President Reagan`s daughter, Maureen, was called on the carpet by her boss and labeled a ”big mouth” by another critic Tuesday for saying that Rear Adm. John Poindexter and Lt. Col. Oliver North are ”guilty of treason and should be court-martialed” for their actions in the Iran-contra affair.
Conservative groups tried to organize a telephone blitz of the White House opinion line in defense of the two officers.
”Thousands of phone calls are coming in protesting Maureen Reagan`s outrageous comments,” said Andy Messing, executive director of the National Defense Council Foundation. ”We`ve nominated her for big-mouth-of-the-year.”
But the White House said there hadn`t been an unusual number of calls about Maureen Reagan and that no count had been kept.
What infuriated Messing and other conservatives was Maureen Reagan`s comments to reporters Monday that her father was ”royally p.o.`d” when he learned how Poindexter and North had used their National Security Council offices.
Maureen Reagan, co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, spoke to reporters after party leaders had lunched with the President at the White House.
She said, ”A member of the United States military who lies to their commander-in-chief is guilty of treason and should be court-martialed, because by omission or commission they did not tell the President what they were doing, and that`s a lie.”
On Tuesday, Messing said her boss, Frank Fahrenkopf, ”is bouncing off the wall, he`s so p.o.`d. Maureen Reagan is in deep dirt with her own boss. She`s a rogue elephant, according to Frank Fahrenkopf.”
A switchboard operator at the Republican National Committee initially refused to put a reporter through to Fahrenkopf, and the committee`s press office said only, ”Maureen`s comments are her own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinion of the Republican National Committee.”
However, a GOP insider acknowledged that Fahrenkopf ”was very upset with what occurred.” He added that the matter ”has been resolved.”
At the College Republican National Committee, executive director Dennis Kilcoyne said: ”I think Maureen Reagan probably feels that she has the right to mouth off, to define what treason and lying mean, you know. But I don`t really have much respect for her.
”A lot of people are p.o.`d. I made a couple of calls (to the White House) myself.”
The Republican National Committee said Maureen Reagan was ”definitely unavailable.”
