Four Presidents and a Funeral (Pure CRAP not worth the Bandwidth)

Opinion Journal ^ | 2/10/06 | Peggy Noonan [a aged marooon]

[harpu]

The tripe written by this aged marooon is little more than a self-serving display of her age, admiration for the Klinton's political skills ["God I love them."], and dislike for our president.

[dirtboy]

But it is also true that when you attack him or his son from the left he doesn't get mad because in his heart he kinda thinks you're right."

Peggy, has Bush actually told you this? I'm beginning to think that Noonan is upset that the Bush Admin hasn't called her and begged to help get their message out, and she's getting in an ever-tighter twist over it.

[roses of sharon]

Na, she is just writing for her Manhattan elites.

As with most conservative journalists, they no longer write for us, the unwashed!

[dawn53]

That's my take. Remember during the campaign, she announced she was going to quit her "day job" and go to work full time to help the campaign.

She did that, in fact, she's the one that wrote the moving commentary to the short film, narrated by Fred Thompson, that they used to introduce the President during the Convention.

But I think she wanted a job in the administration for her efforts, and when she didn't get a position, she let it affect her writing. Ever since then she's been so cynical in her pieces.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

You can say just anything you want at a funeral and the government will not arrest you and execute you. That's what Free Speech is about. But it's not what the funeral was about.

According to Peggy, Free Speech is about showing up at a funeral and insulting the other mourners.

Not quite. According to Peggy, you can show up at a funeral and insult the president of the United States in a way that Americans find offensive without any thought about the sort of consequences which would be routine in any Muslim country. Or any Communist country, for that matter.

[auboy]

We do free speech here.

Yes, Peggy. But we don't have to buy it.

[Huck]

I totally agree. But then to me Peggy Noonan is a big BARF alert anyway.

[Doc Savage]

Her family keeps dropping her off at a strange faraway Mall but she keeps coming back. Peggy, they're having lime jello tonight at the Rest Home,...don't be late!

[the rightgirl]

"In my opinion, Peggy Noonan was a trust advisor during the Reagan administration and she's not in the Bush administration. She's became bitter because she didn't regain her position and has continued to get more bitter."

This may very well be, and it's sad. Peggy still writes beautifully - uses imagery better than anyone, but she is hard pressed to be kind to George W. Bush these days. I still enjoy her writing, and thought "A Heart, A Cross and A Flag" was outstanding and of course, "When Character Was King" is a moving story of Ronald Reagan. But she can't get PAST Ronald Reagan and her part in his administration. Perhaps she thinks she made the difference there and doesn't see how this President an do it without her.

Or maybe these are her true feelings. She has always been a political junkie and I can see how that kind of person would love the twists and turns of the Clintons, becoming yet again another persona to woo the crowd. Not love the Clintons, but their political role playing.

[RobFromGa]

I read it first thing this morning, and Noonan has officially jumped the shark on this one...

her comment that 41 knows that the attacks from the moonbats on 43 are not so bad because they are right (meaning deserved) is what got me the most.

and her "I love them" comment about the disgraced, impeached, (alleged) serial rapist, xxx-42 Bubba J. Klintoon and his Enabler-in-Chief Cankles was just the cherry on the top of this steaming pile of Noonan-dung.

[RichInOC]

Peg, as Saint Paul said in another context and might have said in this one, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Insulting one's fellow guests at a funeral is, as a general rule, not something I happen to find beneficial. No matter who's doing it, no matter why. Having the right to do it doesn't make it right. It was wrong at the Wellstone funeral. It was wrong at Coretta King's funeral. And it would be wrong if (God forbid) a conservative laid into liberals at a conservative's funeral. There are just some places that, in the great war between left and right, ought to be off limits from the battle.

[tallhappy]

What bothers you and others so much about this column?

[harpu]

"What bothers you and others so much about this column?"

If you have to ask, it wouldn't matter if we explained!

[RobFromGa]

Her willingness to excuse the politicization of a funeral as an exercise in Free Speech democracy, coupled with her snide backhands at the current President, who gave a short thoughtful, non-political message at the funeral, even stooping so low as to claim that his father (41) is in agreement with the moonbats re: the behavior of his son (43).

I'm surpised she didn't call him Shrub Bushitler and call for his Chimpeachment.

[tallhappy]

If you can't answer, you are running on pure emotion, like the liberals.

Really, what bothers you so much? You and others here are really worked up. One might think she wa drawing pictures of the the Prophet Muhammad.

[tallhappy]

Thanks. You are way over-reacting to her comments.

You are reading a lot more in to them than are there. And the comment about 41 is probably true to some degree.

Did you read the line about the cocoa?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

People sometimes marvel at the grace of George H.W. Bush. He is a warm and gracious man, and he's old enough to appreciate the humor in everything. He's old enough to appreciate life. But it is also true that when you attack him or his son from the left he doesn't get mad because in his heart he kinda thinks you're right.

Attack him from the right; you won't be overwhelmed by his bonhomie then.

IOW, GHW Bush has RINO tendencies. Read my lips .. read my hips.

Peggy wrote "read my lips;" GHWB broke the pledge which she wrote into his convention speech, and which he gave - and got elected on. GHWB is responsible for breaking it. GHWB is hardly the hero that Ronald Reagan was. Well, who is - but the way to continue the Reagan legacy which got GHWB elected was not to let Dick Darman negotiate a tax rate increase. And I think Peggy knows that.

GHWB and Barbara (with her cookie baking contest) helped Perot get Clinton in the White House. All very well for the elder Bush family to be able to feel above it all and honorable that they took the high road - but the truth is that they were responsible for helping us get good leadership in the 1992 election - and they failed. Without the tax hike they probably succeed; even with it they had a chance by playing hardball on the skeletons in the Clintons' closet. HW and Barbara functioned as Judas goats to prevent us from understanding the Clintons. Not that it took a genius to see thru them, but the median voter falls a bit short of that.

[Huck]

and her "I love them" comment about the disgraced, impeached, (alleged) serial rapist, xxx-42 Bubba J. Klintoon and his Enabler-in-Chief Cankles was just the cherry on the top of this steaming pile of Noonan-dung.

Can't-say-it-any-better-bump

[harpu]

"If you have to ask, it wouldn't matter if we explained!" Sorry!

I answered - you just don't like my answer - just like liberals don't like to hear the truth!

- 30 -

[Huck]

GHWB was a pathetic leader.

[tallhappy]

You did not answer. You emoted.