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February 7, 2006Wellstoning the King Funeral - UPDATEDCheck out Chris Muir’s cartoon today! Oh, come on, you’re not really surprised, are you, that Coretta Scott King’s funeral got political? I’m not. I remember this: After President Bush praised Dr. King, things went downhill, apparently. Video is available here. Really, what was so surprising? I remember Jimmeh Cartah, and his lovely wife Roslyn, saying of his successor, Ronald Reagan, “anything would be better than what we have in the White House, now!” I remember him having no good words for Bush 41 or Clinton, and certainly not for Bush 43. Jimmeh Cartah never has a good word for anyone but himself, or a third world dictator, and he has never managed to behave in a classy manner - not when he can do the easier, trashier thing and get his accolades from the usual suspects, and lots of coverage. He seems a miserable human being, a man threatened by killer bunnies - the very FIRST of the media whores to completely buy into the hype surrounding him (”a brilliant naval engineer…”) and lose, utterly lose, his mind and his moral compass when the headlines and magazine covers went away. In this, he joins Al Gore, John Kerry, Cindy Sheehan and (sadly) John McCain. I’ve come to the conclusion that people who buy their own hype, who believe the press when the press over-does the gushing in order to push their own ideas, are weak-minded, or perhaps simply not very smart. He can build all the houses he wants - any former president who will accept a “peace prize” given to him explicitly to (as the Nobel board admitted) “kick the current president in the legs” is unworthy of his office, or the esteem a former president is normally due. The man is inappropriate at all times. Sigmund Carl and Alfred have what he really needs. My best friend, who was watching the funeral, called me up and said, “exactly when did the Democrats utterly revise history and co-opt the civil rights movement? Why does the world forget that it was Democrat Bull Connor putting the hoses and the dogs on the marchers, and the Republicans standing up for civil rights? Why doesn’t anyone mention that Bobby Kennedy was wiretapping King?” History got revised because of the US press, and two men - Lyndon Johnson (the Great Society) and Bobby Kennedy, who did indeed wiretap Dr. King in an attempt to ruin him. But Bobby Kennedy went to the poor in Appalachia, and he went to the poor in the South, and he ended every speech with “now, let’s sing the song,” and joined hands and sang “We Shall Overcome,” and it moved people to see a man born into unimaginable privilege find common cause with the under-represented. It made it easy to forget that he’d tried to get dirt on Dr. King. I remember it like it was yesterday. Kennedy then single-handedly and forever put the “Democrats=Civil Rights” equation together when he, upon hearing of the assassination of Martin Luther King, extemporaneously and movingly called for calm and gave tribute to King. You can read or listen to the speech here. In the issue of Civil Rights, I think it’s pointless to carry on about revised history. It’s done. The warp of history and the woof of of hype will never be untangled. Let it be. People believe what they want to believe, anyway, as we see daily. At my friend’s urging I turned on the television to see the service. I got there in time to see Bill Clinton work the room masterfully while Hillary did her bobble-head thing. I noticed that she practically stood on top of him while he spoke - insuring that she would be in every camera shot, but he stepped aside and allowed her full/solo camera access as she spoke - and it must be said that her speech, remarkably twangy, as it always is when she speaks before a predomiantly black audience - was plodding, uninspired, robotic and flat. You could not escape the comparison of the electricity that filled the room while Bill Clinton spoke, and the steadily diminishing energy that presented itself as she droned. And I couldn’t help but smile as I listened to her talk about (paraphrased) “each person’s personal relationship with the one God…” The sort of stuff that gets President Bush creamed if he says it. But then again, she - and Democrats in general - are also allowed to campaign in churches, and Republicans can’t do that either, so…shrug. There you go. I also noticed, in the brief few seconds that I watched Chris Matthews before shutting off the set, that Jonathan Alter was already spinning the Wellstone Memorialiness of the event and trying to turn it into a “speaking truth to power” meme. Whatever. No, none of it was surprising. It was not surprising that President Bush went, knowing - as he had to know - that a few opportunists and insecure old men would try to