Editing Edwin Meese (section)

=== Counselor to the President ===
[[File:President Ronald Reagan meeting with Ed Meese.jpg|thumb|left|Meese with [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] in the [[Oval Office]] in October 1981]]
[[File:James Baker, Edwin Meese, and Michael Deaver.jpg|thumb|"[[Troika (triumvirate)|The Troika]]": Chief of staff [[James Baker]], Counselor to the president Meese, and Deputy chief of staff [[Michael Deaver]] at the [[White House]] in December 1981]]
On November 17, 1980, Meese and [[James Baker]] held a meeting to divide their list of [[White House]] responsibilities, since both saw the potential for future conflict because of their positions being somewhat similar in nature. The one-page memorandum listed Meese's responsibilities as:
* "Counselor to the President for Policy (with cabinet rank);
* member Super Cabinet Executive Committee (in absence of the President and V-P preside over meetings);
* participate as a principal in all meetings of full Cabinet;
* coordination and supervision of responsibilities of the Secretary to the Cabinet; *coordination and supervision of work of the Domestic Policy Studies and the National Security Council;
* with Baker coordination and supervision of work of OMB, CEA, CEQ, Trade Rep and S&T; *participation as principal in all policy group meetings;
* attend any meeting which Pres attends – w/his consent."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Acting President |last=Schieffer |first=Bob |author2=Gary Paul Gates |year=1990 |publisher=Plume |isbn=978-0525485797 |page=83}}</ref>

Meese became Counselor to the President, who appointed him as a member of both his [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]] and the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] from 1981 to 1985. On Monday, September 14, 1981, Meese chaired the first White House discussion of what would become Reagan's [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI), the missile defense program.<ref name="Edwards" />

Meese served as a liaison to the [[Christian right|conservative evangelical]] community, arranging for meetings between social conservative leaders and the president. Meese was lauded by social conservatives for his address to the Congress on the Bible in March 1982, when he said, "Someone has estimated that throughout the course of history man has adopted over four billion laws. It seems to me, with all that effort, we haven't improved one iota on the Ten Commandments."<ref name=Hoover>{{cite journal |last=Meese |first=Edwin |title=Papers of Edwin Meese II |journal=Stanford University}}</ref>

Near the end of Reagan's presidency, Meese's involvement in the [[Iran–Contra affair]] as a counselor and friend to Reagan was scrutinized by the independent counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, which stated in its official report that Meese's knowledge of the 1985 HAWK transaction "raised serious legal questions".<ref>{{cite web |title=Walsh Iran / Contra Report |url=https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm |date=November 1986 |publisher=[[Federation of American Scientists]] |access-date=August 24, 2009 |archive-date=June 1, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601074057/http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure in the [[White House]]. Former Reagan advisor and journalist [[David Gergen]] said, "He's a tremendously influential and highly valued adviser to the President who advises on issues all across the board. He's one of the men who has known [the President] so long and so well he's become almost an alter ego of Ronald Reagan."<ref name="Edwards" />