Republicans Mull New Honors for Reagan
Tue Jun 8
news.yahoo.com
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon (news - web sites) would be renamed after Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) and his image placed on some American currency under proposals by congressional Republicans to honor one of their party's most popular former presidents.
While Democrats have joined Republicans in saluting Reagan, who died on Saturday and served as president from 1981-1989, many flinched at giving immediate new honors to the architect of the modern Republican party.
"Let's wait a bit," Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat said on Tuesday. "We'll know at the appropriate time the appropriate thing to do."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, offered amendments on Monday to a defense bill to rename the Pentagon as well as the U.S. Missile Defense Agency after the former president.
Reagan is credited with helping win the Cold War with a massive defense build-up, including a space-based missile-defense program, that also contributed to record federal budget deficits.
Several Republicans, joined by a couple of Democrats, offered an amendment the same day to rename the pending defense measure the "Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005."
A Republican aide predicted the amendment to rename the authorization act would be overwhelmingly approved, but said it was unclear if Frist would push for a vote on his amendments.
On another front, Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican, introduced legislation on Tuesday to have Reagan bump former Democratic President John F. Kennedy off the 50-cent piece.
Reagan would replace another Democrat, former President Andrew Jackson, on the $20 bill under a proposal by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican.
Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, suggested Reagan appear on the $10 bill, now graced with a likeness of Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first U.S. treasury secretary.
"The $10 bill is one of a number of options we are considering to honor Ronald Reagan," said McConnell, declining to elaborate. Others include a stamp, a commemorative coin or a medal to those who champion international peace.
Some Democrats, however, reflected the fierce political partisanship that the conservative Reagan often stirred.
"What's next -- putting Ronald Reagan on Mount Rushmore?" scoffed a senior Democratic congressional aide.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said, "I think we have to allow historians and others with some thought to consider how we might best remember President Reagan officially."
"I think the best way to remember President Reagan is to fully fund Alzheimer's research and to find a cure to that dreaded disease some time soon," Daschle said. Reagan died after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites).
MONUMENTS TO REAGAN
Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said no decision should be made until January -- after this November's congressional and presidential elections.
"They shouldn't be decided in the emotion of a funeral," Grassley said. "They should be decided in the sound judgment of what would be good policy."
The 40th U.S. president already has a number of major monuments to his name. They include the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, the massive Ronald Reagan Building housing federal offices in Washington and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. |