take their shots in an attempt to ingratiate the rabble and make the news shows. It was not surprising that both President Bushes spoke with class and humility. It was not surprising that Bill Clinton got the room rocking, and got just a little dramatic, as ever, appealing to the emotions -and he does it very well. It was not surprising that Hillary stood there nodding before plodding. It wasn’t even surprising to me that Hillary got to speak last - in essence giving her the “keynote” spot. In a crowd for whom everything is political and everything is calculated, that was completely predictable. I wasn’t surprised to see that she didn’t seem to be wearing her new, three-carat rock for the occasion, either. There’s a time for that, but not today. It is not surprising that this will be spun into something. And it will largely be forgotten in about three days. So, the left has three days, now to solidify the impressions it wants America to take away from this, which is - of course - “Democrats good. Care for the little guy. Bush bad. Hates blacks.” The Right has three days to remind people that Democrats can’t ever behave like grown-ups or stop throwing rhetorical molotov cocktails. They still think it’s 1969. Hey, they want to keep running against George W. Bush, why stop them? More links: Bob the Watchman feels a bit bad for the King family. Yes, Mr. President, there’s a woman in there, who like us all got it right sometimes and got it wrong at others. There was a woman in there who spoke with courage and stood up for what she believed. Americans tuned into watch and Presidents came to say goodbye to someone who meant much to our country. Millions tuned into remember a great family and a great woman. They wanted to hear words that spoke not to partisan feelings, nor cheapshots. They wanted to see our nation come together to honor a great woman’s passing, to mourn the end of an era. Instead, we got a classless, graceless performance in which a sitting President who came to share the condolence of the American people was attacked in the most cowardly way possible, at a time when he could not defend himself. The American people don’t like classlessness and petty politics and for turning a dead woman into a political prop, Democrats will pay a price. UPDATE: Instapundit gets the impression that Chris Matthews was embarrassed by the behavior of the Dems, due to this exchange. Props to him if he had the sense to be embarrassed (I certainly am quick to say when my party or my church embarrass me) but I figure by tomorrow he’ll have his talking points. He doesn’t seem embarrassed, to me, in that clip. UPDATE II: ABP notes a strange omission in later WaPo stories. Outside the Beltway reminds those Democrats accusing us of “telling black people how to mourn” that we had the same reaction to the politicizing of Paul Wellstone’s funeral. “No one is arguing that the King family does not have the right to turn their matriarch’s funeral into a pep rally. But this was a public event attended by the sitting president of the United States. Surely, if it is going to be politicized, we have a right to comment on it.” UPDATE III: Protein Wisdom takes issue with the idea of giving up the fight for civil rights history, and he makes some good points. WELCOME Instapundit, CQ and Betsy readers! While you’re here, please look around! Today we’re also talking about the quality of Condi, the anger of Hillary, cartoons and their effects on some people, and John Bolton’s Peace Prize nomination. http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/02/07/wellstoning-the-king-funeral/trackback/ 41 Responses to “Wellstoning the King Funeral - UPDATED” |
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She’s mad! She’s sharing the bat with 
February 7th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Anchoress, I’m so p***ed off at those people. I even ranted out my anger just a few minutes ago.
Piece here.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Yep, my Latin temper again!
February 7th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Please be reminded that MLK was wiretapped under the jurisdiction of TWO Democrat presidents- Kennedy and Johnson.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
There’s a story they tell about Lyndon Johnson. Immediately after signing the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 he turned to someone next to him and said, “Do you know what I’ve just done? I’ve just given the South to the Republican Party for the next fifty years.”
Of course, he was right. There were few political heads shrewder than LBJ during his Congressional and Presidential tenure. He knew he had just broken the 20th Century Democratic party squarely in two and that, sooner or later, it would likely mean that party’s downfall.
