Posted on 07/26/2005 6:17:59 AM PDT by aculeus
On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story about Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll's uninvited attendance at the July 19 funeral of Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, who was killed in Iraq on July 10. According to the paper, Knoll passed out business cards during communion, and told a grieving relative, "I want you to know our government is against this war."
Reading the story carefully, what stands out to me is this: the Light Governor really thought she was saying something comforting.
That's more shockingly revealing, in a way, about how the liberals just don't get it than supposing she was being a mean-spirited bitch of the Michael Moore genre. Moore, who as columnist Jack Kelly reminds us in a column on Knoll's gaffe, disgracefully used footage from the funeral of an Air Force officer in Fahrenheit 9-11, doesn't give a rat's necktie who he offends and makes a (damned good) living off being a political shock jock.
Knoll, on the other hand, is just a wimpy liberal sap. She may have outstanding academic credentials and must have come from something like a normal background, having been the wife of a postmaster (since deceased), but she's been so sucked in by left-wing propaganda that she imagines any family which has lost a loved one in the Iraqi War would be comforted to know that "our government is against this war."
Meaning the Pennsylvania state government, headed by her boss, Gov. Ed Rendell, who promptly apologized to the Marine's family once the story had broken. Rendell, no left-wing loony, but rather a hard-nosed, back-room Philadelphia politician, can sniff the acrid odor of electoral dynamite from the other side of the mountain. As of mid-afternoon Monday, Ms. Knoll is AWOL. She hasn't been seen since the story broke. (But since that wasn't until Saturday, and the funeral was Tuesday, she spent a blissful three days not knowing she had already committed political suicide. One wonders if she even suspected the magnitude of what she had done.) An anonymous member of Knoll's staff issued a "hearts go out" statement in her name, but admits (or claims) the statement was not approved by the boss. Rendell, too, maintains he has not talked to her.
Perhaps not, but you can be sure someone in the Governor's office has. What you can't be sure of is whether Knoll will ever resurface from the rock quarry somewhere south of Scranton to which she has been banished in order to keep her from stepping on her tonsils again.
What's going on there is that a Rendell-sent gang of toughs from the Italian Market neighborhood is reeducating her, perhaps with truncheons, in a crash course she probably won't list alongside the proud references to Duquesne, Harvard and Wharton on her resume, but from which she may, nonetheless, learn something.
Meanwhile, back in Harrisburg, Rendell and the rest of his staff are trying to answer the question of whether to: a) accept Knoll's resignation immediately; b) quietly drop her from his reelection ticket next year; or c) tough it out and hope the quarry crew has beaten some sense into her head, and that she won't do anything else stupid for the next sixteen months.
Conservatives are demanding option a, but option b seems most likely to me. It'd be the least newsworthy course, and that's the one a seasoned pol wants in a case like this. It's a tough call what to do with her for the remainder of the term, but I'd say for one thing that if Ms. Knoll wants to witness any more funerals, she'll best do it by watching Six Feet Under.
The Gazette and other newsies will be monitoring her actions like buzzards, and if she so much as drives off wearing a black dress, cameras will descend, upsetting the solemnity of the moment you may be sure.
In his statement, Rendell says, "It's not the business of state government to support the war, but our state supports the men and women who are fighting this war." That's technically right, of course, and probably the only thing the Governor can say. The Constitution gives the conduct of foreign policy to the Feds, and states, per se, have no business taking sides.
But someone needs to tell these Democrats that you can't be against the war and supportive of the troops at the same time. Because if you do, you are saying something like, "Have a good fight – even though you're not fighting for anything worthwhile."
That's not an acceptable position, and particularly not in the presence of a grieving family that desperately needs reassurance their loved one's life was given in a noble cause, as Sgt. Goodrich's most certainly was.
Writer and veteran GOP media consultant Jay Bryant is a moderator for the Capitol Hill Workshop. His commentaries may also be heard on NPR's 'All Things Considered.'
©2005 Jay Bryant
As a non-PA vet of the PA National Guard (Korean era draftee assigned to PA Guard 29th (28th?) Division for basic) I note with disgust your report.
And I salute you, Rhonda!
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