Calling All Wingnuts

One of my favorite objectives when calling talk radio is to make ditto-heads’ heads explode. I’m not sure how successful I have been (conservatives have the remarkable ability to ignore evidence they don’t like – I believe it’s an evolutionary adaptation that has allowed for their very survival – just don’t try to tell them that), but it’s always a fun approach.

Anyway, on this particular day (Jan 20, 2006), Lars Larson was celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversery of Reagan’s first inauguration. As you’ll hear, it was “1st Amendment Friday,” so I took the opportunity to speak some uncomfortable truths about the conservative hero.

One particular point: Jimmy Carter is regularly derided by wingnuts… Unfortunately, today he is mostly remembered for his inability to win the release of the Iranian hostages. On the day Reagan was inaugurated, Iran let them all go. There is still a lot of speculation that George Bush the elder worked some kind of deal that resulted in the hostages being held until after the elections. At any rate, I never quite understood why they were suddenly released on the day Reagan took office…

but I digress…

I just want to know if I am the only person that is absolutely disgusted by the idea that Jimmy Carter never compromised, negotiated or otherwise equivocated with the Iranians throughout the entire ordeal. To the contrary, he ordered a bold, albiet unsuccessful, rescue mission (it failed in a sand storm).

Reagan, on the other hand, traded arms for hostages and got played repeatedly. Different hostages. Hezbollah, an Iranian linked terror group in Lebanon, found it quite profitable to take hostages in the early eighties. Iran was able to work deals to gain the hostages freedom. Of course, we had to ship them arms for them to help us out. And of course, as soon as one hostage was released, another was taken.

Some hero, that Reagan was. Bold. Decisive. Flatulent.

Ronald Reagan’s Liberal Legacy
The definitive guide from Washington Monthly