We'll let you speak, if this woman does first:
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...
We'll let you speak, if this woman does first:
I'm surprised he wasn't struck by lightening for that sickening performance.
Well, of course they belong at the funeral.
This is no time for pettiness.
Well, I'm awful sorry at the circumstances, but I'm damn glad to see ya!
I taped Nixon's funeral .. I think I still have the tape, but I'll have to check for sure
Sources now report that a compromise is being offered: Clinton will not speak during the ceremony, but will be permitted a microphone to respond to charges by Juanita Broaddrick after the funeral procession has departed for Andrews.
It's difficult, isn't it? I'm on a short temper myself today and have little patience with left-wing idiocy. And I'm sick. We'll pray for each other, okay? ;-)
OTOH, the fact that he has the gaul to float this type of information at this time clarifies exacty why he is NOT wanted as a speaker.
Sure you can. He should be eulogized by whomever Nancy wants.
Good lord, like pagans at a solstice ritual.
That we're not all on our knees in line to fellatiate him. He's a media whore.
http://www.nixonfoundation.org/Research_Center/Nixons/images/RichardNixonFuneral-150.jpg
link to program of President Nixons funeral
And you, X42, have wasted (and continue to waste) far too many of Americans hard-earned tax dollars.
Leave it to those insufferable people to try and ruin (or should I say 'stain') things.
Mistake number one.
I think I'll go back to DU
Mistake number two.
ask their support for all the things my tax dollars pay for that I can't enjoy
Mistake number three.
Give it up while you're behind...
Well, I'm in good company, aren't I??? :-)
That's right .. I had forgotten about Cheney
Hang in there Howlin ... if they attempt to trash and crash this funeral .. it will back fire on them in the worse way
Give 'em hell, just make sure you delouse before you come back. Liberal cooties kan be nasti!
Bump and ping.
BILL CLINTON's Remards at President Nixon's funeral
42nd President of the United States
President Nixon opened his memoirs with a simple sentence: "I was born in a house my father built." Today we can look back at this little house and still imagine a young boy sitting by the window of the attic he shared with his three brothers, looking out to a world he could then himself only imagine. From those humble roots, as from so many humble beginnings in this country, grew the force of a driving dream. A dream that led to the remarkable journey that ends here today, where it all began beside the same tiny home, mail-ordered from back East, near this towering pepper tree, which back then was a mere seedling.
President Nixon's journey across the American landscapes mirrored that of his entire nation in this remarkable century. His life was bound up with the striving of our whole people, with our crises and our triumphs.
When he became President, he took on challenges here at home on matters from cancer research to environmental protection, putting the power of the Federal Government where Republicans and Democrats had neglected to put it in the past, and in foreign policy. He came to the Presidency at a time in our history when Americans were tempted to say we had had enough of the world. Instead, he knew we had to reach out to old friends and old enemies alike. He would not allow America to quit the world.
Remarkably, he wrote nine of his ten books after he left the Presidency, working his way back into the arena he so loved by writing and thinking and engaging us in his dialogue. For the past year, even in the final weeks of his life, he gave me his wise counsel, especially with regard to Russia. One thing in particular left a profound impression on me. Though this man was in his ninth decade, he had an incredibly sharp and vigorous and rigorous mind. As a public man, he always seemed to believe the greatest sin was remaining passive in the face of challenges, and he never stopped living by that creed. He gave of himself with intelligence and energy and devotion to duty, and his entire country owes him a debt of gratitude for that service.
Oh, yes, he knew great controversy amid defeat as well as victory. He made mistakes, and they, like his accomplishments, are a part of his life and record. But the enduring lesson of Richard Nixon is that he never gave up being part of the action and passion of his times. He said many times that unless a person has a goal, a new mountain to climb, his spirit will die. Well, based on our last phone conversation and the letter he wrote me just a month ago, I can say that his spirit was very much alive to the very end.
That is a great tribute to him, to his wonderful wife, Pat, to his children and to his grandchildren, whose love he so depended on and whose love he returned in full measure. Today is a day for his family, his friends, and his nation to remember President Nixon's life in totality. To them, let us say: may the day of judging President Nixon on anything less than his entire life and career come to a close.
May we heed his call to maintain the will and the wisdom to build on America's greatest gift, its freedom, and to lead a world full of difficulty to the just and lasting peace he dreamed of.
As it is written in the words of a hymn I heard in my church last Sunday, "Grant that I may realize that the trifling of life creates differences, but that in the higher things we are all one." In the twilight of his life, President Nixon knew that lesson well. It is, I feel, certainly a fate he would want us all to keep.
And so, on behalf of all four former Presidents who are here - President Ford, President Carter, President Reagan, President Bush - and on behalf of a grateful nation, we bid farewell to Richard Milhous Nixon.
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