White House Diaries

Tuesday, December 22, 1987

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A wild day—the schedule was revised about umpteen times. Ed Meese came in on the staff meeting. He’s concerned about some of our Cong.men & Sens. having a misperception about me—that I’ve changed etc. He suggested some meetings with those individuals to straighten them out. I think he’s right. We didn’t have word until midafternoon about the C.R. & the Reconciliation. The Housing Bill I learned had been passed & they had met our figures. A msg. from Geo. Shultz that I should veto the Authorization for St. Dept. because it called for using the Polygraph on St. Dept. employees. But if I did I’d also be vetoing the money to run the St. Dept.

N.S.C.—Soviets allowed our verification team to see the new Radar site—but held out on some things. Team is convinced they are violating the A.B.M. treaty. Ambas. Matlock says Dobrynin was pumping him as to what we’ll do in Afghanistan. They (the Soviets) are showing some willingness on 2nd U.N. Resolution in Iran. They also still want to talk about S.D.I. Then we talked about verification problems in connection with possible START treaty.

Then I had some desk time until 11 A.M. when I had to go to the dentist. It seems I woke up with evidence of an abscess. Well I spent 2 hrs. in the chair having that lanced but mainly having a root canal job.

I got back to the office just in time for a call from Tom Foley & Bob Michel to tell me the bills had been passed & they were reporting that the House had adjourned for the Holidays. Finally I had the boys put a bowl of soup on my desk. At 2 P.M. A. B. Culvahouse & Howard B. re Ed Meeses problem with special investigator.

Then a photo with John Rogers who is leaving govt. Then a meeting with both Bakers, Jim Miller & Ken D. This was a report that 300 of our people had gone through the 1,000’s of pages of the bills & they were OK for me to sign. So at 3:45 I signed both bills—following which Bob Byrd & Bob Dole called me with their msg. the Sen. was adjourning.

A brief meeting with Frank C. he gave me a run down on what would have to be done to meet the reduced defense budget forced on us by the Dem. majority. It isn’t good. Then a photo with the schedule staff and upstairs. At 8:15 down stairs for Senior staff party—reception line & entertainment by Rich Little. He was just great—did a routine of imitating Presidents—Nixon, Ford, Carter & me.