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White House Diaries
July
31
1985
July 31, 1985
Wednesday, July 31, 1985
Usual staff & N.S.C. meetings after a photo session with Mermie—her supposedly reporting to me on the U.N. Womens Conf. in Nairobi.
It seems the conferees on the Budget worked late last night & are at it again today. They’ve realized that with all the media attention to the deficit & the budget they dont want to go home on vacation tomorrow & face the home folks without having acted on a budget.
Sen. Arlen Spector came in. He has an idea about turning over to the courts the handling of violations by foreign exporters of our various trade quotas etc. To do this we would by law permit industries of ours to bring charges & ask for injunctions against such exporters. I took this under advisement. It would reduce the exec. branchs authority in an area that involves international relations, nat. security etc.
At 11:30 A.M. in the St. Dining room addressed about 150 of our top staff. It was a good meeting. I only stayed for my remarks. Don R. took Q’s. & I came upstairs for lunch. About 3:45 Paul Laxalt came by to talk to us. He really wants to leave the Senate & not run in ’86. He wont if his seat doesn’t look safe for the Repubs. Wirthlin is doing an in depth study. I told him we really needed him & cant afford to have the Demos. pick up the seat. Of course we’d miss him like H--l. We’ve traveled a long road together. We left it on hold—pending Wirthlins report. At 4:30 I went downstairs for a farewell reception for Dave Stockman, Jennifer & 3 week old Rachel.
George Shultz called from Helsinki on “safe phone.” He reported an interesting 3 hr. meeting with Shevardnadze—new Soviet Foreign Minister. Before I could reply we lost the connection. I hope he doesn’t think I hung up on him.
