Edwin Meese
75th United States Attorney General
In office February 25, 1985 – July 5, 1988
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	William French Smith
Succeeded by	Dick Thornburgh
Personal details
Born	Edwin Meese III (1931-12-02) December 2, 1931 (age 80) Oakland, California
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Yale University University of California-Berkeley
Religion	Lutheran
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Colonel

Edwin "Ed" Meese, III (born December 2, 1931) is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Administration (1967–1974), the Reagan Presidential Transition Team (1980), and the Reagan White House (1981–1985), eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of the United States (1985–1988). He currently holds fellowships and chairmanships with several public policy councils and think tanks, including the Constitution Project and The Heritage Foundation.^[1] He is also a Distinguished Visiting Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University^[2]

Early life and education[link]

Meese was born in Oakland, California, and is the eldest of four sons born to Leone (née Feldman) and Edwin Meese, Jr.^[3] He was raised in a practicing Lutheran family of German descent.^[4][5] His father was an Oakland city government official, president of the Zion Lutheran Church, and served 24 years in the non-partisan office of Treasurer of Alameda County.

At age 10, Meese published along with his brothers a mimeographed neighborhood newspaper, the Weekly Herald, and used the proceeds to buy a War Bond. The young Meese also rode a bicycle on a paper route and worked in a drugstore. At Oakland High School, Meese was involved in the Junior State of America and led his high school debate team to statewide championships and was recognized as valedictorian, class of 1949.^[6] Two weeks prior to graduation, he was accepted to Yale University and granted a scholarship. Meese served as president of the Yale Political Union, chairman of the Conservative Party, and chairman of the Yale Debating Association. Meese made the dean's list, and graduated with a bachelor of arts of political science in 1953.^[6]

Military service[link]

Meese became a member of ROTC upon enrollment at Yale, and upon graduation he obtained a commission in the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant. He spent 24 months at Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma. Meese earned experience in logistics, conducting installation and operations of the 240 mm howitzer M1. Meese completed active duty in 1956 and continued in the United States Army Reserve, specializing in military intelligence. Meese retired from the Army Reserve as a Colonel in 1984.^[6]

Early career[link]

Meese returned to California, obtaining a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a state Moot Court champion. He graduated in 1958 and accepted a position with the district attorney's office of Alameda County as a law clerk at $281 per month. While there, he worked under District Attorney J. Frank Coakley. He also worked with future District Attorney D. Lowell Jensen. Jensen was engaged in developing a case-management software program known as Dalite.^[7] Meese prosecuted felony cases while maintaining a private practice on nights and weekends, focusing on civil law. During this service, he first drew the attention of Republican State Senator Donald Grunsky, who would later recommend him to governor-elect Ronald Reagan.

In 1959 he married high school sweetheart Ursula Herrick, daughter of Oakland's postmaster.^[6]

California governor's office[link]

Meese joined Ronald Reagan's staff in 1967. He served as legal affairs secretary from 1967–1968 and as executive assistant and chief of staff to Governor Reagan from 1969 through 1974. Despite his later well-known fondness for Reagan, Meese was initially reluctant to accept the Reagan appointment because Meese saw himself as a non-partisan figure. "I was not particularly interested," Meese said.^[6] Nonetheless, Meese was known for his "unique ability" to explain complex ideas to Reagan in a way that often mirrored Reagan's own speaking style and mannerisms. Because of this, Reagan biographer Lou Cannon referred to Meese as "Reagan's geographer."^[8]

After being named Reagan's chief of staff, Meese convinced his predecessor's deputy, Mike Deaver, to stay on in the position, beginning a partnership that would last more than two decades.^[9] For his role in Reagan's office, Meese earned reluctant praise from across the aisle. Former Democratic speaker of the Assembly Bob Moretti said, "Were I in the governor's seat, I would want someone like [Ed Meese] on my side." ^[10]

Berkeley riots[link]

As Reagan's chief of staff, Meese was instrumental in the decision to crack down on student protesters at People's Park in Berkeley, California, on May 15, 1969. Meese was widely criticized for escalating official response to the People's Park protest, during which law enforcement officers killed one protestor and seriously injured hundreds of others, many of whom were bystanders. Meese advised Reagan to declare a state of emergency in Berkeley, contrary to the recommendation of the Berkeley City Council, which led to a two-week occupation of the city by National Guard troops.

