and 26 for lacocca, but just ten months back the figures were: Hart 46, Cuomo 23, lacocca 17. . . . Teddy Kennedy is out testing waters for Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, a very dark horse who has, however, says the Boston Globe, “all but been endorsed by former New York City Mayor John Lindsay.”