Canonizing Reagan
From Tom Foreman
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In his lifetime Ronald Reagan saw many things named for him: an aircraft carrier, an airport, office buildings and highways.
Now, the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project wants his picture on the $10 bill.
"Alexander Hamilton has been on the ten for a long time and it's no disrespect to him, but in the past when presidents have passed away, they have replaced other people that weren't presidents," says the Legacy Project's Grover Norquist.
The Treasury Department says it is too soon to discuss the idea, but Reagan fans also want a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, and that could be tricky. Last year, controversy over the new World War II memorial made Congress declare the mall a completed work of art.
"They have passed a law that prohibits memorials on the mall in the future, which is problematic if the initiative is to build on the mall," explains John Parsons of the National Park Service.
Renaming Washington's national airport for Reagan and a rejected plan to put his face on Mount. Rushmore both spurred debates.
Only 11 presidents have monuments in Washington, D.C.
"Right now, for example, we are working on Eisenhower and Adams," says Parsons.
And it takes a long time. The F.D.R. Memorial, authorized in 1959, was dedicated almost 40 years later.
So Reagan admirers will have to wait.
After all, there is even a law saying no memorial to a person can be erected in Washington, D.C. until 25 years after death -- and that law was signed by Ronald Reagan.