The first governor to turn to Meese for advice on riot control was Democrat Edmund (Pat) Brown, who first telephoned Meese seeking advice on how to best handle the situation. "I told him," Meese said, "that the people in that building should be arrested and taken out of there. I told him that if they were allowed to stay, there would be another mob scene, even bigger, the next day." Meese and Deputy District Attorney Lowell Jensen later served as co-counsels in the trial of Berkeley demonstrators. Meese was recognized as one of five "Outstanding Young Men of California" by the California Junior Chamber of Commerce for his role in countering the Berkeley demonstrators.^[6] Meese's role in quelling the riots at UC Berkeley have been identified by critics and supporters as an example of a conservative law-enforcement philosophy at work.^[11]

Industry and academia[link]

From January 1975 to May 1976, he was vice president for administration of Rohr Industries in Chula Vista, California. He left Rohr to enter private law practice in San Diego County, California. After receiving a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, Meese developed what he called "a plan for a law school center for criminal justice policy and management." The plan was accepted by The University of San Diego, a private Catholic school.^[6] From the fall of 1977 through January 1981, Meese served as professor of law at USD, where he also directed the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management.^[12] During the same time, Meese served as vice chairman of California's Organized Crime Control Commission and was actively involved with the California Bar Association's criminal law section.^[6]

Reagan presidency[link]

Presidential campaign and transition[link]

Following the Iowa caucuses, Meese joined the 1980 Reagan presidential campaign full-time as chief of staff in charge of day-to-day campaign operations and senior issues adviser.^[13]

After the 1980 election, Meese headed Reagan's transition effort. Meese became Counselor to the President, and a member of both the President's Cabinet and the National Security Council from 1981 to 1985. At the advice of Meese, Reagan allowed his campaign to secretly establish a transition office to avoid similar difficulties faced by the Nixon administration in their own transition. "Ed had an uncanny ability to look down the road," said Pen James, Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. Meese's presidential transition team employed more than 1,000 individuals, with 311 being paid in federal funds, 331 working for a "token" $1, and the rest serving as volunteers. When accounting for inflation, the Reagan transition team spent less money than the Carter transition team, $1.75 million versus $1.78 million.^[6]

Reagan administration[link]

On November 17, 1980, Meese and James Baker held a meeting to divide their list of White House responsibilities, since both saw the potential for future conflict since their positions were somewhat similar in nature. The one-page memorandum listed Meese's responsibilities as: "Counselor to the President for Policy (with cabinet rank); member Super Cabinet Executive Committee (in absence of The President and V-P preside over meetings); participate as a principal in all meetings of full Cabinet; coordination and supervision of responsibilities of the Secretary to the Cabinet; coordination and supervision of work of the Domestic Policy Studies and the National Security Council; with Baker coordination and supervision of work of OMB, CEA, CEQ, Trade Rep and S&T; participation as principal in all policy group meetings; attend any meeting which Pres attends - w/his consent."^[10]

On Monday, September 14, 1981, Meese chaired the first White House discussion of what would become Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), i.e. missile defense, program.^[6]

Although few in the Reagan White House were interested in pursuing social policy, Meese served as a liaison to the conservative evangelical community, arranging for meetings between social conservative leaders and the president. Meese was lauded by social conservatives for his address to the Congress on the Bible in March 1982, when he said, "Someone has estimated that throughout the course of history man has adopted over four billion laws. It seems to me, with all that effort, we haven't improved one iota on the Ten Commandments."^[14]

Near the end of Reagan's presidency, Meese's involvement in the Iran-Contra affair as a "counselor" and "friend" to Reagan was scrutinized by the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, which stated in its official report that Meese's knowledge of the 1985 HAWK transaction "raised serious legal questions."^[15]

Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure inside the White House. Said former Reagan advisor and journalist David Gergen, "He's a tremendously influential and highly valued adviser to the President who advises on issues all across the board. He's one of the men who has known [the President] so long and so well he's become almost an alter ego of Ronald Reagan."^[6]

Service as U.S. Attorney General[link]

Meese became Attorney General in February 1985, holding this office until August, 1988, when he resigned due to his role in the Wedtech scandal.^[16] It was during this tenure that D. Lowell Jensen, Meese's former superior at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, served as his Deputy Attorney General and thus the second-ranking official in the Justice Department.^[7] Reagan publicly voiced support for Meese in his role as Attorney General, stating during a press conference, "If Ed Meese is not a good man, there are no good men" in response to questions about his actions at the Justice Department.^[17]

