Utterly classless
Posted by Richard on February 8, 2006
Allow me to join the hundreds of bloggers who’ve expressed their displeasure at yet another funeral turned into a crude, classless partisan political rally. Rather than echo what others have said or point you to big name bloggers you’ve probably already read or can easily find, I thought I’d offer a sampling of sentiments you might have missed.
From Strange Women Lying in Ponds:
This is really too bad. I can safely say that the vast majority of Americans treasure the Kings’ legacy (although I can think of a Democrat relative or two who didn’t like Dr. King at all in his day), and it is rather appalling that most of the attendees of this funeral were willing to turn it into a partisan circus.
From D.C. Thornton:
As I recover from a bad cold, I spent most of the day watching live coverage of funeral services for Las Vegas Metro Police Sgt. Henry Prendes.
Although I did not know Prendes personally, I was touched to the point of tears by the outpouring of love, respect, and admiration for a career police officer who answered the call of duty right to the very end. …
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Meanwhile in suburban Atlanta, funeral services were held for the late Coretta Scott King. What should have been a dignified homage to memory of Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow and her legacy quickly turned into a crass and uncalled-for Bush-bashing circus.There are places for partisan attacks; funerals aren’t one of them. The Democrats on the platform at King’s obsequies should be ashamed of themselves for their blatant showboating and “Wellstoning”.
From Watersblogged:
It was bad enough for Lowrey to turn the funeral of a woman whose husband sought to unite Americans into an opportunity to divide them, and to humiliate the President of the United States for political reasons. It was bad enough for a man preaching at the funeral of the widow of someone whose life was about ending irrational hate to use the opportunity to promote it. But for a man who has actually led this nation to use such a moment to undercut his successor even concerning an issue he feels strongly about is simply pathetic.
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I continue to marvel that I was for so long an admirer and supporter of that small, irresponsible man, Jimmy Carter. And I wish that I could take two trips backward in time- one to change my vote to Gerald Ford in 1976, and the other to change it to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
From Catholic and Enjoying It:
Since politics takes the place of religion for the Left, they have developed the bad habit of taking fundamentally religious occasions (like the funerals of Coretta Scott King and Paul Wellstone) and turning them into cheap little 15 Minute Hates. Normal people are appalled by such crass acts, as they were by the Wellstone FuneRally
I oppose the war. But this was low and dishonorable.
From Publius’ Forum:
If you are a leftist, you do not have to be civil. Your hate, your ire, you incivility, your just plain not being nice can be on full display at any time, whether it is an "appropriate" time to display these character traits and emotions or not.
James Burnham once said of leftism that it "… is not a consciously understood set of rational beliefs, but a bundle of unexamined prejudices and conjoined sentiments. The basic ideas and beliefs seem more satisfactory when they are not made fully explicit, when they merely lurk rather obscurely in the background, coloring the rhetoric and adding a certain emotive glow.”
Apparently, that emotive glow trumps civility and comportment. A leftist is not required to be reserved or to observe public composure or rationality. …
From The Reform Club:
… Paul Wellstone’s "mourners" — the out-of-town, nationally prominent Democrats who turned his memorial service into a political monster truck rally — thought the evening a rousing success. They had no idea that their behavior appalled all Minnesota. A lib has to sink pretty low to get scolded by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, but they had negative altitude to spare.
There will be no such bucket of cold water this time. Mrs. King’s funeral will be spun clockwise and counterclockwise by platoons of pontificators, who have no idea how such shenanigans would have been viewed by her, or are viewed by those modest, ordinary, unremarked people who carry on her legacy. It’s too bad. Would that something could make Jimmy Carter as silent as his vice-president has been since 2002.
From Just My Opinion:
Why, of course, these people feel a need to stake out any side in the first place at a funeral of someone like Mrs. King, or Rosa Parks or, most infamously, Senator Wellstone speaks to their own desperation, pettiness and complete and total lack of, not only class but of real honest respect for the person being put to rest. It may be the ultimate application of the slogan "the personal is political" to turn something as persnal as a funeral into an occassion for trying to score cheap political points.
From Politechnical Institute:
Appalling desecration of Coretta Scott King’s funeral- turning it into a political whine-fest. The woman deserved more. A genuine heroine in the struggle for Civil Rights, the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. stood by her man through tumultuous times- both for the nation and their marriage.
And that scumbag Jimmy Carter, who last week urged funding of Hamas, had the appalling nerve to use this historic figure’s funeral as an occasion to beat a political drum.
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It’s beyond time for all Americans to see Carter and what’s left of the Democratic party for what they are. Vicious, hate-filled bigots who will stoop to any level to score political points.
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