Posted on 06/15/2004 6:29:24 AM PDT by ConservativeMajority
(Talon News) -- The overwhelming outpouring of affection during the week of remembrance for former President Ronald Reagan was apparently too much to bear for some of his liberal critics. While most who disagreed with the former chief executive managed a kind word or remained silent while the state funeral took place last week, some were unable to observe a respectful period before lambasting Reagan.
Jimmy Breslin, a columnist for Newsday, wrote that putting Reagan on a $3 bill would be a suitable tribute.
"This man Reagan was 93 years old and out of it with Alzheimer's for many years and I don't see how anybody can summon grief," Breslin said. "His whole weeklong funeral is cheap, utterly distasteful American publicity."
Breslin said that comparing Reagan to Lincoln and Hamilton was like "claiming that the maintenance man wrote the Bill of Rights."
Breslin disagreed with most who credit Reagan for winning the Cold War, instead assigning that achievement to George Kennan, a State Department official who wrote a memo in the 1950s about the need for a "Policy of Containment" on Russia.
Breslin called Reagan "callous" and accused him of having "hated children."
Chris Elliot, not the comic, but the columnist for the Seacoast Newspapers of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, railed against Reagan's environmental policy saying that for a time "it turned America into industry's ashtray."
Elliot blames Reagan for creating Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden and says that he made a few people richer and millions of them poorer with his tax cuts.
He suggested, "Reagan can be personally credited with saving all eleven jobs at the Grecian Formula factory in White Plains, New York."
In comparing President John Kennedy to Reagan, Elliot wrote, "Both stood up to the Russians, both were photogenic, and while in Reagan's case there was no Zapruder film to document it, he too lost his brains while serving as president."
Political cartoonist Ted Rall wrote of Reagan, "His clown-like dyed hair and rouged cheeks disgusted us. We hated him during the dark days he made so hideous, and, with all due respect, we hate him still."
In a public statement, Rall said that Reagan is "turning crispy brown right about now," indicating he believed the former president had been consigned to hell.
A group of protesters stood on a corner near the cathedral where Reagan's funeral was held. Their signs, "Reagan in Hell" echoed Rall's remarks.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force web site carried a letter from Executive Director Matt Foreman, who blamed President Reagan and "evangelical Christian conservatives" for deliberately ignoring the AIDS epidemic and indicated its offices would be closed on June 11 in remembrance of all those who have died of the disease.
The New York post reported that a teacher might be punished for criticizing Reagan to students during a moment of silence for the late president at the high school. A spokesperson for the suburban Albany school district of Shenendehowa said that the unidentified teacher, made "negative" and "inappropriate" comments about the Republican president's policies before a group of up to 16 seniors in her homeroom.
Even the venerable Washington, DC bookstore, Politics & Prose, circulated an e-mail announcement promoting an event at a local bar entitled, "Ray Gun: Remembering Ronnie."
The event invited participants to discuss "the real highlights of the Reagan era: Star Wars -- Bitburg -- Iran Contra -- AIDS -- Say No to Drugs."
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
Jimmy Breslin's still alive ?
BRESLIN'S GIRL DIES AT 47 NYPost
June 15, 2004 -- Rosemary Breslin, daughter of Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin, died yesterday of a rare blood disease at age 47.
Her 1997 memoir of her battle against the illness, "Not Exactly What I Had in Mind: An Incurable Love Story," was acclaimed by reviewers, who praised its insight and charm.
Rosemary Breslin had also written for The New York Times, the Daily News, New York Newsday and the Los Angeles Times, and penned scripts for "NYPD Blue."
In addition to her father, she is survived by her husband, TV producer Anthony Dunne, with whom she lived in Greenwich Village. She was the third of six children by the columnist and his first wife, Rosemary Dattolico, who died in 1981.
Post Wire Services
OK, I suppose the Reagan coverage blots out decades of conservatives being maligned and marginalized in the mainstream newspapers and the alphabet news. The media simply covered what was going to get them ratings that week because they knew this nation loved Ronaldus Magnus. Joel Pett (the cartoonist) is a clymer.
I am of the opinion that one of the reasons the networks went with so much Reagan coverage, because this way they were able to overshadow Bush at D-Day, and during the G8 conferences.
These should have been shining moments for him.
Pray for W and Saint Nancy
That is one of the most hateful bits of prose I've seen in a long time. Perhaps Breslin will suffer Alzheimers some day, and become more charitable in his last lucid moments.
How many of the people cited in this article are drunks?
One wonders how Breslin would feel if someone wrote the same kind of editorials for his daughter. He blessed that no one has.
I encountered a distant relative at a family reunion this past weekend who complained that she was "sick and tired of the Reagan funeral circus." She's in her mid-20's, and apparently has no sense of what he did to make her life the comfortable, free life it is. We took it upon ourselves to educate her. It might have created a family rift, but I'm irked at how many people have NO sense of how dear our freedom is. I suspect that for many, they'll never figure it out unless it's lost one day.
My response to those that bash Reagan is a simple one that shocks them to silence....
"At least he kept his pants on in the Oval Office"
No one has said a word back since : )
BTW I have ended a friendship since Reagan's passing. I put up with a friends liberal BS for over a decade and I finally had it when she called me last Sunday night to tell me she was glad Reagan was dead. That was the final straw.
Breslin is one of those who believe old folks have an obligation to die off quickly.
Man, that's some scary quick karmic retribution.
I thought it strange when I read it this morning as well....
OMG! You don't need that kind of person in your life!
BTW I have ended a friendship since Reagan's passing. I put up with a friends liberal BS for over a decade and I finally had it when she called me last Sunday night to tell me she was glad Reagan was dead. That was the final straw.
I don't blame you!
I just love it when the looney left has a hissy fit over President Reagan.
Breslin will soften the blow with alcohol. He's a life-long, extreme "self-medicator", i.e. "drunk".
A column about other columists' opinions. What the heck do you think liberal columists think about Reagan? It's like asking Boortz of his opinion of Clinton. Talk about a hit piece.
We have a new neighbor that thinks Carter and Clinton were the best Presidents she's voted for. After I heard that, she and her husband will never be welcomed in our house; at least not by me. Of course, my wife has veto power, but she knows how I feel about traitors.
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