In 1985, Meese received Government Executive magazine's annual award for excellence in management for his service in this role.^[17]

Meese Report[link]

On May 21, 1984, Reagan announced his intention to appoint the Attorney General to study the effect of pornography on society.^[18] The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, often called the Meese Commission, convened in the spring of 1985 and published its findings in July 1986. The Meese Report advised that pornography was in varying degrees harmful.^[19]

Drug control policy[link]

As Attorney General, Meese chaired the National Drug Policy Board, which coordinated with Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No," national anti-drug educational campaign. One of Meese's innovations was to seek the cooperation of drug-producing countries.

However, "One of our most effective weapons against drug traffickers," Meese wrote in his autobiography, "was to confiscate the assets of their criminal activity, such as expensive autos, yachts, businesses, and homes... To make this technique even more effective, we shared the proceeds with cooperating local law enforcement agencies to enhance their drug-fighting activities".^[20]

Supreme Court views[link]

In 1985 Meese delivered a speech calling for a "jurisprudence of original intent" and criticizing the Supreme Court for straying from the original intention of the U.S. Constitution. Justices William J. Brennan and John Paul Stevens disagreed with Meese publicly later that year, in a dispute that foreshadowed the contentious Robert Bork hearings of 1987.

Meese was well known for his opposition to the Miranda Warning ruling by the Supreme Court requiring a suspect's rights to be read to him before he is questioned by authorities.^[21]

U.S News & World Report: You criticize the Miranda ruling, which gives suspects the right to have a lawyer present before police questioning. Shouldn't people, who may be innocent, have such protection?
Meese: Suspects who are innocent of a crime should. But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.^[21]

Iraq Study Group[link]

In May 2006 Meese was named a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group by group co-chairmen James Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, commissioned to assess and report on the contemporary status of the Iraq War. Meese co-authored the group's final December 2006 report.^[22]

Fellowships & Honors[link]

Meese serves on the boards of several institutions. Meese has held the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation since 1988, when he joined the think tank. This position is the only policy chair in the United States officially named for the 40th president.^[12][23] In addition to this role, he is also chairman of Heritage's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, founded in 2001 to educate government officials, the media and the public about the Constitution, legal principles and their impact on public policy.^[23]

Meese serves as an Adjunct Fellow at the Discovery Institute and serves on the Board of Directors of the Junior State of America^[24] Meese is also on the Board of Directors for the Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank devoted to the research of non-profit groups.^[2]

Meese served on the Executive Committee (1994) and as president (1996) of the Council for National Policy (CNP), and served as co-chairman of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Sentencing Committee.^[25]

Meese served two terms as a member of the Board of Visitors of George Mason University from 1996-2004. From 1998-2004 he served as rector (chairman) of the board.^[26]

For his lifetime of service and leadership, Meese was named the first-ever Honorary Reagan Fellow of Eureka College (Eureka, Illinois) at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Recognizing Meese as a model for young people, the honor was given on behalf of the Reagan Fellows program President Ronald Reagan established at his own alma mater in 1982. Meese is a charter member of the Ronald W. Reagan Society of Eureka College and a featured speaker at the "Reagan and the Midwest" academic conference held on campus to launch the Reagan Centennial in 2011.

Meese serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a non-profit market-oriented research, education, and outreach think tank located on George Mason University's Arlington campus.^[27]

Writings[link]

• Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? - contributing author (Amerisearch, 2005) ISBN 0-9753455-6-7
• The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, ISBN 1-59698-001-X
• With Reagan, 1992, Regnery Gateway, 0-89526-522-2

See also[link]

• Attorney General's Commission on Pornography
• Garcia-Mir v. Meese

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Edwin Meese

• Edwin Meese profile, NNDB
• Attorney General's Commission on Pornography
• Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters - U.S. Court of Appeals
• Edwin Meese at the Internet Movie Database

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Ebenezer Scrooge
A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas character
Ebenezer Scrooge encounters "Jacob Marley's ghost" in Dickens's novel, A Christmas Carol
First appearance	A Christmas Carol
Created by	Charles Dickens
Portrayed by	See below
Information
Nickname(s)	Scrooge
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Money-lender
Family	Fred (nephew) Fan (sister)

Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness. Dickens describes him thus: "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice ..." His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy, traits displayed by Scrooge in the exaggerated manner for which Dickens is well-known. The tale of his redemption by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday. Scrooge's catchphrase, "Bah, humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many of the modern Christmas traditions.

