Before we start hearing about proposals to put ole' Ronnie's buss on Mt. Rushmore, could we PLEASE get a little perspective here? If we stopped in our tracks for every politician with good timing, great one-liners and a knack for storytelling -- well never mind, you know what I'm getting at.

I'm sorry for the Reagan family's loss. It's sad that a life so full of history is now over. I'm sympathetic to the legions of Reagan worshippers around the world who are grief-stricken. But it ends there. Must we retrace the true legacy of Ronald Reagan? Voo doo economics, "we begin bombing in five minutes" off mike comment, Star Wars (and I'm not talking about the movie), tax increases, Black Monday, huge deficits, the Me-Decade, Iran-Contra, a cruel and disgusting indifference to the burgeoning AIDS epidemic, Grenada, union busting and firing air traffic controllers, an attempt to designate ketchup as a vegetable, the death of the Equal Rights Amendment...So forgive me if I don't see his death as being much of
a factor in November.

And no, surprisingly enough, I don't give Reagan credit for the wall coming down and putting an end to old-style Communism. I think it's an insult to what really happened. He had a role to be sure -- but the true dismantlers of Communism were the people living under it -- and as Reagan knew better than most, timing is everything.

We're to have a National Day of Mourning? He was 93 and likely lying in a fetal position for the past few years but I guess a National Day of Relief That He's Passed On and Left His Wife With What Little Strength She Has Left won't wash in an election year. And while Reagan's public service is laudable, let's not kid ourselves. The Reagan's got as much as they gave. So let's pay our respects and move on. Instead I'd like to propose a National Day of Mourning for the 500 + soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan this past year. At the very least a national moment of silence -- so we don't have to hear everyone -- from journalists to waitresses -- talking about how great Reagan was. For a moment at least.

Update (June 8, 7:24 p.m.): See the last sentence in this article (r.r.) and don't say I didn't warn you. And no, I didn't realize conservatives had already started a Mt. Rushmore drive when I wrote this.