Posted on 01/26/2008 4:49:17 AM PST by MartinaMisc
Richard G. Darman, who marshaled a deep, prickly intelligence to guide policy and deal making in four Republican administrations, including negotiating the reversal of the first President George Bush’s campaign pledge not to raise taxes, died Friday. He was 64 and lived in McLean, Va.
His death was announced by James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and a friend of Mr. Darman. Mr. Darman had been fighting acute myelogenous leukemia, his son Jonathan said.
In addition to serving President George Bush in the cabinet-level post of director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mr. Darman worked in six cabinet departments and the White House. He controlled the paper flow to President Ronald Reagan, a pivotal responsibility.
Mr. Darman called himself an idealist in the long term, saying he had followed his principles when he resigned with his boss, Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson, during the so-called Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate. In the short term, he was the realist who wheedled a bipartisan Congress to pass Reagan’s agenda. As director of the Office of Management and Budget, he negotiated with Congress in 1990 to pass a budget that raised taxes. The deal angered conservatives, who said it violated the pledge that Mr. Bush had made in accepting the Republican presidential nomination: “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I will never understand how or why these guys ever trusted George Mitchell (DemocRAT-Maine). Mitchell was one of the lyingest, most untrustworthy, sneaky players in the Senate ever, yet Bush believed his lies about cutting spending in return for raising taxes.
After that the less said the better.
Darman and Brady pushed Bush the Elder to break his “No New Taxes” pledge.
Had their advice caught the ear of GHWB and not that of Darman/Sununu, how history might have been so different....
GHWB cost himself the Presidency. Implementing actions that went counter to conservative principals and looking at his watch during a presidential debate sunk his boat. His failure was his failure alone.
RIP.
“Had their advice caught the ear of GHWB ...history might have been different.”
Yeah, the deficit would be double what it is today. Bill Clinton got the credit but the budget surpluses of the 1990s were, to a large extent, a product of the Bush I years.
I take it you’re one of those “Grover Cleveland was the 22nd president and not the 24th president as well” people?
It’s Bush 41 and 43 for me.
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