Cherishing Meese: The Man and the Mediator

July 01, 2008

 By Patrick B. McGuigan

In a news story printed the day after Edwin Meese III resigned as U.S. attorney general in 1988, reporters for the Washington Post quoted a cluster of liberal critics—and me. Proudly dissenting from all the smears on his good name, I called him “the greatest attorney general of the United States in my lifetime.”

I believed it then, and believe it now. Meese was a magnificent advocate of limited government, traditional morality, “originalism” in legal interpretation, and the president (and before that, governor) he served. He went toe to toe, without rancor, to counter the liberal nostrums of Justice William Brennan.

Yet, it is Meese the man I most cherish. Despite the vicious calumny he faced from the mainstream media throughout the 1980s, he remained cheerful and accessible to the press and the people. He was without the pretense that often comes with power.

His book, With Reagan (Regnery, 1992), is a tribute to the late president’s political genius and personal righteousness. It includes only a few personal vignettes, including this one. After his son, Scott, died in a car accident, Meese was in his office alone when “the President and Nancy rushed into the room and threw their arms around me. They literally wept with me and consoled me at the worst time of my life.”

Some time later, a dear friend of mine was meeting with Meese, Reagan, and Vice President George Bush when her daughter died unexpectedly. The White House staff got the word to Meese, who arranged for her to have emergency transport to her daughter’s side. For years after, his words and actions comforted the family.

Not that he’s without fault, of course. He once caused a room full of right-wingers in the nation’s capital to erupt in laughter, at my expense. I’d asked him a tough question on a since-forgotten controversy. He began his answer with the quip: “My friend Pat McGuigan does not suffer from the burden of a legal education. That’s a good thing.”

Meese was a mediator for conservatives inside and outside of government during the most consequential presidency of my lifetime. With integrity, he assured that Reagan heard from his base on policy issues. He was loyal to his boss even when the cheerful warrior erred. Like Reagan himself, he was forgiving when the words and actions of critics might have been too harsh. This reflected his generous spirit and inherent decency.

Ed Meese, the man and the mediator, continues to contribute to our nation—at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation (a think tank whose board chairman is OCPA chairman David Brown) and also at the Hoover Institution, a think tank on the campus of Stanford University.

OCPA is proud to welcome Mr. Meese to Tulsa on September 18, the day after Constitution Day, for our inaugural Liberty Gala (see facing page for details).

He’s a noble soul. He was indispensable to Reagan. He is still indispensable to us.

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