Michael Reagan Calls Brother Ron an Embarassment over Alzheimer’s Flap

The Ronald Reagan centennial celebration coming up in a few weeks should bring some very interesting family dynamics – as the two Reagan brothers are already fighting.

Ronald Reagan’s conservative son called his liberal half-brother “an embarrassment” Saturday for speculating in a new memoir that their father suffered from Alzheimer’s disease while president.

“Ron, my brother was an embarrassment to his father when he was alive and today he became an embarrassment to his mother,” Michael Reagan posted on Twitter.

My brother seems to want [to] sell out his father to sell books,” he added in another tweet.

The sibling tension bubbles over just three weeks before Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, which will kick off a year of events to honor the 40th president.

In “My Father at 100,” Ron Reagan recalls early warning signs of his father losing his mental faculties. “The question,” he writes, “of whether my father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s while in office more or less answers itself.”

Michael Reagan, adopted during President Reagan’s first marriage, comes out with his own book on Tuesday. It’s a polemic called “The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan’s Principles Can Restore America’s Greatness.” Newt Gingrich, a likely 2012 Republican candidate for president, wrote the foreword.

Well, there is little doubt that Ron Reagan wants to sell books and his new one looks like a winner. But, to drudge up this Alzheimer’s rumor which has largely been debunked is certainly over the top.

Here is a CNN video that discusses the issue with David Gergen, a former advisor to President Reagan.

I would recommend to the brothers to STOP IT and support Nancy to have the very best birthday party ever for their father.

By the way, the Reagan Foundation issued the following response on the Alzheimer’s issue:

“We believe Ron has written a wonderfully warm and engaging book about life with his father, Ronald Reagan,” the foundation said. “It offers a tribute that only a son could present. As for the topic of Alzheimer’s, this subject has been well documented over the years by both President Reagan’s personal physicians, physicians who treated him after the diagnosis, as well as those who worked closely with him daily. All are consistent in their view that signs of Alzheimer’s did not appear until well after President Reagan left the White House.”