Former Wisconsin AG: Gov. Walker’s “Violations” Are Many

More damning news for Governor Scott Walker who is acting more like Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan.

When Gov. Scott Walker discussed strategies to lay off state employees for political purposes, to coordinate supposedly “independent” political expenditures to aid legislators who support his budget repair bill, and to place agent provocateurs on the streets of Madison in order to disrupt peaceful demonstrations, he engaged in what a former attorney general of Wisconsin says could turn out to be serious ethics, election law and labor violations.

Much of the attention to the “prank” call that the governor took from a blogger who identified himself as billionaire David Koch has focused on the bizarre, at times comic, character of the discussion between a blogger posing as a powerful political player on the right and a governor whose budget repair bill has sparked mass demonstrations in Wisconsin communities and a national outcry. But the state’s former chief law-enforcement officer described the governor’s statements as “deeply troubling” and suggested that they would require inquiry and investigation by watchdog agencies.

“There clearly are potential ethics violations, and there are potential election law violations and there are a lot of what look to me like labor law violations,” said Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat who served as Wisconsin’s attorney general after serving for many years as a U.S. attorney. “I think that the ethics violations are something the (state) Government Accountability Board should look into because they are considerable. He is on tape talking with someone who he thinks is the funder of an independent political action committee to purchase advertising to benefit Republican legislators who are nervous about taking votes on legislation he sees as critical to his political success.”

President Ronald Reagan Did Not Make It To My Goal Post Of Leadership

As America gets all giddy about the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan I must be honest.

Ronald Reagan was not my favorite President. 

He was most certainly a nice man, and one that I would have loved to talked with.  He was a showman, an actor.  Perhaps one of the best of that type that ever walked into the Oval Office and stayed a while.  From a purely political point of view, one of a kind.

I loved Reagan’s speech on the night of the horrific Challenger shuttle disaster when he brought tears to my eyes.  I was on-air that night  in 1986 providing coverage from the WDOR radio studios.  It was perhaps the best use of his office to mend a broken-hearted nation.

I loved his appearance in Oshkosh, Wisconsin when I was able to cover his tax reform speech and stand alongside the national press in the risers outside the courthouse.  I will never forget the adrenaline rush when the president took to the stage.  So no one can say I do not respect the office.  I do!

But I was never able to get past President Reagan’s limited range of curiosity about the larger world.  I always sensed his note cards from the 1960’s were never updated, and his world view never expanded beyond his preconceived notions.  I was never able to smile and be gleeful about Reagan in the White House who could nod his head and make nonsense seem like an Oscar-winning moment.  I never could look admiringly like Nancy did and think he was the wisest man in politics.

I always wanted more heft and intellect in my president than Reagan could deliver.

Many in the nation recall the charm and wit of Ronald Reagan.  But I have to say when thinking of Reagan I am more reminded of  Grenada, the tax cuts that ran counter to sound economics, and the bloated military spending which included his dream of a 600-ship navy.

I see more and more myth creation about Reagan today than a real attempt to evaluate his past record.  I guess that is a consequence of Reagan being an affable person.  

After all, and to be honest, I made a very concerted effort to interview President Reagan while working at WDOR.  I wanted the interview to be solely about radio, and his time working as a sports announcer.  I wanted to talk about Reagan’s recollections of the medium while he grew up. 

Needless to say since such an interview has never surfaced on Caffeinated Politics it never took place.  Looking back I know that it would have been a most remarkable aspect about a president caught on audio tape.

So I do understand the human connection that draws so many to admire Ronald Reagan.  As a man.

But as president he  lacked the hard-working drive to match the needs of the office.  To look the part and talk about “morning in America” does not come near to my goal post of what being a leader is all about.

Long Suspected: President Reagan Had Symptoms Of Alzheimer’s In Oval Office

It is truly sad when anyone is struck with Alzheimer’s.   There is no one that would not have snapped their fingers if they could have had Ronald Reagan not suffer this affliction.  I know I would have.

Having said that the news this week will make many historians ponder new assessments of the Gipper’s years in office.

Ron Reagan, son of former President Reagan, reported this week in a new book the aging President did have symptoms Of Alzheimer’s while serving in the Oval Office.  It is not surprising to hear, but it is unsettling when one considers the possible ramifications of such a disease impacting the decision making capabilities of the leader of the free world.

But youngest son Ron Reagan is spoiling the good cheer with a new book that suggests the Gipper suffered from Alzheimer’s disease while in the White House, a claim dismissed by Reagan’s doctors and outside experts. “Had the diagnosis been made in, say, 1987, would he have stepped down?” Ron asks, regarding the disease confirmed in 1994. “I believe he would have,” he writes in My Father At 100: A Memoir, due in bookstores Tuesday. [Poll: Who do you think was the worst president?]

In addition to challenging the former president’s doctors, Ron also reports for the first time that Reagan, right after falling off a horse six months out of the White House, underwent brain surgery, denied by Reagan associates.

