Nancy Reagan, who attempted to conceal her relationship with Quigley by making payments through a third party, was highly embarrassed by the revelation.

I’m glad he consults somebody.”Įven White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater opened his daily briefing by saying, “I’ll take your first question at exactly 12:33 and a half.”Īn exasperated Michael Dukakis, the Massachusetts governor and eventual Democratic presidential nominee, struck a more serious tone during a news conference in Boston, saying, “I hope the nation’s destiny beginning in January, 1989, will be based on something other than horoscopes.” “Maybe an astrologer is telling them to object today.” Speaker of the House Jim Wright shot back, “It’s all right with me. On Capitol Hill, Representative Tony Coelho, the Democratic whip from California, blamed astrology for Republicans backing out of a revised trade bill. The New York Post ran a story with the headline, “Astrologer Runs The White House” and the disclosure became fodder for jokes in Washington. Ronald Reagan nearly got through his presidency without his secret adviser exposed.īut Donald Regan, Reagan’s chief of staff until he was ousted amid the Iran-Contra scandal, spilled in his 1988 book, For The Record, what he viewed as “the most closely guarded domestic secret of the Reagan White House.” He wrote that “Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.”īefore long, the astrologer who was advising the White House was identified as Joan Quigley.

Was w d gann an astrologist