Conclusion by egarvue:
"One thing I didn't know, but do now, is that BENKE WAS NEVER INVITED TO THE SERVICE!!!!!! He had to lobby to be included, and when he showed up a the service, his name wasn't on the cleared list. ...What a glory-seeking, lying, Clintonesque scum!"
A rather clear case of a false conclusion there egarvue based on this reporter's poor grasp of the facts...some would even call it yellow journalism. She slightly misinterprets the facts which leads to the demeaning false conclusion that Pastor Benke had to beg to get invited, "lobby to be included" and then "sneaked onto the field".
Believe what you want I guess, it's a free Country as they say, but her rendering of the events does not jive with Rev. Benke's account. Rev. Benke clearly says he was asked.
The venue for this civic event had to be changed from the wide open Central Park to the more secure Yankee Stadium. Recall this was a very scary time in our Nation's history. Admission to Yankee Stadium now required a ticket as part of the security clearance.
Here's where the author injects a falsehood that leads to her odd conclusion.
The phone calls made by Benke were in search of the ticket, not to lobby for his inclusion. He was already supposed to be on the guest list but he says there was a mix up in the security roster. He made some phone calls but never did get it straightened out before the service was to begin. So, to get onto the stage with the others he held onto Cardinal Egan's arm and gained entrance.
This does not mean that he "lobbied to be included" to me....unless that's what you want it to mean. His name was listed in the program, so I'd tend to believe his account over this rather strident reporter.
Why don't we go with the facts?
Yes, let's do, shall we? Ziegler writes:
. . . Mr. Benke, by his own admission, lobbied the event's sponsors for an invitation. When unsuccessful, he sneaked onto the field by joining Cardinal Edward Egan.
So let's ask these three questions:
Did Benke lobby for an invitation?
Was he unsuccessful?
Did he sneak on the field by joining Cardinal Egan?
Now let's look at the evidence. Here are Benke's own words, from his web page, Response to Charges (bolding added):
Under "Thursday, September 20," Benke writes:
. . . I determined to make a phone call to a Roman Catholic contact about the September 23 event. When I asked about the event in Central Park, he said, “Oh, that’s ancient history. With all the security issues, it’s been moved to Yankee Stadium. You’ll need a ticket to get in through security. That’s designed to keep attendance to those who really need to be there.” I made a series of phone calls. By mid-afternoon these conversations resulted in the opportunity to participate in the program at Yankee Stadium and to offer a prayer.
And under "Sunday, September 23," Benke writes:
Travel and transit did turn out to be an adventure; first of all, it took almost two hours to get through the web of security with our bus into Yankee Stadium, even though we were pre-screened. The religious participants were held in the Yankee locker room, while the politicians and celebrities were in the visitors’ quarters. Then the FBI representative read off the list of approved participants, and my name was not on it – whoops! I went to the Protestant portion leader, who thought that maybe I should just wait in the dugout when the rest went out and they would call me later. I started to laugh, because I had this vision of being kind of the pinch-hitter’s pinch-hitter, strolling out to pray with a bat in my hands. But I resolved that I would need to accompany the rest up to the bleacher area out on the field. I spent some time with Roman Catholic friends Bishop Daley and Cardinal Egan, discussing Pro-Life issues (Cardinal O’Connor and I had co-founded a crisis pregnancy center in Manhattan under the great direction of a team of Roman Catholic and Lutheran laywomen). Then I took the Cardinal’s arm and walked out from the dugout onto the playing field. What were they going to do, throw me off the field? As the celebrities and politicians emerged, the usually congealed situation took place, and we all inched out toward second base. Eventually they found me a chair, sitting next to the Commander of the Atlantic Fleet.
So now let's return to those three questions:
Did Benke lobby for an invitation? Answer: Yes.
Was he unsuccessful? Answer: No, for the invitation. Yes, for being cleared to go on the field.
Did he sneak on the field by joining Cardinal Egan? Answer: Yes. In spite of the fact that the FBI did not have him on their list of approved participants. In spite of the fact that the Protestant leader told him to wait in the dugout. In spite of the fact that they did not have a chair reserved for him on the platform. Those are facts that Benke himself admits to.
If there is confusion about the invitation, etc., that is due to Benke's lack of clarity in his account, on which Ziegler apparently relied. Benke is very good at being unclear.
Now a final question: Is this the best you can do to refute Ziegler's main argument in the article?