Despite knowing he would do this, he still went to the wall for the bill, pulling out every trick he knew from years as Senate Majority Leader, working the phones incessantly to get the vote for cloture. It would not have passed if he had not done it, as Civil Rights bills had always been fillabustered to death.
He could have let it happen. He didn’t. And he knew the political consequences.
What’s left of the Democratic Party is the half that supported the bill.
Anybody heard lately about what happened to the Republican party of Nelson Rockefeller and Gerald Ford?
February 7th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Wellstone Redux
Michelle Malkin looks at the politicized funeral for Coretta Scott King (complete with video); Lorie Byrd and The Anchoress have some further thoughts….
February 7th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
That’s far too generous, Joseph.
It was the dems of the ‘new south,’ that for decades, blocked the lynching apology bill.
All the dems did was gerrymander black districts and pretended it was ‘progress’.
The African American community has been decimated by ‘caring’ dems- and there’s no end in sight. That was what Moynihan was fighting when he spoke of fatherless communities and abortion as common as dessert in minority communities.
That’s why Moynihan is barely acknowledged today by the dems.
Welcome to reality.
February 7th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
[…] UPDATE: The Anchoress discusses the ‘Wellstoning’ of the King “funeral”. By: Ian at 7:15 pm in Democrats, Liberal Hate | | Permalink […]
February 7th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
No class, no shame, just more of the same
Why anyone would expect them to simply honor Corretta Scott King at her funeral is beyond me given their history at these kinds of events. First it was Rev. Joseph Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference:She extended
February 7th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
[…] Related: Commentary from Michelle Malkin, SoCalPundit, The Anchoress, Iowa Voice, and Independent Conservative Filed in: In: Headlines, Politics, Commentary, Local News • » […]
February 7th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Funerals Are Meant for Mourning
… not for reckless political cheap-shots!
Taking the podium at the funeral of the widow of 20th Century America’s greatest warrior for civil rights in order to put down the current President is despicable, disgusting, and in poor taste.
Pre…
February 7th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Using The Dead As Soapboxes, Part II
I suppose after having watched the Paul Wellstone funeral here in Minnesota four years ago, I shouldn’t be shocked by Democrats turning bipartisan shows of respect at memorial services into partisan sniping. President Bush and his family had to endure…
February 7th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
[…] Found this via Instapundit, just thought it was a good simple read. I had some similar emotions during the funeral. […]
February 8th, 2006 at 12:14 am
There’s a Woman In There
The Anchoress has some fantastic coverage of the Democratic reaction at the Coretta Scott King Memorial Service. She just utterly eviscerates the left for its bad conduct during the Memorial Service and makes some fantastic points. On the left, Pam Spa…
February 8th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Johnson said what he did because a greater percentage of Republicans voted for the Civil Rights legislation than Democrats. He didn’t trust the power of the lying MSM of the time, and that to come…O he of little faith!
What’s left of the Democrat Party is…well, the Left:Socialists and Communists that weren’t a blip on the radar back then, and couldn’t win an election using their real party affiliations. Some were still being inculcated on college campuses by leftist professors before anyone noticed what was going on. The Republicans-in-name-only generally went the way of the dinosaur, as Democrat programs were proven by time to be completely ineffectual–or even worse–exacerbating or perpetuating the problems they were menant to solve…There is John McCain, though.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:06 am
[…] Update: Nah, Republicans would never do anything as classless as politicize something like this. Ghouls. […]
February 8th, 2006 at 1:15 am
What the Times Should Say, But Won’t
Adam Nagorney and Sheryl Gay Stolberg have thoroughly amusing article in Wednesday’s NY Times, Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities. I thought it could use some clarification. Democrats are heading into this year’s elections in a position …
February 8th, 2006 at 1:40 am
I’ve long wondered about JFK & RFK. Decades ago, a girl - 17 or 18 - daughter of a former governor - Massachusetts? Connecticut? — and I certainly don’t remember their names — I wish I’d written this stuff down back then (he was definitely such a governor, that I’m sure of, everybody in our crowd knew it) — anyway, the girl told me that her father had used to like JFK & RFK until going upstairs with them to address a crowd from a balcony. Going upstairs, they could hear the crowd cheering, and JFK & RFK were saying things like, listen to those fools, they’re such fools. (I definitely remember the the girl’s using the word “fools” as being applied to the crowd.) The girl said that after that, her father didn’t like them any more. I don’t even remember whether her father was Dem or Republican, though given the scenario, it sounds like he was a Dem. Anyway, when she told me this, I was a Dem and it totally contradicted my image of them. I tried to defend them, saying, well, maybe they didn’t want to let that adulation go to their heads. I meant that it was some sort of sardonic self-deprecation as well as depecration of the crowd. She just shook her head and said, no.
