Posted on 06/08/2004 8:54:12 AM PDT by lainie
Edited on 06/08/2004 11:18:28 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Controversy develops over Reagan funeral speakers...
'President Clinton really held out all hope the funeral would be a nonpartisan event, like Nixon's was,' a top Clinton source said on Tuesday morning. 'He's angry and disappointed neither he nor President Carter have been asked to speak, as of yet'...
CLINTON DISAPPOINTMENT: LEFT OFF FUNERAL SPEAKERS LIST
Former President Bill Clinton has privately expressed anger he has apparently been left off the speakers list of Friday's Reagan State Funeral, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
"President Clinton really held out all hope the funeral would be a nonpartisan event, like Nixon's was," a top Clinton source said on Tuesday morning. "He's angry and disappointed neither he nor President Carter have been asked to speak, as of yet."
The top source says Clinton has been critical that both Bush presidents will address the crowd gathered at National Cathedral.
Nixon's vice president Gerald Ford did not speak at Nixon's funeral.
Clinton's inner circle is convinced Nancy Reagan has personally shut out Clinton from any high-profile participation.
"It is a state funeral, using tax dollars," the top Clinton insider explained.
Former President George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will join President Bush in eulogizing Ronald Reagan, Reagan's office announced. Presiding over the service will be former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, who is an ordained Episcopal priest. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the Rabbi Harold Kusher will give readings, while Irish tenor Ronan Tynan will sing.
The eulogy is being prepared by President Bush's chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, who also wrote the president's moving speech for a memorial service in the same cathedral after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Developing...
Good post. Outstanding.
You've got to be kidding...
Good heavens... did you all see this?
This is not a Wallstone Funeral.
MY PRAYER FOR THE VIEWING, MOURNING AND HONOR OF PRESIDENT REAGAN
Amen.
Yes, the only reason Clinton spoke at Nixon's funeral was he was the sitting President.
I give thanks that our current President was in office when Ronald Reagan's time came.
MY PRAYER FOR THE VIEWING, MOURNING AND HONOR OF PRESIDENT REAGAN
Good to see you back, MadIvan. I've missed your comments for a long time...
Clinton's inner circle is convinced Nancy Reagan has personally shut out Clinton from any high-profile participation.
"It is a state funeral, using tax dollars," the top Clinton insider explained.
Oh my god...
The WMD issue is the only issue he has kept quiet about, because he had to. He's flapped his jaw about a lot of other things.
Yes, both Clinton and Carter should be there. They are former Presidents (even though they were horrible Presidents).
Let's try to remember and emulate the class Reagan had.
Drudge has become so irrelevant he has to post a siren when he has a good BM.
Clinton and Carter should be relieved they got an invitation.
He deserves neither the respect nor the opportunity to speak at anyone's funeral much less Reagan's.
The clear tip-off that Clinton is masking his agenda here is that he wants Jimmy Carter to speak at the funeral, while Carter himself hasn't said that he wants Jimmy Carter to speak at the funeral.
"I gotta go wash this hand right away...I feel vaseline on it."
Thank you, God, for this omission!
Irrelevant. This is not Nixon's funeral; it is Reagan's... and the wishes of his bereaved widow should concern us a good deal more -- and carry infinitely more moral weight -- than the disgusting, ego-driven impulses of a justly disgraced hillbilly conman and suspected rapist.
Nancy Reagan didn't give up her G-d -given right to a peaceful, NON-POLITICIZED funeral for her dear, departed soulmate, when she became First Lady in the '80s.
I'm about at my limit and I'm not halfway through my pings yet.
These people are determined to make this political, aren't they?
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