A Great Puppet-in Chief

I don't think Reagan was supposed to win in '80. After all, the former head of the CIA was running against him, and the CIA knows how to get people "elected." Maybe it was his Sinatra contacts. Maybe he just struck a cord with people. We like movie stars in this country, I'm told.

In 1981 they tried to fix that. John Hinckley shot him and yet Reagan did not die. Here is an interesting article that came out very soon after. John Hinckley's brother Scott was to have had dinner at Neil Bush's house that very night. Just a coincidence, of course. Proves nothing. So, alas, Bush would have to wait a whole 7 more years to run the show. At least openly.

Reagan may not have known of all the torture and murder his administration backed in the 80's, particularly in Central America. He just read his script each day. But if you want to know who was really behind all that nastiness, you just have to look at George Jr.'s administration. Many of those same nasty people have resurfaced. John Negroponte is now ambassador to Iraq. John Poindexter was in charge of the Total Information Awareness project that was shut down in order to draw attention away from the numerous such projects going full steam ahead. Otto Reich just joined moved into the Bush re-election team. Eliot Abrams is still smarming about in search of lips. If you recognize these names from Iran-Contra, give yourself four marks.

I am no expert on Iran-Contra, myself. And we'll never know all the details, such as how intimately CIA drug running was tied into the affair. Maybe John Tower, who chaired the Commission appointed to whitewash Iran-Contra, knew something more, but he died in one of those pesky plane crashes that seem to plague our politicians.

In any event, Reagan played his part well. Bush Jr. shows you just how low the quality of our political puppets has sunk since Reagan's strings were pulled.