People tend to say that RFK was the one who really cared. This is one of those questions that nags at me, that I feel like I’ll never have a satisfactory answer.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:42 am
Anchoress, this post was brilliantly spot-on, and I’ve linked to it on my own comments on the King funeral orgy of bile, called Bitter Taste.
(I still don’t know how to work trackbacks, after a year of blogging. What a dope)
And to say in passing, also, that I am 100% with you on McCain.
I’ll be a very unhappy camper in 2008, if he is my Party’s candidate for the Presidency then.
Cheers,
Victoria
February 8th, 2006 at 4:34 am
I don’t get it. I just don’t get Bill Clinton’s appeal. He’s slimy, he’s anti-charismatic, he’s every woman’s bad blind date.
Jimmy Carter though is evil and clueless. I am ashamed I voted for him and wish I could go back in time and correct that error. Clueless, classless and crass. If only he had stuck to making houses.
February 8th, 2006 at 4:58 am
Coretta Scott King Funeral
President Bush gave an eloquent tribute to Coretta Scott King at what has to be the longest funeral I have ever seen. He was talking when I was getting read to leave for the airport and the procession of speakers and performers appeared not to be win…
February 8th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Not surprising
So Democrats use the Correta Scott King funeral as a platform to bash President Bush. If anyone- and I mean anyone- is surprised by this turn of events, I pity you. Your naivte is endearing in a pathetic sort of…
February 8th, 2006 at 9:28 am
I voted for Carter too. Twice.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:45 am
[…] UPDATE 2, Feb. 8: Atlas Shrugs, Pundit Review, Anchoress and many others are also pointing to the newly-revealed 12 hours of Saddam tapes as a possible source of information about WMDs. All of what they’re covering is very important, but to reiterate — Until someone discredits the sources above, this post shows that plenty of WMDs have been discovered already. Anything new that is learned will be icing on the cake (perhaps very thick icing, but icing nevertheless). […]
February 8th, 2006 at 10:13 am
[…] Sister Toldjah Expose The Left Pundit Review Posted on Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:11 in Personalized | Print No Comments» […]
February 8th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
If Bill Clinton ever gave me any sh*t, I’d tell him to go to Hillary.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Anchoress,
‘
After having slept on it, I’m still p***ed off. Those people make me sick, so sick…
‘
ForNow - Interesting one. Never reall thought of it. But something like that might just help break the Kennedy myth.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
On another blog I commented that this was a trashy way to behave and that friends of mine who are Democrats were embarassed. That seemed to elude one Dem poster completely. He couldn’t understand what behavior I was talking about and called me an elitist.? No matter your politics, good manners alone should prevent this sort of thing. How could that poster be so clueless about what was disturbing about this to most ordinary people?
