Conservatives say: "The hell with that liberal FDR, let's put Reagan on the dime!"

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(that damn dirty liberal! it's not like he led us through troubled times like Ronnie did!)

Conservatives Want Reagan on Dimes
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Conservative Republicans angry over an unflattering television movie about Ronald Reagan want to put his image on the dime in place of Democratic icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Democrats are just as determined to keep FDR's profile in coin purses.

"If they want to find another way to honor Ronald Reagan, I'm happy to join with them, but leave the dime alone," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.

Supporters of the "Ronald Reagan Dime Act" said Roosevelt and his government-expanding New Deal represented decades past, while Reagan's conservative, anti-communist administration ushered in society as it exists today.

Triggering the dispute is a TV movie that depicts a doddering Reagan dominated by his wife, Nancy. The movie is being aired by Showtime after CBS canceled its plans to show it last month in response to pressure by Reagan supporters.

"It's what precipitated me introducing the bill at that time and why it was a lot easier to get a lot of support," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind.

Souder said he has collected 89 co-sponsors for his bill to mint a new dime featuring Reagan. Among them are more than a dozen House members from California, where the former president lives secluded and suffering from Alzheimer's disease in his Los Angeles home.

"I believe he represents conservative values as we would see them implemented through a president better than anybody else we've had in American history," Souder said. "He, to conservatives, represents kind of the reverse of FDR, who is kind of the liberal icon. Ronald Reagan is the conservative icon."

McGovern claims 80 co-sponsors on his opposing bill affirming Congress' support for keeping Roosevelt on the dime. The lone Republican among them is New York Rep. John Sweeney, who represents the Hyde Park area that was Roosevelt's home.

Reagan has "already been honored in many ways — he's got an airport named after him, and a building, and there are schools and roads and bridges and other things," McGovern said.

"While it's important to honor President Reagan, I think it's also important that we do so in a way that doesn't dishonor the memory and the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," he said.

It isn't uncommon to change images on currency, but the custom has been to wait until the person being memorialized is dead.

"I certainly would not look at it in any way as dishonoring FDR. He's also one of my favorite presidents," said Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif. "He was also interestingly enough a personal hero of President Reagan's, but frankly I feel more connection with Reagan. He's a Californian, also closer to us now in history."

Souder rounded up support from colleagues for his bill with a letter, headed "Win One for the Gipper," that lambasted CBS for its "vile miniseries."

The dime has borne Roosevelt's profile since 1946, a year after his death, in part commemorating his support for the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

isn't there some sort of law about putting living people on american money?

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

If you call that living.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

well, conservatives do call that living

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

He's a Californian, also closer to us now in history

So why isn't this guy pushing for Washington off the dollar and Schwarznegger on?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Our legislators have sooooooo much more important shit to be dealing with right now than a "Ronald Reagan Dime Act".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Like the Rush Limbaugh Dime Bag Act?

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

If you guys think this is bad, wait until you see the day that Reagan dies. I swear to God, it's going to be played up like the death of a pope or a saint, and the final canonization process will start within the hour.

I heard from a newsjournalist friend that all the major networks already have their Reagan news specials for his death pretty much done - all they need to do is finish the "Ronald Reagan: 1913 - " graphic and add a little more precise voiceover about what he died from and when at the beginning and end of the piece(s). It's rather absurd.

History, however, will have the final word as it always does, and there is some consolation in that imperators generally are not received well in them.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a pretty standard custom for most news agencies to have obits for major figures over a certain age or in ailing health pretty much ready to go.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 5 December 2003 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I was about to say. It doesn't surprise me much at all. Hopefully the tomb will have a big ol' monkey on it, that would show the right sense of humor.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm feeling less ashamed to have contributed to a Reagen Death Pool amongst friends back in Orange County. We each put in a few bucks and chose a day of the calendar.. whoever chooses the day closest to Reagan's actual death day wins the pot.

This pool started OVER SIX YEARS AGO!

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, my friend at the AP works on obits for living people all the time.