Origins[link]

In his diaries, Dickens states that Scrooge stems from a grave marker which he saw in 1841, while taking an evening walk in the Canongate Kirkyard in Edinburgh. The headstone was for the vintner Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, a relative of Adam Smith, who had won the catering contract for the visit of George IV to Edinburgh and the first contract to supply whisky to the Royal Navy. The marker identified Scroggie as a "meal man" (corn merchant), but Dickens misread this as "mean man", due to the fading light and his mild dyslexia. Dickens wrote that it must have "shrivelled" Scroggie’s soul to carry "such a terrible thing to eternity". The grave marker was lost during construction work at part of the kirkyard in 1932.^[1]

Several theories have been put forward as to where Dickens got additional inspiration for the character.

• One school of thought is that Dickens based Scrooge's views on the poor on those of demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus.^[2]
• Another is that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was worked up into a more mature characterization (his name stemming from an infamous Dutch miser, Gabriel de Graaf.)^[3][4]
• Jemmy Wood, owner of the Gloucester Old Bank and possibly Britain’s first millionaire, was nationally renowned for his stinginess, and may have been another.^[5]
• The man whom Dickens eventually mentions in his letters^[6] and who strongly resembles the character portrayed by Dickens's illustrator, John Leech, was a noted British eccentric and miser named John Elwes (1714–1789).

Story[link]

The story of A Christmas Carol starts on Christmas Eve in 1843, with Scrooge at his place of business. The book says that Scrooge lives in London, England. Charles Dickens refers to Scrooge as "... a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" It is usually assumed that he is a banker or professional money lender. Some recent versions portray him as a solicitor. Whatever his main business is, he seems to have usurious relationships with people of little means. These relationships, along with his lack of charity and shabby treatment of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, seem to be his major vices.

His nephew however, has great regard for Christmas and we are introduced to him early in the story where he unsuccessfully attempts to invite Scrooge to his Christmas dinner party only to be rebuffed by Scrooge with a repeatedly said sentence: "Good afternoon." After his nephew leaves, two charitable men come in and ask Scrooge if he is willing to help them raise a fund to help the poor, but Scrooge refuses and makes unkind comments to the men about the poor: "If they'd rather die they better do it now and decrease the surplus population." and angrily dismisses them.

Scrooge has only disgust for the poor, thinking the world would be better off without them, "decreasing the surplus population," and praise for the Victorian era workhouses. He has a particular distaste for the merriment of Christmas; his single act of kindness is to give his clerk, Bob Cratchit, the day off with pay. Done more as a result of social mores than kindness, Scrooge sees the practice akin to having his pocket picked on an annual basis.

After introducing Scrooge and showing his shabby treatment of his employee, business men, and only living relative, the novel resumes with Scrooge at his residence, intent on spending Christmas Eve alone. While he is preparing to go to bed, he is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley (who had died seven years earlier on Christmas Eve) spent his life exploiting the poor and as a result is damned to walk the Earth for eternity bound in the chains of his own greed. Marley warns Scrooge that he risks meeting the same fate, and that as a final chance of escape he will be visited by three spirits: Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The rest of the novel acts as a biography and psychological profile, showing his evolution to his current state, and the way he is viewed by others.

The Ghost of Christmas Past[link]

As promised, the Ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge first and takes him to see his time as a schoolboy many years earlier. Here it is suggested that his father abandoned young Scrooge at his boarding school, even during Christmas. This is relevant to Scrooge, because it shows the beginnings of his lack of socialization and empathy. He does not socialize because he never experienced steady growth in a strong family unit. He does not empathize thanks to the way he was treated: as a child, he was the least of his father's concerns, and this in turn taught him not to feel for fellow humans. In altered versions of the story, his father goes to jail for not paying debt – it is hinted that he may have died while in prison (which reflects the author's childhood).

Later the ghost shows how his success in business made him become obsessive and develop a workaholic tendency. His money and work-obsessed personality traits eventually compel Scrooge's fiancée, Belle, to leave him, which further hardens his heart. The death of his younger sister Fan, the one relative who had a close relationship with him, also injures him greatly enough that he loses any love he had for the world. Scrooge has only his nephew left but doesn't particularly care for him, likely due to Scrooge blaming him for his sister's death following childbirth; in some retellings of the story Scrooge's father blames Ebenezer for causing his wife's death in childbirth with Fan as the older sibling.

