Michael Deaver

Michael Deaver, who was both a closer advisor and friend to both Ron and Nancy Reagan has died. I read the news in this obituary and I was taken aback by this passage in the article:

Deaver chose a German military cemetery near Bitburg for Reagan to lay a wreath while on a visit. To the president's embarrassment, the cemetery turned out to contain the graves of 49 members of Adolf Hitler's elite SS troops. Reagan refused to drop the appearance from his schedule in spite of withering criticism.

The way I recall that event from reading first hand accounts of the Reagan White House is that German Chancellor Helmut Kohl put the visit to the Bitburg cemetery on his own schedule and then asked President Reagan if he would accompany him. Reagan was genuinely fond of Kohl and agreed. When it was learned that there were some SS troops buried there - Deaver and others tried to get the President to drop the visit from his schedule. Reagan, however, did not want to embarrass or hurt the feelings of his friend Helmut Kohl - so he went on with the visit. I shake my head at the fact that Deaver now has to have inaccuracies like the one above smear even his obituary.

While trying to find the first hand references to back up my recollection - I stumbled upon this 1988 piece by Bill Cahir that argued;

It would be far more appropriate to execute Michael Deaver than Charles Manson.

Sure that 1988 piece was written by a college junior but now Bill Cahir works for the Newhouse News Service as the Washington correspondent and columnist for four newspapers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including The Gloucester County Times of Woodbury, N.J., and the Express-Times of Easton, Pa. I am sure a guy who once argued for the execution of Michael Deaver must be an unbiased source of political reporting.

I am trying to tie the loose ends of the above together with a few cogent sentences but my disgust at the bias and inaccuracy of the Main Stream Media is clouding my ability to think or write clearly.