Regan Book Blasts First Lady

WASHINGTON--Donald T. Regan '58, former White House chief of staff, yesterday released a memoir portraying President Reagan as a hesitant executive controlled by a scheming, image-conscious First Lady who depended heavily on an astrologer's predictions.

Regan offered a sometimes bitter account of his stormy days at the White House in, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and scheduled to go on sale in bookstores today.

"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," Regan wrote.

He did not identify the woman, saying Nancy Reagan referred to her only as "Friend." But Time magazine, which carried excerpts of the book in its new issue, said, "She is Nob Hill Socialite Joan Quigley, sixtyish, a Vassar graduate who has written three books on astrology."

Ms. Quigley, a wealthy Republican whose specialty is politics, is a frequent guest on the Merv Griffin show. She has been practicing astrology since the 1960s.

Reached by the San Francisco Chronicle last week on vacation in Paris, she acknowledged she has known the Reagans for years, but refused to comment on whether they had ever been her clients.

"I never say who my clients are. Never. It is very confidential," she said.

Asked if it would be wrong to say she was the Reagans' astrologer, she said, "I won't comment on that. I can't comment."

The Reagans had no comment Sunday afternoon as they alighted from the helicopter that brought them from Camp David, Md., where they had spent the weekend. Reagan pointed to his ear, indicating he could not hear questions shouted at him by reporters; Mrs. Reagan appeared cool and unsmiling, but said nothing.

On Friday, however, Reagan expressed irritation about Regan's memoir, the latest in a series of "kiss-and-tell" books about Reagan's presidency. "He's chosen to attack my wife and I don't look kindly upon that at all," Reagan said.

For a time, Regan says he was kept in the dark about Mrs. Reagan's secret, which had been closely held by a handful of aides since Reagan days as the governor of California.

But after repeated clashes with the First Lady over schedules, longtime Reagan aide Michael Deaver told the chief of staff about the astrologer and advised Regan to "humor" the First Lady, he said.

"At one point, I kept a color-coded calendar on my desk (numerals highlighted in green ink for 'good' days, red for 'bad' days, yellow for `iffy' days) as an aid to remembering when it was propitious to move the President of the United States from one place to another, or schedule him to speak in public, or commence negotiations with a foreign power," Regan wrote.