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Peggy Noonan: The Ben Elliott Story (What I saw at the funeral)
Opinion Journal ^ | 06/14/04 | Peggy Noonan

Posted on 06/13/2004 9:04:38 PM PDT by Pokey78

What was the meaning of the past remarkable nine days? You cannot stop the American people from feeling what they feel and showing it. From the crowds at Simi Valley to the hordes at the Capitol to the men and women who stopped and got out of their cars on Highway 101 to salute as Reagan came home--that was America talking to America about who America is.

It was a magnificent teaching moment for the whole country but most of all for the young, who barely remembered Ronald Reagan or didn't remember him at all. This week they heard who he was. The old ones spoke, on all the networks and in all the newspapers, and by the end of the week it was clear that Ronald Reagan had suddenly entered the Lincoln pantheon. By Friday it was no longer a question, as it had been for years, whether he was one of our top 10 presidents. It was a question only whether he was in the very top five or six--up there with Lincoln and Washington. An agreement had been reached: the 20th century came down to FDR and RWR.

What is important now is that we continue to speak of the meaning of his leadership. Not bang away about what a great guy he was--there are a lot of great guys--but what huge things he did, not because he had an "ideology" but because he had a philosophy, a specific one that had specific meaning. He was the great 20th-century conservative of America. He applied his philosophy to the realities of the world he lived in. In doing so he changed those realities, and for the better. This is what we must pass on.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: almeyer; andrewferguson; christopherbuckley; clarkjudge; danarohrabacher; davidgergen; deeppen; haircutboy; joshgilder; kenkhachigian; landonparvin; patbuchanan; peggynoonan; peggynoonanlist; peterrobinson; ronaldreagan; thehack; tonydolan; tonysnow; whoareyou; whoareyouwhowho; whoisandyferguson; whoisdanarohrabacher; whoisdarkman; whoisdeepthroat; whoishaircutboy; whoishortonhearsawho; whoisjohngalt; whoispatbuchanan; whoispeterrobinson; whoisthehack; whoistheleprechaun
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To: churchillbuff
By playing up the role of the speechwriter, it's been argued, she played into the hands of liberals who once claimed Reagan always had to be given a script.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Others know that Reagan was his own best speechwriter.

Besides, Reagan's desktop plaque said something about how "There's no limit to how high a man can go as long as he doesn't care who gets the credit." Reagan could care less if his critics believed he was merely an actor who only delivered lines given to him in a script. Others know better.

61 posted on 06/13/2004 10:52:50 PM PDT by Vision Thing (If you do not study Reagan, you'll never understand America.)
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To: valleygal

Yup. Peter Robinson doesn't fit the description of the Hack.


62 posted on 06/13/2004 10:53:42 PM PDT by Vision Thing (If you do not study Reagan, you'll never understand America.)
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To: Vision Thing

I probably wouldn't recognize the names of those she's talking about anyway, even if she'd mentioned them by name. :)


63 posted on 06/13/2004 10:57:26 PM PDT by valleygal
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To: paulat
To use this occasion to settle old scores is tasteless.

Agree. I don't always like her stuff (she is often self-indulgent, and occasionally magnificent) but this is the first time I have ever seen her petty, uncharitable, and unchristian.

Oh, and I know who the malignant leprechaun is. Perfect description. But reflects poorly on her.

64 posted on 06/13/2004 10:58:00 PM PDT by M. Thatcher (.)
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To: Pokey78
Here's one of the things I saw at the funeral: A smirking scumbag.


65 posted on 06/13/2004 10:58:40 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: Pokey78

Thanks for the ping. Count me in as one who's also wondering who the Hack is... who would put their hand on her waist that she would consider it a mistake. She's always been such a gentle soul, even with Colmes who tries, tries to demean her.


66 posted on 06/13/2004 11:07:22 PM PDT by cgk ("If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.")
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To: Vision Thing

I didn't mention it for good reason. Reagan didn't have any real success rolling back social programs related to FDR`s New Deal and LBJ`s Great Society. He did cut discretionary spending in his first three years and slowed the rate of growth of the federal bureaucracy overall. But even under Reagan, the federal government grew at a rate consistent with historical averages of recent years. Reagan's deregulation efforts were very significant and important in the reducing government intrusion. His major accomplishments remain, cutting income taxes, revitalizing and expanding the economy, winning the Cold War and a rebirth of the American spirit.


