Get off the phone ya big dope!

Well Hells-bells Titus! All these years you have been stating, in clearly declarative fashion, as if it was carved in granite i.e. FACT, that Reagan prolonged the captivity of American hostages and "negotiated" with terrorists all for political theater, and the first time I decide to question it you fold like a house of cards (and rightly so). I should have called you on this long ago, and saved myself from the heart burn and enjoyed this little mia culpa when we "bunded" in person.

Let me be very serious for a moment - do you REALLY believe that Ronald Wilson Reagan, the most popular and successful president of the last half century, was capable of prolonging the captivity and suffering of American hostages abroad simply to enhance his election chances? And because of Iran Contra I am supposed to infer that he was at least "capable" of such actions? This is the same nonsense that has people accusing Clinton of being a serial rapist; accuses Hillary of conspiring to commit murder in the death of Vince Foster; claims that Johnson was "in" on the Kennedy assassination; or that FDR deliberately allowed those boys on the Arizona to die given he had first hand knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack, prior to the Japanese launch, and allowed it to go forward in order to kick start the American public into an appetite for war. These little dark, unsavory innuendos plague the legacy of most of our presidents, but absent proof - like the Water Gate tapes - to utter them aloud is to instantly give away your credibility, and render yourself a punch line at parties.

Consider this, you had to qualify your "beliefs" about Reagan on this matter with defenses such as - "I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. I think there is ample and convincing evidence that Oswald acted alone. I do NOT believe in the "magic bullet". I do NOT think UFOs exist, nor do I think that "men in black helicopters" operate routinely behind-the-scenes to control all our lives."

Buddy, partner, friend, you think maybe if you have to accompany this little "theory" on Reagan with such statements that just maybe the theory isn't worthy of your time? Were you to stumble across a web site that pronounced, declaratively, any of the unproven, unsubstantiated conspiracies I noted above , would your eyes not roll? How fast would the sound of your mouse clicking away snap in your ears? And perhaps WORST of all, your previous statements on this matter is EXACTLY the type of mindless declarative opinion, posing as fact, that Levine engaged in when questioning FDR's mental capacity at Yalta. Commentary which you excoriated Mark for on this very site not more then 7 days ago! Look, if it walks like a conspiracy theory, quacks like a conspiracy theory ... well, I think you get the picture.

Let me give you the same advice Myer Lansky gave Bugsy Seigel. As the story goes Bugsy tells Myer he's gonna help end the war by flying to Italy and assassinating Mussolini. Lansky turns to him and says, "Don't ever repeat that to anyone. Because at best ... at best, they'll never take you seriously again."

I appreciate your partial retraction, however, it didn't go far enough. For the sake of the site, me, for yourself, I need you to admit that this conspiracy theory on Reagan is no better then the magic bullet, the Vince Foster murder plot, the Illuminate, or any other politico-historic crack pot theory raised by people with more time on their hands then brain cells in their head.

Buddy, this IS the quintessential, good ol' fashioned conspiracy theory. And if you are not, as you claim, a "conspiracy theorist", then reject it utterly, publicly, here. If you can not or will not, then I'm sorry - you ARE a conspiracy theorist ... and since surely the silent black helicopters can't be far off the horizon, I suggest you invest in a pair of reliable binoculars.

And for the record, the most "common" line of reasoning accepted in responsible, knowledgeable circles as to why the hostages were nearly immediately released under Reagan, whereas they weren't with Carter, goes as follows: Reagan made it very clear (in back channels or otherwise) that he was not to be trifled with, that he was no Carter, and that a new "sheriff" so to speak was in town who wasn't scared to pull the trigger on bad guys. To put it simply, he scared them in a way Carter didn't. And you'll note that my answer to the immediate hostage release didn't require my denying the existence of UFO's, Yettie's, gnomes of middle earth, unicorns, Lochness, or any other mythical creatures.