Minority Report

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MINORITY REPORT.

This week I got my copy of Quotations From Chairman Ron, a handy, fresh compendium of Reagan howlers that was put together by Morton Mintz. Mintz is an excellent reporter for The Washington Post, and his effort goes right up on my shelf, taking an honored place next to Reagan for Beginners, by David Smith and Melinda Gebbie; There He Goes Again: Ronald Reagan's Reign of Error, by Mark Green and Gail MacColl; and Reagan Speaks, by Paul D. Erickson. In this corner of my library I can readily put my hand on almost every damnfool remark, cretinous simplification, historical falsehood, fatuous self-contradiction, "deniable' racist innuendo, pigignorant anecdote, sly misrepresentation and senile discourtesy ever uttered by the village idiot now in occupation of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This little retrieval system is, you might think, enough for my simple needs as a Nation columnist. And yet, and yet . . . With the …