Do not send any more email about energy. I don't want to talk about breeder reactors, and I don't want to talk about MHD, and I don't want to talk about solar cells, and I don't want to talk about "peak oil", and I don't want to talk about whether petroleum is organic or inorganic in origin, and I don't even want to talk about coretaps. I don't want to talk about, or read about, or think about, and especially I don't want to receive any more email about, anything to do with energy.

Email about energy is an unwelcome burden, not a pleasant surprise. The needle on the annoyance meter is currently pointing to "fingernails on chalkboard" and beginning to move towards "Chirac". If this doesn't cease, I'm going to start putting people into the Bozo Bin.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Is this an appropriate time for critics of the former president to voice their dissent? Our next guest certainly thinks so. He's penned a column condemning Reagan's legacy, "His clown-like dyed hair and rouged cheeks disgusted us. We hated him during the dark days he made so hideous, and, with all due respect, we hate him still." Joining us now columnist and political cartoonist Ted Rall. I don't see where the respect is.

TED RALL, COLUMNIST AND POLITICAL CARTOONIST: There is no respect for a man who...

COLMES: So why say with all respect? Isn't that hypocritical? Because you're not showing any respect.

RALL: It's called sarcasm, Alan.

COLMES: Look, Ecclesiastes says for everything there is a season and I think there's a time. I've spent many years being critical of Reagan's policies, and I'm sure the time will come once again to debate those things.

RALL: Clearly, I mean, I'm just...

COLMES: You need to understand my question.

RALL: Sure.

COLMES: Is there no appropriate time to hold your fire and to show some grace, at least, if for no other reason, than to respect the office of the presidency?

RALL: I think I respect the office of the presidency to the extent to say that President Reagan is entitled to the flag at half-staff, the state funeral, all that kind of thing.

COLMES: That's kind of you.

RALL: But he's not -- Well, I wouldn't say that about George W. Bush. When he dies, he shouldn't be...

COLMES: He should not have a flag at half-mast, should not have a state funeral?

RALL: He's not legally elected. He's not the president of the United States.

COLMES: We have a Supreme Court. You need to respect -- Let's not even get off into that.

RALL: That's a sore subject.

COLMES: And that's where I have problems with my fellow liberals who can't get over the election of 2000. They should be focusing on winning 2004. But you, by doing this, make those on my side look bad by showing no grace, no compassion, no sense of humanity for a man who served this country, whether or not you agree with the things he stood for.

RALL: Well, I have more sympathy for the 290 million Americans who are living worse lives under a worse economy, being paid less with worse health care, with more homelessness and more poverty than there would have been, had Ronald Reagan never become president. So for me, you're right, I don't have much sympathy for him.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: You said you hated him then, you hate him still. You also said, "I'm sure he's turning a crispy brown now."

RALL: If you believe in heaven and hell, you've got to say, if anyone qualifies for hell it's a guy who lets five hundred thousand people died of AIDS.

HANNITY: Are you happy he's dead?

RALL: I don't care that he's dead. I think -- right now, the press is on both sides is examining the man's legacy, and we're not going to have this discussion in two weeks or two weeks ago. It's now.

HANNITY: You're the guy that said after Pat Tillman who after 9/11 was so motivated he gave up millions of dollars and a football career, you also called him a sap and an idiot.

RALL: And he went and got himself killed by our own guys with friendly fire.

HANNITY: And this is -- And his family is back here, and here, they're suffering, just like the Reagan's are suffering, whether you like them or you hate them, in your words, or not. And here you come, and you want to pour salt in their wounds. Here's...

RALL: No, what I'm really trying to do, I'm really trying to save other Pat Tillmans from making a similar stupid mistake and going and getting themselves killed for no good reason.

HANNITY: Act as altruistic as you like. You are mean. You are cruel. You are thoughtless, and you are a hateful human being. You don't have a soul. And you don't care about anybody but yourself. And you do this for shock value so that your name could be noticed. You're a slob. You're an absolutely -- you're a hateful human being to do this to families that are suffering. There's no excuse for it. There's no rationale for what you're doing. You're mean, cruel and thoughtless.

