orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (02/08/85)
I agree that Weinberger's requests for gold-plated coffeepots
for the Pentagon are way off base. But placing *all* the
blame on Weinberger is foolish and distracting. Please remember,
as the Press seems to have forgotten, that the Budget of the
United States is proposed by the *President* : Reagan is
ultimately responsible for this gloated Pentagon budget, and has
announced his support for it several times.
This is the same tactic used by our esteemed President with James Watt;
appoint somebody who totally supports very unpopular policies that
Reagan himself supports and then let the henchman get vilified for it.
Reagan has never repudiated Watt's policies either and has just appointed
a replacement for William Clark who is likely to be a Watt clone.
(Not that William Clark was anything close to an Environmentalist!)
This tactic is excellent since poor Weinberger, Watt, etc. draw all the
hostile fire, while "friendly Ronnie" retains his image (for god knows
what reason???) as a "nice guy". The fact that "friendly Ronnie" has
totally supported such unfair policies and appointed their proponents
for exactly that reason gets lost in the barrage.
The New Republic had an excellent article about Watt which pointed out
that all the focus on Watt was likely to get rid of Watt while
letting the *real* culprit get away: namely Ronald Wilson Reagan.
"oh well, we got fooled again!"
tim sevener whuxl!orb