I knew the Republicans...

...practically canonized Ronald Reagan sometime in the last thirty years or so, but now they sound as if they are comparing him to Jesus. From Craig Shirley's piece in Real Clear Politics this morning (my emphasis):

The 40^th president’s caution calls into the question the recent assertion by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in comparing Soviet Russia and Iraq. Perry seems to be suggesting that Reagan would send troops back into Iraq if he were in the White House today.

I believe this interpretation of Reagan's foreign policy is incorrect. For that matter, so is Sen. Rand Paul's. But in this case Perry is less correct than Paul. Reagan's foreign policy looked nothing like George W. Bush's; the only other time Reagan committed ground troops in eight years was in Grenada. But his foreign policy was not piecemeal. Reagan’s theory was that the demise of the Soviet Union would result in dominoes falling for freedom and indeed they did across much of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and the Baltics. He also gave the Soviets frequent global tongue lashings, putting them in the dock in the court of world opinion, especially after the murderous shoot-down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983. Reagan understood warfare took many forms.

Interpretation? Sheesh! Get over Him, will you? The Republicans are starting to remind me of the guy who can't stop talking about his glorious high school football career. Time to move on.