RALL: Well, there you go again, Sean.

HANNITY: Telling the truth about you. You are a mean person to do this to the Reagan's. You were mean to do it to the Tillmans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. And you ought to take this opportunity to look into that camera and say you're sorry.

RALL: I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself, Sean, for promoting policies and for -- for indulging in this insane hyped ideology of Ronald Reagan that you've had going throughout this entire show.

HANNITY: He ended the Cold -- he ended the Cold War...

RALL: No, he didn't.

HANNITY: He confronted the Soviet Union. The world is safer because of his leadership.

RALL: That's not true. That is a lie.

HANNITY: He doubled revenue for the federal government.

RALL: That's a lie.

HANNITY: He had the longest peacetime economically in history.

RALL: Absolutely not true.

HANNITY: And he created 20 million new jobs in this country.

RALL: None of this is true.

HANNITY: All of which is true.

RALL: All lies. It's not true.

HANNITY: You are thoughtless, mean, hateful liberal.

RALL: He had a three-year economic boom.

HANNITY: And all liberals ought to condemn people like you.

RALL: Well, you know, I would say that we can turn this around and say the same thing about you guys.

HANNITY: I don't know any conservative that would say that.

COLMES: All right, we've got to go.

Plante began: “The most serious crisis of Ronald Reagan’s two terms, and the lowest point in his popularity, came after the revelation that his administration had secretly sold arms to Iran and turned over the profits to rebels fighting the Marxist government of Nicaragua.”

Plante, in Reagan era press conference: “Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, sir?”
Ronald Reagan: “No, and I’m not taking any more questions-”
Plante: “Reagan’s national security staff approached Iran in an effort to free American hostages being held in Lebanon, despite a vow that the administration would never negotiate with terrorists. At first, President Reagan denied that it had happened.”

Reagan, in November 13, 1986 speech from Oval Office: “We did not, repeat, did not trade weapons, or anything else, for hostages.”

Plante: “But two investigations showed that Mr. Reagan had, in fact, signed off on the weapons shipments, and in early 1987 he reversed his denial.”

Edmund Morris, Reagan biographer, clip #1: “It is, without question, a crisis brought through his own fault.”

Morris, clip #2: “And the public perceived him, therefore, as somebody who couldn’t see his own actions in a negative light.”

Plante: “The fallout was severe, softened only by the President’s willingness to accept personal responsibility.”

Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor: “President Reagan understood that this had happened in his administration. He was straightforward in having it investigated by the Tower Commission, they made changes. And that’s the way that we have to deal with any difficulties.”

Plante: “The President’s full disclosure at home, however, didn’t salvage U.S. policy in the Middle East. Relations with Iran deteriorated further. Iraq, which the Reagan administration had backed in its war against Iran, went on to use chemical weapons in 1988 with little protest from the U.S.”

Jon Alterman, Mideast analyst: “When it came time to really having partnerships and policies that move forward in the Middle East, there wasn’t a lot positive happening on the ground.”

Plante concluded: “An arms control agreement with the Soviet Union refurbished President Reagan’s image, but U.S. efforts to deal with the tough issues in the Middle East went on hold, helping to set the stage for the first Iraq war and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Bill Plante, CBS News.”

". . . the political purpose of the theory [that everything in Iraq is fine except the media coverage] isn’t hard to grasp. The groundwork is being laid for a new version of the "stab in the back" myth that helped destroy Weimar Germany. No matter how far south things go in Iraq, the blame will be laid not at the feet of the president who initiated and conducted the war, but rather on those who had the temerity to note that it wasn’t working. Rather than the critics having been proven right, or so the story goes, the critics are to blame for the failure of the very policy they were criticizing. It’s an ugly tactic, and as you go down the journalistic food chain, it grows uglier still."