U.S. CURRENCY Hamilton or Reagan? That's the $10 question

Some conservatives would like to see Reagan's face on Mount Rushmore.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Ronald Reagan may be coming soon to the $10 bill.
Some of his most ardent admirers, who've spent 10 years promoting memorials to the 40th president, will go into high gear after Friday's funeral to work toward getting Congress to put his face on the $10 bill.
Grover Norquist, the president of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, said the 62 things already named for Reagan -- from the former National Airport outside Washington to an aircraft carrier to a New Hampshire mountain -- were only the beginning.
"We want something significant named for Reagan in every state and every county," Norquist said, "as well as in the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe."
Congress may change the $10 bill as soon as this month, he said. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, supports the idea, said his spokesman Jonathan Grella.
"At the national level, the consensus is that we'll put Reagan on the $10 bill," Norquist said. "The leadership of the House and Senate are focused on the $10 bill. I've spent the last three years talking to people on the [Capitol] Hill and the Treasury."
Of course, putting Reagan on the ten-spot would mean removing Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary and the founding father dearest to conservatives.
"We'll find something else cool for him," Norquist said.
Other proposals
There are competing proposals.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wants to put Reagan on the $20 bill. It now carries the image of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., proposes putting Reagan on the dime, replacing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
But both those proposals are problematic politically because "that's just too in your face" against former Democratic presidents, said Bob Stevenson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "There is a legitimate argument that can be made" for changing the $10 bill, he said. "Alexander Hamilton was not a president of the United States."
Hamilton has his followers, however.
Carl Rubino, a professor at Hamilton College, a highly regarded institution in upstate New York that's named for the first treasury secretary, said Hamilton was responsible for fostering the U.S. economy with his genius for creative finance. "It would be an act of ignorance to remove him," Rubino said.
In addition, a new best-selling biography by Ron Chernow, titled "Alexander Hamilton," has raised the founding father to his highest prominence in many decades, and that may make it more difficult for Reaganites to displace him.
Finally, this summer will mark the 200th anniversary of Hamilton's death in a duel at the hands of Aaron Burr, then vice president, which also could arouse Hamilton's partisans.
The Bush administration could change the dime by executive order. Some advocate minting half of each year's dimes with Franklin D. Roosevelt's face and half with Reagan's.
"We think it's premature at this point to discuss any changes to the currency," said Treasury Department spokeswoman Anne Womack Kolton.
More ideas
Another popular idea is for a special Reagan commemorative coin, the proceeds of which would go to fight Alzheimer's. The former president had the degenerative brain disorder for the past 10 years. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the best tribute to Reagan would be to fully fund Alzheimer's research.
Other ideas have been nonstarters, such as a proposed Ronald Reagan University outside Denver, which former first lady Nancy Reagan vetoed in April.
Last, but hardly least, many conservatives dream of putting Reagan on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. First floated in the late 1980s, the idea of carving Reagan into granite alongside Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln thrills supporters, but it probably is not to be.
"The rock that surrounds the sculpted faces is not suitable for further carving," said Paul Menard, management specialist at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. "The Park Service position is that the memorial represents the meaning and ideals for which it was founded. We view it as a completed work of art."