Reagan will be canonized, though, and it will be disgusting. Any one remember when Nixon died? It was almost as if he didn't have any faults (or only one, that being Watergate)!

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Reminds me of that one Dana Carvey piece on SNL, when he played Brokaw doing endless takes on various dates and in various ways that Gerald Ford would die.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

That's it. I'm starting a Beyonce dime campaign.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I will lobby for Beyonce!

― El Diablo Solango (Nicole), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Imagine the video in support of the project!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Beyonce only worth a dime?

― Sooolange Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

STOP CALLING MY PEOPLE ROBOTS!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Robos.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Robohos?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"Stop Calling My People Robots", the confrontational new single from Beyoncé's upcoming concept album "B On The Dime".

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

E-Robohos

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

which oddly enough backwards is "Soho bore"

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

If this happens, I'll go well out of my way to never spend the coin, but rather melt each one I find into a shiny hammer and use it to strike Peggy Noonan in the kneecaps.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

As a partisan Democrat, I'll gladly give up the dime as long as we get "Franklin Delano Rooseveldt's Chili & Miso Gourmet Microwaveable Popcorn"...

― andy, Friday, 5 December 2003 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Double Nick Hos on the Dime

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The amusing and ironic thing here is how conservatives of all people seem to have no self-consciousness whatsoever about what's basically a legislative social activism here -- i.e. they're going to honor Reagan, even in response to someone else's unflattering portrayal of him -- they are completely insensitive to the idea that they've been trying for nearly a decade now to impose this reverence on him from the top down.

(The annoyance at this miniseries incidentally is uber-stupid: it's a miniseries. Of course it's seedy and unflattering. If you put a bunch of television people in a room to write a miniseries about God himself they'd be like "It's a little flat, but maybe if he had a drinking problem . . .")

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 5 December 2003 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex, you are the greatest man on Earth.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

one may have no choice but spend such a thing, but since it isn't illegal to "deface" the dime i might just put some white-out -- or snot -- on ronnie raygun's countenance.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

why the dime? wtf that's way too cheapass for Reagan to be on! "hey pal, got a dime" = the depression, undeniably. typical vindictive gop bullshit, no erasure of the new deal is ever enough. why not bump whoever is on the 500 or 1k? no one ever even sees those, kind of the like the benefits of reaganomics.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i'll gladly pay tax $$$ for some ronald reagan memorial toilets or urinals.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd love to see the nation rise as one angry fist and reject the Reagan dime.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

besides, it's such a cool coin, the size is totally out of logic with its value, and (i think) it's one of the only coins in the world to not actually say how much it's worth on it (ie urban semilegends of foreign tourists walking around with pockets full of unused dimes, unsure of what they were exactly)

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

If the nation rises as one angry fist I will be too busy running to Canada to see if they're going to smite the conservatives or the minorities.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

no erasure of the new deal is ever enough

I heard the Gay Agenda is trying to get Erasure on the new dime.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

ChiChi LaRue on the dollar!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

It's MADNESS with these gays.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

paul lynde!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

while Reagan's conservative, anti-communist administration

*shakes head*

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

what's next, the reagan mausoleum when the fucker finally croaks?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe the reagan mausoleum isn't a bad idea, as long as people do it what (urban legend holds?) bulgarians did to the mausoleum of one of their dictatorial bastards -- after they kicked out the commies, they used the thing as a public urinal!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought conservatives were big on 'honoring America's past", "remembering those who made the country what it is today". So, what, that only applies to the last twenty years?