February 8th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
The soothing balm of HEALING
Once I'd settled down enough to regain my composure, I'd planned to write a long and scathing piece on the ugly political partisanship that erupted at Coretta Scott King's memorial service -- from Jimmy Carter, a former US Presid…
February 8th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Lessons unlearned from the Wellstone funeral political rally - UPDATED
Jhimmi Carter makes further huge withdrawals from his moral bank account with using Coretta Scott King’s corpse to score political pointsThe funeral took on political overtones as former President Carter said of the Kings: “It was difficult for them …
February 8th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
When I finished my undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, Pres. Bush Sr. was the speaker at graduation. Naturally, there were lots of protesters, etc. But what REALLY ticked me off was that I was part of the Residential College, a small college within the larger LS&A. We had a separate graduation ceremony in which all the graduates had an opportunity to speak. All of our teachers were there, our family, and many other people who had made a big difference in our lives. And what did people choose to do? They made comments about Bush and a great many never took the time to thank their teachers or reflect on what it meant to be leaving the RC. I’ve only watched the tape of the ceremony once - on the tenth anniversary - and I was so sad to see how unimportant their comments seemed and how I couldn’t even remember what Bush policy they were protesting.
In the long run, these political barbs at Mrs. King’s funeral will be forgotten. But it’s a damn shame that there will be little from the speeches that is worth remembering.
February 9th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Classy vs. ClassLESS
UPDATE 2.0 - For others’ take on this subject - others who are far more eloquent and brilliant than I, please check out Rick Moran’s “In Defense of Common Decency” (although, Rick, I think it’s going the way of “common
February 10th, 2006 at 4:05 am
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are 2006 Democrat Contract With Al Qae…
February 10th, 2006 at 8:34 am
[…] The Watcher’s Council has announced its picks for the most outstanding posts of the preceding week. This week for the winning Council post was The Strata-Sphere’s post, “2006 Democrat Contract With Al Qaeda”. The second place post was ShrinkWrapped’s post, “The Academy Awards, Pan-Sexuality, Narcissism, & Loneliness”. The winning non-Council post was The Anchoress’s post, “Wellstoning the King Funeral”. The second place winner was One Cosmos’s post, The “Pathetic Last Children of Nietzsche’s Pitiable Last Men”. You can find a complete list of the results here. […]
February 12th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
[…] In the non council category went to Wellstoning the King Funeral by The Anchoress. There was a second place tie between The Pathetic Last Children of Nietzsche’s Pitiable Last Men by One Cosmos and Islam and Freedom and Democracy (Updated, Revised Data) by Dean’s World. […]
February 12th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Watcher’s Council Results
The winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are 2006 Democrat Contract With Al Qaeda by The Strata-Sphere, and Wellstoning the King Funeral by The Anchoress. ANd this link is where you can find the full results…
February 13th, 2006 at 3:26 am
The Coalition of the Willing
As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what we consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… though I don’t actually vote unless there happens…
February 14th, 2006 at 12:39 am
Weasel reads
If you haven’t had your fill of “comic jihad” or “cartoonistan” yet and are wondering where to find some fresh commentary and perspectives, check out the latest winning posts from the Watcher’s Council (or the complete list of nominees).
February 16th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Watcher’s Council results February 3, 10
It wasn’t that long ago that I was promising Watcher’s Council (what?) results in a more timely fashion. You can’t trust a word I say! Here are the last two weeks’ worth of winning and other worthy links. For those posts nominated February 1, 2006:…
February 19th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
[…] Follow-Up III: The Anchoress puts her spotlight on Jimmy Carter and makes peanut butter out of the former peanut farmer. Bulldogpundit does a slice ‘n dice on the Democrats and Carter in particular, and given their undignified behavior its thoroughly appropriate. […]
February 21st, 2006 at 3:49 pm
[…] Non-Council Winner Wellstoning the King Funeral - The Anchoress […]
May 19th, 2007 at 11:36 am
[…] seen the inside of a church. And perhaps they should all take a good look in the mirror at their own sorry selves. We’ve already seen how they reacted toward the passing of Paul Wellstone and […]