The Ghost of Christmas Past also shows how Scrooge was an apprentice for Mr. Fezziwig, a kindly warehouse business owner, whom Scrooge eventually buys out of business.

The visit by the Ghost of Christmas Past also reveals the origin of Scrooge's neurotic hatred of Christmas; most of the events that negatively affected Scrooge's character occurred during the Christmas holiday season.

One of the sources of his negative ways is the pain he feels for losing his love, Belle. Engaged to be married to her, he keeps pushing back the wedding until his finances are as healthy as he would like; something that, given his insatiable lust for money, he would probably never have. Realizing this, Belle calls off the engagement and eventually marries someone else, causing Scrooge to further withdraw from society and relationships.

The Ghost of Christmas Present[link]

Scrooge and Bob Cratchit illustrated by John Leech in 1843

Scrooge is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows him the happiness of his nephew's middle-class social circle and the impoverished Cratchit family. The latter have a young son (Tiny Tim) who is lame, yet the family still manages to live happily on the pittance Scrooge pays his clerk. When Scrooge, whose sense of compassion is rapidly resurfacing, asks if Tim will die, the ghost confirms this, but uses Scrooge's past unkind comments to two charitable solicitors against him – suggests "they had better do it now, and decrease the surplus population".

The ghost also warns him of the evils of Ignorance and Want. As the spirit's robe is drawn back Scrooge is shocked to see these two aspects of the human psyche suddenly manifest before him as vicious, terrifying, little children, who are more animal than human in appearance.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come[link]

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the final consequences of his actions one year later. Tiny Tim has died from his illness, leaving the entire Cratchit family in mourning.

In contrast to Tim Cratchit's death, Scrooge's solitary life and disdain for those in need will ultimately lead others to find only comfort and happiness from his own death. No one will mourn his passing and his money and possessions will be stolen by the desperate and corrupt, the very people he condemned in life. The only people who feel any emotion are a young couple Scrooge was about to ruin financially. His death, however, allows them the small amount of extra time (while Scrooge's affairs were being settled) to raise the funds to pay off their debt to his estate. His final legacy will be that of a cheap tombstone in an unkempt graveyard.

Scrooge weeps over his own grave, begging the ghost for a chance to change his ways and re-embrace life, before awakening to find it is Christmas morning. He has been given an opportunity to repent after all. Scrooge does so and becomes a model of generosity and kindness, towards his nephew, his neighbours, and the Cratchits. As the final narration states, "Many laughed to see this alteration in him, but he let them laugh and little heeded them, for he knew that no good thing in this world ever happened, at which some did not have their fill of laughter. His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge."

Actors portraying Ebenezer Scrooge[link]

Scrooge has been portrayed by:

Scrooge and the English language[link]

The name "Scrooge" is used even outside of the UK and the US as a word for a person who is always complaining. Interestingly, it is almost always used in that context, and not as a person who changes from bad to good, despite the fact that his unpleasant side is only shown in its entirety within the first chapter, or "stave".

The character is most often noted for exclaiming "Bah! Humbug!" in spite of uttering this phrase only twice in the entire book. The word "Humbug" he uses on its own seven times, although on the seventh we are told that he "stopped at the first syllable" after realising Marley's ghost is real. The word is never used again after that in the book.

The word "Ebenezer" comes from Hebrew and is actually two words pronounced together: Even Haezer. It is usually transliterated as a proper name by dropping the definite article (Ha) from the Hebrew word for "help" (Ezer) and putting it together with the Hebrew word for "stone" (Even) to create: "Ebenezer." The etymological roots of the word, thus defined, should demonstrate that an "Ebenezer" is, literally, a "Stone of Help." The Biblical Scripture reads as follows:

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’ So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel; the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.” (1 Samuel 7:12-14 NRSV)

A species of snail is named Ba humbugi after Scrooge's catchphrase.^[10][11]

Scrooge appears in Louis Bayard's 2003 novel Mr. Timothy, which is told from Tim Cratchit's perspective.

See also[link]

• Grinch
• Scrooge McDuck

References[link]

External links[link]

• Works by or about Ebenezer Scrooge in libraries (WorldCat catalog)