67 posted on 06/13/2004 11:08:17 PM PDT by Reagan Man (The choice is clear. Reelect BUSH-CHENEY !)
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To: beckett

"Dana Rohrbacher, congressman from California"

I saw a brief segment on FNC with him during last week. He showed some pictures of himself in the White House with Reagan.


68 posted on 06/13/2004 11:10:03 PM PDT by nana4bush
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To: Vision Thing
Others know that Reagan was his own best speechwriter.

Oh, I agree -- that's why I said, "liberals ONCE claimed that he always needed a script." too much evidence has come out in recent years - such as his hand-written letters and radio broadcasts from the 1970s - that have silenced those who claimed he wasn't a quick, fluent and eloquent writer and thinker. All the same, Noonan is a self-promoter, and when she first launched her self-promotion by blabbing about her speechwriting adventures, a lot of Reaganites were critical of her.

69 posted on 06/13/2004 11:12:46 PM PDT by churchillbuff (q)
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To: nana4bush

Noonan's characterization of "the hack" as having a "greasy political style" fits Rohrabacher too. He's all politician.


70 posted on 06/13/2004 11:16:07 PM PDT by beckett
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To: A Citizen Reporter
Al Haig has raced before the cameras since President Reagan died, and has done nothing but try to make it "all about him".

Don't get me started on Haig. He lived in the same condomium building as my aunt. What a self-centered jerk.

71 posted on 06/13/2004 11:17:13 PM PDT by Bonaparte
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To: Bonaparte

Haig needs to shack up with Madness Albright. These blowhards deserve one another.


72 posted on 06/13/2004 11:18:50 PM PDT by Vision Thing (If you do not study Reagan, you'll never understand America.)
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To: beckett
Noonan's characterization of "the hack" as having a "greasy political style" fits Rohrabacher too. He's all politician.

So? Why is the Journal letting Noonan use her column to take personal swipes at somebody she doesn't like? Is it that she doesn't like the fact that some other ex-speechwriters are getting some attention? She's the one who set the precedent of the speechwriter going public and seeking acclaim for the "boss's" words. She can't credibly complain when other speechwriters try the same trick.

73 posted on 06/13/2004 11:20:22 PM PDT by churchillbuff (q)
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To: churchillbuff
So? Why is the Journal letting Noonan use her column to take personal swipes at somebody she doesn't like?

Why is Jim Robinson letting you use Free Republic to slander President Bush and the war effort?

74 posted on 06/13/2004 11:22:18 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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To: RichInOC
the haircut guy, I thought, was Kerry -- no Kerry is the haircut guy with no brains. </sarcasm off
75 posted on 06/13/2004 11:23:08 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Diddle E. Squat
slander President Bush and the war effort?

Which "war effort"? I'm for the war against Al Queda. I just think that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and a diversion from the war on terror. That's not "slander," that's called honest disagreement. Tom Clancy agrees with me - that doesn't make me right (or wrong), it just shows that people can hold a position that's not your position and still be good Americans.

76 posted on 06/13/2004 11:26:17 PM PDT by churchillbuff (q)
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To: Pokey78

**Just in my line of sight was an extraordinarily wide variety of people in the assemblage. The people inside that cathedral who were not there by virtue of their position--senators, congressmen, diplomats--were people who actually loved the Reagans. My eye went from a grieving Mikhail Gorbachev to Joan Rivers to Jim Billington of the Library of Congress to Oscar De la Renta, from Antonin Scalia to Buffy Cafritz, from Clarence Thomas to Merv Griffin, from Prince Charles to Oatsie Charles.**

What a smile this brings to my face. It must have been fantastic to have been there in person.


77 posted on 06/13/2004 11:28:10 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Pokey78

bttt fro later in the a.m.


78 posted on 06/13/2004 11:28:30 PM PDT by tutstar ( <{{--->< http://ripe4change.4-all.org Be part of the solution not part of the problem!)
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To: Keith in Iowa
Forgive my ignorance, but who the heck are Buffy & Oatsie?

They're both Washington socialites, known mainly for being Washington socialites.

79 posted on 06/13/2004 11:30:35 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War (Proud alumnus of the Reagan Youth.)
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To: cyncooper
I am very curious

Me too *L*

80 posted on 06/13/2004 11:31:18 PM PDT by Mo1 (That's right Old Media .... WE LOVED PRESIDENT REAGAN)
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