Reaching Across the Aisle to the Hand That Bites You
Isn’t there something particularly loathsome about the use of every event involving Martin Luther King, and now his widow, as an opportunity for race-baiting?…How about when an ex-President gets involved?…
UPDATE 4:44 p.m.: Ryan James has more; I concur wholeheartedly…
Thanks guys.
If you are going to take pot-shots at a sitting president at a funeral, please have the testicular fortitude to look at the man to whom you are addressing.
Thanks, guys – proving the point the man you ridicule has more class than a preacher, a poet, …
Pretty revolting. Shameful that such a man ever represented our country.
Wasn’t it his veep trying to make political hay out of the late Senator Wellstone’s memorial service?
Clint – I believe you’re referring to the supporters of Mondale (many of whom were also on Wellstone’s staff), the man the Dems nominated to replace Wellstone. That ugly display of classlessness was blamed primarily for Mondale’s loss in the general election.
Carter is, without a doubt, one of the biggest weasels to ever hold the office of President – he was a gutless coward during his tenure, and this lovely event (in addition to countless others) has proven that the zebra hasn’t changed his stripes one bit.
Why is it that former democratic Presidents feels they should still have something to say about how to run this country and of course foreign affairs. Their record while they were in office was abysmal on these issues, especially Carter’s. In my opinion, the worst President of my lifetime. I do not remember Ford, Reagan, or Bush I becoming involved in the politics of another President in this manner after they left office. These two dunderheads, Carter and Clinton, remind me of a bad toothache. Are they that narcissistic?
Some people have class and some don’t. Jimmy Carter, ever fearful that we might forget how inept a President he was, is always looking for a way back into the spotlight, however misguided, misinformed, and low the method. Yet, I guarantee that when he passes from this earth most Republicans will show that they are a classy bunch and focus any comments they make about him on his various humanitarian deeds – because that is the kind of people they have proven themselves to be.
Sorry to be the skunk at the garden party here. Did anyone read the Drudge post?
1) It was not George Bush who wiretapped the Kings – it was the FBI, under Democratic administrations. How is this a swing at Bush? Martin Luther King was dead for 32 years before Bush was elected.
2) Katrina showed that all are not equal in America. This is a fact. It was true before Bush was elected, and it is true now. How is this a swing at Bush?
Aren’t you over-reacting here?
Yes, Peter, but (you skunk!) there was also this:
Rev. Joseph Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the group the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once led, spoke after President Bush’s brief remarks and with the freedom that comes from being 84 years old with little left to lose.
“How marvelous that presidents and governors have come to mourn and praise,” he said. “But in the morning, will words become deeds that meet needs?” Watching the video feed from the megachurch in Lithonia, Ga., I could see Bush turn to tell first lady Laura something.
Then, in an amazing moment I highly recommend to everyone (I’m hoping C-Span will make the entire funeral coverage available), Lowery, who delivered a eulogy partly in verse, said of Mrs. King: “She extended Martin’s message against poverty, racism and war. She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar.
“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there.” At which point Lowery got a huge ovation.
The video feed I was watching unfortunately didn’t show the president’s reaction, but I can only imagine he wasn’t happy.
Then Lowery dropped another rhetorical bomb. “But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance, poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”
Fine, then dump on Lowery all you want — but suggesting that “an ex-President was involved” is misleading and incorrect –
Peter,
We all know that this type of activity has been going on for many years and that life is not fair even in the United States. Yes, the rich have more privileges regardless of gender, race, etc. You’re smoking something if you think this Congress is going to make laws that hurt the rich as a whole. Remember who they are in business for. Themselves and how many members of Congress are millionaires? I have come to accept that fact and can not change it.
Putting all that aside, this was Mrs. King’s day and she should have been remembered and honored, not some folly event in our government. Totally out of line. Jimmy needs to crawl back in his hole.
Agreed – but I don’t see what Carter did which was so awful. The Kings did a lot – perhaps as much as anyone – in making America a more equal place. There is much which remains to be done. I don’t see why it is inappropriate to mention this in a eulogy.