― oops (Oops), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

wasn't mark souder one of the morons behind the freedom fries/freedom toast bullshit too?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:17 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway, if they're gonna put raygun on the dime there's already a precedent -- after all, barbara bush is on the dollar bill!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Life did begin in 1984. It's like George Orwell, but in reverse. Really weird.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

It struck me as Orwellian, too.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

So Tad, you're all in favor of a Reagan mausoleum as long as it gets desecrated after the US government is overthrown? Doesn't that strike you as a mildly psychotic position?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

you know there is something odd about presidents being bleached of politics when they die, becoming just "great." this really struck me as a tourist in d.c., all these neoclassical monuments to people right next to each other who were completely opposed to each other in life

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck, just put him on the Sacajawea dollar. Maybe have it be his face in the baby papoose.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)

(ie it's not crazy to be offended by having fdr on your currency if you think he was essentially a dangerous and damaging president) (and the guy you think eventually saved us from him isn't getting his due) (ok that second part IS crazy, an AIRPORT for chrissakes, and he ain't dead)

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 5 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

(a "Beware of the Boys" ref, Geoff)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

at least they aren't threatening my beloved Alexander Hamilton anymore - the greatest founding fathers!

in fact, if you are not a founding father, you don't deserve to be on money. i'd like to see lincoln, jfk, and fdr go and be replaced by another Hamilton, madison, and maybe john hancock.

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i truly feel the most obvious signal of my country's shift to an irreversible antidemocratic path is that ronald reagan is celebrated as a hero with less and less people arguing against.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

wilt chamberlain is quite a founding father! steve garvey too!

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah as long as you can make a case for it

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

tom paine beitch!! hell why not de toqueville.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i truly feel the most obvious signal of my country's shift to an irreversible antidemocratic path is that ronald reagan is celebrated as a hero with less and less people arguing against.

translation: i am afraid of a democracy where people might disagree with me? can you really justify this fear or are you just feeling pessimistic?

and YES tome paine definetly!

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

the problem is rather that our country has gone INSANE and few have noticed.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, so at what point was the country actually sane?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

i think it's a sign that a certain kind of conservativism has become more and more dominant

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

...over other conservativisms, independent of its dominance over politics as a whole.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

amateur!st, there is plenty of evidence in the article of people opposing this, as well as, y'know, the evidence of this very thread.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I blame hstencil. And fuzzy hats.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i truly feel the most obvious signal of my country's shift to an irreversible antidemocratic path is that ronald reagan is celebrated as a hero with less and less people arguing against.

According to what surveys? Data?

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i should make an exception for andrew jackson since his hair amuses me.

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

My might Cutco supershears will make quick work of a Reagan dime!

― Leee Trevino (Leee), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I do like how they named one of the worst airports in the nation after him, and that it had to be closed for some time after 9/11.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah it was when they named the airport after him that marked the turning point into insanity.

i grew up around people for whom reagan was the devil incarnate, and perhaps it's just as i've drifted from that milieu that i realize that many other people feel differently.

obv there are many of us who remember what a grotesque reagan really was but the fact that the airport is named after him and there's even some bipartisan consensus on his supposed greatitude makes me think a shift has occured somewhere.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I HAVE NO DATA PEOPLE THIS IS AMATEUR1ST'S SPLEEN TALKING

(you can tell by the bile dripping downwards off the screen)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

amateur!st have you been to Reagan National? I always thought that naming it after him showed that Congressmen have better senses of humor than they let on (esp. as they have to fly through it all the time).

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahahahaha Leee OTM!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Less people are arguing since I think they're fearful that their opinions would be viewed as mean-spirited, what with Reagan having been on death's door since '91.

I say he's still fair game. Bad actor, puppet politician, golden calf of the right wingers.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Let me initiate my own sponsorship of the following American.

He toiled in obscurity for years without exceptional ability save for his talent of getting the small tasks done. Itinerant and virtually homeless, he had to settle into a new, alien environment. But there he saw his chance to take on a more visible role, and he didn't let the opportunity pass him by. With newfound powers, he rose to the greatness of a .326 average to become the American League batting champion.

BILL MUELLER TWO DOLLAR BILL YALL.

― Leee Trevino (Leee), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

you know i've heard that foreign officials (lat amer esp) will not go to Nat'l anymore.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

some of them, i mean.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't give a shit if he's on fucking death's door he was a fucking cretin

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 5 December 2003 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)