Nancy & Ron Reagan
spell Dubya trouble
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
BOSTON - Much to the dismay of the
Bush campaign, Nancy Reagan has
just said no to appearing at the
Republican National Convention next
month.
GOP strategists had hoped the
former First Lady and Hollywood
actress would make a cameo
appearance onstage after a video
tribute to her late husband,
particularly after her Bush-bashing
son, Ron, agreed to speak at the
Democratic convention last night.
In an impassioned defense of
stem-cell research, Ron Reagan
toned down his rhetoric but still
delivered one unmistakable shot that
all but invited Americans to vote
against President Bush.
"In a few months, we will face a
choice," Reagan told delegates in an
otherwise apolitical speech with
mannerisms and rhetorical flourishes
that brought to mind his famous
father. "We can choose between the future and the past,
between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and
mere ideology."
GOP sources, meanwhile, confirmed his mother will not be at
their Aug. 30-Sept. 2 convention - and some speculated her son
might be behind the snub.
"I do not expect her at our convention but she knows she is
welcome," Republican National Committee Chairman Ed
Gillespie told reporters here yesterday.
"If all of you might just keep in mind for a moment the year that
Mrs. Reagan has had and be a little understanding of that, I think
that would be appreciated by the public and, I suspect, by Mrs.
Reagan," Gillespie added.
Republican officials refrained from publicly criticizing Nancy
Reagan for the no-show. Privately, however, some were upset
as well as disappointed by the decision, which has been known
to the White House for some time.
"I don't think she could have missed the symbolic significance of
her son going to their convention and her not going to ours," a
senior GOP official told the Daily News.
Friends of the 83-year-old former First Lady said she is
understandably still grieving for her husband, who died June 5
after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.
"My guess is that she reached the point of emotional exhaustion
in dealing with the old man's final goodbye," a prominent
California Republican source told the Daily News. "But I was a
little surprised she's not going to be there."
A downcast senior GOP official confirmed Nancy Reagan had
never committed to appearing at the convention, but was
nevertheless dubious of the official explanation.
"The 'not feeling up to it' line is bull----," the official said.
"Something happened in the last month, and whatever it was
was real."
Aides to the former President did not return calls seeking
comment. In recent years, Nancy Reagan has curtailed her
public schedule, but last week greeted the new aircraft carrier
named for her husband when it arrived at its San Diego
homeport.
Long before her husband's death, Bush-Cheney and GOP
campaign strategists were eager to have her appear at the
convention, even though her support for expanding stem-cell
medical research using fetal tissue implicitly criticizes Bush's
more restrictive approach.
Originally published on July 28, 2004 |