Also, we don’t know the context – Drudge is a polemicist, not a reporter, and he is obviously trying to stir the pot. Carter is a deeply religious man, has given many eulogies, and is from the same state as the Kings. My suspicion is that if you (or I) read the entire speech, it is probably nothing to get excited about.
I agree with you on Drudge. I do not go there very much. Who wrote the article? It does not say.
Comrades,
It was a repugnant spectacle, watching the wannabees troll for votes at Mrs King’s own wake. What a revolting, yet brutally honest portrayal of what the left will do to gain a political advantage. Even in death, that good woman was being used and abused by her lesser’s in order to ride her coatails (skirt hem?) to money and political power.
Shame, Shame on the left for this abomination! Shame on their constant playing of one race against another. Shame on Clinton and Clinton and Carter and Lowery for their abuse, and it WAS abuse, of poor Mrs King.
These cretinous *sshats usurped a great woman’s funeral for their own political agenda, and I hope they get slapped silly next election for their conduct.
There is NO EXCUSE for their actions. NONE WHATSOEVER.
Respects,
Gwedd
peter, I’ll admit that Carter’s comments weren’t as offensive as some of the others – but coming the very day after the NSA hearing? Why wiretaps, of all things? More inappropriate than outrageous, in his case…
The wiretaps were the most egregious thing the government did — as a former President, it seems appropriate for Carter to acknowledge it — I don’t see any connection with the NSA issue, oblique or otherwise. I think perhaps you are reading too much into this.
So the Reverend Lowery is a race-baiter, eh?
My, how quickly they forget.
And speaking out against the War at Coretta’s funeral? This, remember, was a woman who led a 50,000 person civil rights march the day before her husband’s funeral, and spoke at a huge anti-War rally, a mere 3 weeks later.
She was an activist all her life, fighting for exactly the things Lowery touched on in his eulogy. To pretend otherwise … that would have been to dishonour her memory.
Jacques, I don’t deny Lowery is a big civil-rights leader…but then, so is (supposedly) Jesse Jackson, he of the famous ‘hymietown’ comment. You can do great things and still be a race-baiter, can’t you?
It’s not the fact that they mentioned various causes of King’s; it’s that they personalized them in the figure of one of the distinguished attendees…
In any event, the funeral was politicized – it’s all over almost every major media outlet now, not just Drudge…I don’t see why you can’t honor the woman’s accomplishments without insulting others in attendance…
He never mentioned said attendee, did he (though, I’ll grant you, the implications were clear)?
It was, if anything, quite a gentle speech, judging by the video. (I’ll admit that I haven’t watched all 6 hours of the funeral; maybe there was something egregious in the parts that I missed.)
And morbid, too. They kept talking about this dead person …
Yes, that says a lot about our cable new outlets, doesn’t it?
Well, now you’ve forced me into a corner – you know I hate cable news as much as you do…I’ll grant you this, it’s not the big deal it’s being blown up to be…I thought of it more as an annoyance than an outrage, as I may have mentioned before…
Perhaps I should have just let it pass…but hey, anything that gets that Muslim cartoon story of the front pages, I’m in favor of!…
Yeesh!
I keep thinking about posting my thoughts on that, and then think better of it.
But why post new stuff when this old post of mine generated 6000 visitors yesterday? (I don’t read the language, alas, but I think the Norwegian newspaper that linked to it entirely missed the point of my post.)
The joys of the unintended link, eh?…but traffic’s traffic, right? (Or, to quote Dean Martin: “As the fly said as he was walking over the mirror, that’s one way of looking at it”)…
I will say, Peter, that the wiretapping was not the most egregious thing, it was the attempt by the FBI to break up their marriage and force King to suicide. That is actually, I think, one of the most appalling covert plans I’ve ever heard of, especially given the target. I for one think that Carter was a little out of line, as well. But (and this doesn’t even mean I’m advocating him) I do think it’s funny to call Clinton a “wannabe” when you look at the scale of the positive reaction in the crowd to his appearance. I also think that, for the most part, his comments were pretty tasteful (what I’ve read at least. Yes, I’ll allow myself that easy out).
I was not aware of that, thanks Owen –