"I'm proud that I stood against Ronald Reagan, not with him, when his intelligence agencies were abusing the Constitution of the United States and when he was running an illegal war in Central America."

That's just one of a series of anti-Reagan quotes unearthed by the Weekly Standard, where the Massachusetts Democrat slams Reagan as everything from an "inexperienced" governor to a dime store cowboy.

But it was the battle over U.S. aid to Nicaragua's Contra freedom fighters - backed by Reagan and opposed by Congressional Democrats - that drove Kerry to extremes.

He was one of ten signatories to the infamous "Dear Commandante" letter that offered Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega a deal: Don't do anything too overtly Marxist and Democrats would see to it that the Reagan-backed freedom fighters would be denied funding.

After Reagan lost the vote, Ortega promptly traveled to Moscow to get further instructions from his Soviet patrons, leaving Kerry and crew looking like communist dupes.