Former Reagan spokesman Larry Speakes dies at 74
Larry Speakes, who spent six years as acting press secretary for President Ronald Reagan, died Friday in his native Mississippi. He was 74. Bolivar County Coroner Nate Brown said Speakes had Alzheimer's disease.
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In 1974, Speakes worked as press secretary for the special counsel to President Richard Nixon during the Watergate hearings
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After resigning his White House job in 1987, Speakes worked for Merrill Lynch in New York. Speakes left the Merrill Lynch job after he wrote in his memoir, "Speaking Out," that he had fabricated quotes for President Reagan while working for him.
http://america.aljazeera.com/...
This is my most prominent recollection of Speakes:
AIDS Was Hilarious to the Reagan White House, Press Corps http://nymag.com/...
I find it uplifting that his distasteful memory is counterbalanced by a sweet harbinger:
Holder: Utah same-sex marriages recognized under federal law
Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday extended federal recognition to the marriages of more than 1,000 same-sex couples in Utah that took place before the Supreme Court put those unions in the state on hold.
The attorney general's action will enable the government to extend eligibility for federal benefits to these couples.
Holder said the couples "should not be asked to endure uncertainty" regarding their benefits while courts decide the issue of same-sex marriage in Utah.
http://america.aljazeera.com/...
Maybe the future will be better than the past.