By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER
Scripps Howard News Service
June 09, 2004
WASHINGTON - It was meant as a grabby insult, but the sting didn't stick.
Former Rep. Patricia Schroeder was cooking eggs in 1983 when she came up with the line that has her forever linked to former President Ronald Reagan.
"After carefully watching Ronald Reagan, I can see he's attempting a great breakthrough in political technology," Schroeder said then when she was a Democratic representative from Colorado. "He has been perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency. He sees to it that nothing sticks to him. He is responsible for nothing."
The "Teflon president" label stuck around, but the line didn't have the effect Schroeder intended.
"I was hoping people would say, 'Yes, he is commander in chief, he should be responsible,' " Schroeder said Wednesday. "Instead people said, 'Yes, that is a Teflon coat. How do I get one of those.' "
Schroeder, now president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, was in New York on Wednesday and could not attend this week's funeral ceremonies in Washington.
In a telephone interview, she said she is still amazed that Reagan's personal charms and congenial way insulated him from criticism over soaring budget deficits, the Iran-Contra scandal or other problems under his watch.
"It's very interesting that he could do almost anything and not get blamed for it," Schroeder said. "He was, in person, very kind, gentle. He reminds everyone of their grandfather."
Schroeder, a liberal Democrat who represented Denver from 1972 to 1996, rarely saw eye to eye with Reagan. But in those days, political disputes did not get personal, she said.
"He was a very nice person to be around, and he did not polarize politics in quite the same way this current bunch has," Schroeder said. "In the end of the day, he talked to everybody. He didn't have a them-or-us mentality ... that type of thing that goes on now. At six o'clock, everybody became friends."
Schroeder said she did not know how she would mark Reagan's passing. She laughed when asked if she planned to use her Teflon cookware this week.
As a practical man, Reagan would probably not want all the money being spent on the ceremonies, the fancy building in downtown Washington that bears his name or talk of making even more expensive tributes.
"My guess is he would prefer a lot of this money go to research on Alzheimer's and see the stem cell lines opened up for research," as former First Lady Nancy Reagan has advocated, Schroeder said. "Instead, I think we're going to see a naming war."