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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,434 posts) Mon Oct 7, 2019, 02:38 PM Oct 2019

Trump to Award the Medal of Freedom to Edwin Meese III

STATEMENTS & RELEASES

President Donald J. Trump to Award the Medal of Freedom
Issued on: October 7, 2019

This week, President Donald J. Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Edwin Meese III. This prestigious award is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, which may be awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Edwin Meese III has long been a thought leader and strong conservative voice on matters of law and policy. As Counselor to President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Meese helped to craft a foreign policy strong enough to end the Cold War and played a pivotal role in securing historic tax cuts. As Attorney General, he promoted Federalism and the original public understanding of our Constitution. Since leaving public service, Edwin Meese has continued to champion our Nation’s founding principles through his extensive work at The Heritage Foundation.

Justice Dept. Allows Messenger to Keep His Shirt On
By ANN CONNORS
JUNE 24, 1988 12 AM

--Power dressing it was not. In fact, when bicycle messenger Christopher Stalvey showed up at the Justice Department wearing a T-shirt that read: “Experts Agree! Meese Is a Pig,” an allusion to Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, the courier was turned back at the door and told to return when he was more appropriately clothed. Stalvey, who argued for free speech, said he was told: “Would you go to the White House wearing a ‘Reagan is a Jerk’ T-shirt?” Justice Department spokesman Patrick S. Korten initially defended the action, telling the Washington Post: “Just as we would not permit somebody to come strolling in here with a bathing suit, for example, I think it’s reasonable to have some kind of standard.” But in a reversal, the department decided that anyone with legitimate business in the building can wear clothing critical of the attorney general. “The attorney general personally has no problem with anyone coming in wearing the T-shirt,” said spokeswoman Deborah Burstion-Wade. Stalvey said he discussed the case with the American Civil Liberties Union, which was considering bringing suit if the policy remained in effect.

ANTI-MEESE POSTER'S SOURCE IS A MYSTERY
By John Mintz
December 25, 1987

The mysterious posters appeared overnight last week, pasted on walls and utility boxes all over Washington, and many people found them objectionable: They said, "Meese is a Pig."

But if you missed the dozens, or even hundreds of signs directed at Attorney General Edwin Meese III, don't bother searching the neighborhood. Most of them have been torn away or defaced by spray paint in the last two days.

And nobody seems to know who put them up.

Justice Department spokesman Patrick Korten called the poster, which has foot-high red lettering, "obnoxious" and "not nice," but added, "What can you do about it? It's a free country."

Employes with the D.C. Department of Public Works began tearing off the posters affixed to city property this week after a complaint from "Capitol Hill," a department official said.
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Some background information for the young'uns: among the strange items you might not recognize in the first photograph below are a telephone booth and a Renault LeCar.

'Meese is a Pig,' Remembered
By MICHAEL SCHAFFER
October 7, 2013

Edwin Meese III is back in the news: According to a report in Sunday's New York Times, the Reagan-era attorney general convened a group of right-wing leaders last winter to plan a campaign to kill Obamacare—by shutting down the government, if necessary. The apparent end-of-the-fiscal-year train wreck, according to Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Mike McIntire's story, was planned months ago.

Meese's return to the headlines is bad news for the country, and likely bad news for his fellow Republicans, whose efforts to blame President Obama for the shutdown might be undercut by news that a secret cabal of veteran Beltway insiders plotted the shutdown months ago. But for people who lived in Washington in the 1980s, it brought with it a certain sweet nostalgia: Few government officials ever represented better targets for mockery.

For people who followed politics, of course, Meese was the guy behind some of Reagan's most divisive policies. But ordinary commuters also experienced the Meese-bashing in ways they didn't with other officials: During the last couple years of the Reagan administration, walls, construction sites, traffic signal boxes, and highway overpasses throughout the Washington area were festooned with giant posters that read "Meese is a Pig." Soon afterwards, a second series of the poster appeared, with an additional two words: "Experts Agree!"

John Falls/Courtesy of Jeff Nelson

The campaign, in turn, drew ample national media coverage and represented something of a cultural moment—a pre-web meme of sorts. Stores began selling T-shirts bearing the same message.
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