Let’s start with the Alzheimer’s diagnosis. It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and “an out-of-touch president” during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn’t recall the names of California canyons he was flying over. Arguing his case in the book, Ron adds that doctors today know that the disease can be in evidence before being recognized. “The question, then, of whether my father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s while in office more or less answers itself,” he writes. [See a gallery of caricatures of Reagan and other pols.]

Besides playing amateur doctor, Ron Reagan reveals, if true, brain surgery on his dad never before reported. He accurately reports that Reagan, after leaving the presidency, was bucked from a horse on July 4, 1989, while in Mexico. Ron tells of how his dad, after initially refusing medical help, was transported to a San Diego hospital. “Surgeons opening his skull to relieve pressure on the brain emerged from the operating room with the news that they had detected what they took to be probable signs of Alzheimer’s disease.” Several Reagan associates, however, say there was no surgery in San Diego.

What’s more there is no reporting about any San Diego operation on Reagan. News reports at the time of his fall say Reagan was flown to a hospital in Arizona, where he was treated for scrapes and bruises and released after five hours.

There were no reports of Reagan with a shaved head or skull stitches later that month when he served as a guest TV announcer at the July 11 baseball All-Star Game in Anaheim, Calif., or when he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City on July 21.

In September, he went to the Mayo Clinic, where a small burr hole was drilled to relieve a fluid buildup due to the fall.

Ron Reagan doesn’t mention this, but says that Reagan visited the Mayo Clinic in 1990 for tests that “confirmed the initial suspicion of Alzheimer’s.” Reagan’s post-presidency history, documented in several archives like University of Texas, reveal no such visit. And Dr. John E. Hutton Jr. his doctor from 1984 through Reagan’s retirement, told the New York Times that Reagan didn’t show the tell-tale symptoms until 1993.

Ron Reagan won’t talk about his book until its release, says his publisher Viking. The publisher also didn’t provide documents backing up the San Diego operation claim.

Here are key excerpts from Ron Reagan about his dad’s situation from My Father At 100, A Memoir.

Early hints that Ronald Reagan’s mind was fuzzy:

“Three years into his first term as president, though, I was feeling the first shivers of concern that something beyond mellowing was affecting my father. We had always argued over this issue or that, rarely with anything approaching belligerence, but vigorously all the same. He generally had the advantage of practiced talking points backed up by staff research, but I was an unabashed, occasionally effective advocate for my own positions. ‘He told me you make him feel stupid,’ my mother once shared, to my alarm. I didn’t want my father to feel stupid. If he was going to shoulder massive responsibility, I wanted him to feel on top of his game. If he was going to fulfill his duties as president, he would have to be.” Pages 204-205

“Watching the first of his two debates with 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, I began to experience the nausea of a bad dream coming true. At 73, Ronald Reagan would be the oldest president ever reelected. Some voters were beginning to imagine grandpa—who can never find his reading glasses—in charge of a bristling nuclear arsenal, and it was making them nervous. Worse, my father now seemed to be giving them legitimate reason for concern. My heart sank as he floundered his way through his responses, fumbling with his notes, uncharacteristically lost for words. He looked tired and bewildered.” Page 205.

“My father might himself have suspected that all was not as it should be. As far back as August 1986 he had been alarmed to discover, while flying over the familiar canyons north of Los Angeles, that he could no longer summon their names.” Page 218.

The July 4, 1989 horse bucking and discovery of Alzheimer’s:

“In July 1989, barely six months out of office, my father visited friends in Mexico. While out riding he was thrown when his horse shied at something in the trailside scrub. That my father, even at age 78, would be bucked off his mount was, in itself, an ominous sign. It’s a wonder he didn’t break any bones, but he did hit his head hard enough to cause a sizable contusion. After initially refusing medical attention, he ultimately relented and was transported to a hospital in San Diego. Surgeons opening his skull to relieve pressure on the brain emerged from the operating room with the news that they had detected what they took to be probable signs of Alzheimer’s disease. No formal diagnosis was given, as far as I know. I have since learned from a doctor who happened to be interning at the hospital when my father was brought in that surgeons involved in his care, in what my informant characterized as ‘shameful’ behavior, violated my father’s right to medical privacy by subsequently gossiping about his condition.” Page 217.

“Doctors recommended to my mother that further tests of cognition be conducted the following year to measure any decline. Those tests, at the Mayo Clinic, confirmed the initial suspicion of Alzheimer’s.” Page 217.

“I’ve seen no evidence that my father (or anyone else) was aware of his medical condition while he was in office. Had the diagnosis been made in, say 1987, would he have stepped down? I believe he would have. Far less was known about the disease then, of course, than is known now. Today we are aware that the physiological and neurological changes associated with Alzheimer’s can be in evidence years, even decades, before identifiable symptoms arise. The question, then, of whether my father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s while in office more or less answers itself.” Pages 217-218.