News this day was about the sudden collapse of any Peace Settlement in the Middle East. Jordan's King Hussein issued a tersely worded note saying the PLO weren't serious in discussing any worthwhile peace deal. This was hot on the heels of the assassination of PLO Moderate Leader Issam Sartawi in Portugal. Reagan scrambled to put a positive spin on things, but the damage had been done and now it was back to square one.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill - Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was busy going on a promo tour for the Star Wars Missile Defense initiative, trying to drum up support. And a plan was introduced to keep the MX Missile program going, despite a Nuclear Freeze Initiative introduced in the House. Also on Capitol Hill, a fight was underway over the confirmation of Kenneth Adelman as Director of Arms Control.

The Space Shuttle Challenger was heading back to Cape Canaveral to ready for its next launch, after a successful landing the day before.

And all roads were closed in London and traffic was snarled for miles in every direction as a World War 2 era bomb was being defused.

Just one of those kinds of days.

As heard on The CBS World News Roundup and the 9:00 am (Pacific Coast) network news for April 11, 1983.

This particular day-after-Christmas in 1992 was loaded with intrigue and harbingers of things to come.

Starting with the Christmas Eve pardons by President George Bush (Sr.) of 6 Iran-Contra figures, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. The sudden move sparked a controversy and the folks in Capitol Hill wanted some answers in the form of an investigation of papers from George Bush dealing with the Iran-Contra scandal.

Meanwhile, the hotspots were flaring up. Somalia had taken center stage since U.S. troops landed only a few days earlier. LIkewise with Sarajevo and over in the Middle East with Israel deporting numerous Palestinians.

President-Elect Clinton was pledging to take some time off between Christmas and his inauguration, even though he was busy filling cabinet posts and working with his transition team before he took office in January.

And the Day after Christmas Sales had retailers chafing at the bit to continue their good fortune in sales, which had been up for the first time in over four years.

All this and a lot more crammed into ten minutes worth of listening for December 26, 1992 via The CBS World News Roundup.

The big news of this day in 1981 was the discovery of an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate President Reagan and key members of Reagan's White House team, including Caspar Weinberger and Philip Habib.

Libyan strongman Khadafy of course denied it, but the White House was adamant and precautions were put in place just in case the threats materialized.

In other news, a plane carrying 12 skydivers crashed in Pearl Harbor, killing all but one on board. As the newscasts progressed, rescue efforts were well underway.

Meanwhile, Casper Weinberger was applauding efforts of the Turkish government to suppress dissidents in that part of the world. Although the rest of the European community was not happy with Turkey's heavy handed handling of the situation, Weinberger saw it as a blow to Communism in that region.

And so it went, this December 6th in 1981 as reported by CBS Radio News on the Hour for 3,4 and 5:00 am (PST).

(Casper Weinberger - Long before Iran-Contra, but the spots are the same)

I almost forgot Casper Weinberger was a holdover from the Nixon administration. During the Ford period he was Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, responsible for slashing budgets long before Reagan made him Secretary of Defense.

So, with the current state of Health Care reform going in full siege mode, I thought I would dig out an Issues And Answers episode from October 10, 1974 where Weinberger gives his two cents regarding a National Health Care package:

Edward P. Morgan (ABC News): “Let me quote to you from a speech you made a month ago when you said ‘since price controls were lifted, the cost of medical care has increased fifty percent faster than the economy as a whole. And this we must and will moderate.’ Are you talking about some kind of controls over medical costs?

Sec. Casper Weinberger: “Well I have said with considerable roughness, because I’m a free market man, I don’t like controls. But I do think there is not a free market in Health Care and I do think the increases have outstripped the cost of living , and the cost of living is obviously racing away at totally unacceptable levels now. And so I personally have felt for some time that cost controls are necessary in the health field. And as a matter of fact they’re contained in our bill of National Health Insurance. But meanwhile, before that bill was enacted there have been very high rises in healthcare costs, particularly in hospital rooms. Some of these can be justified as passing on additional costs that hospitals are incurring. But the fact that they are going faster than the CPI, the Consumer Price Index, is a matter of very grave worry to us because it erodes the ability of anybody to receive health care, and for another thing it’s costing the Government a billion dollars extra in our own health programs . . . .

Morgan: “ Mister Secretary, our time is running out . . . . .

Stop me if you've heard this, but I don't recall any Healthcare Bill that was enacted to bring down the cost of Healthcare - do you?

Oddly, Edward P. Morgan stops and shifts the conversation rather quickly over to Betty Ford's recent Cancer surgery and the subject of National Health Insurance is never brought up again.

Maybe it was the timeclock, but cynicism makes me wonder otherwise.