Jack McCoy, he’s the man.

I was watching Chris Matthews on MSNBC just a few minutes ago when he mentioned some political tension that marked Coretta Scott King’s funeral today, most notably from former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Carter:

Former President Carter alluded to the hardship faced by the Kings in their struggle for civil rights, including — he added, pointedly — secret wiretapping and harassment by the FBI.

“The struggle for equal rights is not over,” Carter said. “We only have to recall the color of the faces of the people in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi — those who are most devastated by Katrina — to know that there are not equal opportunities for all Americans. It is our responsibility to continue.”

Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball” on MSNBC.com, noted that Carter did not acknowledge President Bush.

Go figure. Carter has repeatedly shown both his disdain for President Bush and for the unspoken rule that ex-presidents keep mum about their successors. Typical political claptrap from the man who has an uncanny liking for dictators. I’m not surprised quite frankly.

In a less offensive, more humorous way (I actually chuckled), Bill Clinton just had to refocus the spotlight for a second on the Clinton name:

He [Chris Matthews] also noted that Clinton handed over the podium to his wife, Hillary, hinting at her possible pursuit of the presidency, in comments that prompted a roar of laughter and applause from the audience.

This is to be expected; we should be used to the Clintons taking advantage of any event (even a funeral) to promote themselves.

Other quotes of political hackery:

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership, which King helped found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in his eulogy:

“She extended Martin’s message against poverty, racism and war
She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar.
“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there
But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here
Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said King spoke out, not just against racism, but against “the senselessness of war and the solutions for poverty.”

“She sang for liberation, she sang for those who had no earthly reason to sing a song,” with a voice that was heard “from the tintop roofs of Soweto to the bomb shelters of Baghdad,” Franklin said.

Oh, how great that my mayor represented me well.

To sum up a day that should have focused on honoring a great woman but was transformed into an opportunity to spew political punditry: “‘This went from being a standard funeral to being an all-star game of American politics,’ said commentator Jonathan Alter, talking with Matthews.”

Shame.

The MSNBC article can be found here.

The Corner has some great chatter today about post-Bush foreign policy of the conservative movement. Overall, I agree that most conservatives (Gary is going to flame this post to death anyways, but I digress) have always been less than enthusiastic about the “bomb ‘em, democratize ‘em” approach to foreign policy. For me and for many others it smelt a lot like Wilsonian idealism that ended up causing WWII. We have come along though because for the most part it seems to have some level of success and we accepted the funamental assumptions.

1. True peace could only be achieved with a friendlier middle east
2. Democracy could bring that peace
3. In the end the people will want democracy

The devil, as they say, is in the details. The problem is that we may very well give the Middle East democracy but as the cartoon fiasco has proven, we haven’t given them Western style classical liberalism. They may vote, fine, but they vote in people who still want to kill all of us heathen Westerners. Just look at the popular support for the leader of Iran, as much as we may not like it, but he has widespread public support that is undeniable across the middle east.

Fred Barnes, the usual apologist for all things Bush, has had a surprising abandonment of the faith in the past few days. He has noted that the cartoon protests have been widespread and popular throughout the middle east. The people calling for the death of the cartoonists aren’t just jihadists, but your average arab too. The “death to freedom” signs have been widespread and the reaction viceral. We may have been right about the three premises, but we have forgotten, as Edmund Burke would have reminded us, that democracy is not neccesarily a good unto itself, unless coupled with western classical liberalism. This is not the case in the middle east, yet, I hope it will be one day, but let us not delude ourselves at the moment.

I once made the comment off-handedly to a liberal friend, that abortion in the States would lead to the legal murder of the elderly, handicapped (remember Terri Schiavo!) and others who would be marked as drains on society. He chastised me, but the evidence is in my favor unfortunately. There seems to be a disturbing trend in Belgium, one which will, doubtless, be proven in other countries and perhaps our own state of Oregon.

I stand by my assertion and truly believe that we may see the meaning of Mercy Killings extended to the murder of society’s elderly and handicapped for reasons including their degraded worth to a point of a “life unworthy of living” (a phrase which spiraled into the twisted field of Nazi German eugenics) and inability to financially support one’s aged parents, for example.

I have yet to hear a logical argument put forth by Leftists regarding abortion. When exactly are we “endowed by Our Creator with certain inalienable rights,” if not at birth? If such a thing is fleeting and fluid, as it remains in United States jurisprudence (thanks to Roe, Doe, Casey v. PP and others), the elderly and handicapped had better start to worry. They are the next targets if this distressing trend continues, for if the gauge is not life, but quality - who is safe - whether in the womb, hospital bed or nursing home?

I find Pope Benedict’s words especially enlightening: “All human life, as such, is worthy of and calls for always being defended and promoted. We know well that this truth runs the risk of being contradicted often by the widespread hedonism in the so-called welfare societies: Life is exalted while it is enjoyable, but there is a tendency to stop respecting it when it is sick or experiences some kind of disability.

The EU high court may take up a case regarding a woman whose eyesight was damaged as a result of not having had access to an abortion, according to this. I do not hold out much hope that the EU will rule correctly. Invariably it will rule that the woman’s rights were violated and slap Poland on the hand. Thankfully, integration has not reached the height of being able to force Poland, a devoutly Catholic country, to change one of the strictest abortion laws (a model for all) in the world as a reult of its EU membership.

It is a sad state of affairs when eyesight issues are used to claim the need for “therapeutic abortions”, aka destroying an innocent life. Bravo to Poland, their doctors and the child who escaped certain death as a result of the stance of the government of one of the world’s up and coming leading countries - morally, politically and economically.

H/T Drudge. Cross posted at truetothefaith.blogspot.com

DISCLAIMER/UPDATE: From The Corner:

RE: SADDAM’S TAPES [Jonah Goldberg]

Several people I trust cautioned/reminded me not to get too excited about the Saddam tape story. The guy behind it is John Loftus, and I forgotten that he’s not exactly the most reliable messenger. Take extra helpings of salt on anything he says.

Remember the WMD’s that we invaded Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from using? Though the very existence of these has long escaped the public mind, it appears that a House Intelligence committee is quietly working to get to the bottom of the “Where’s Waldo” mess of the missing WMD’s by focusing on 12 hours of discussion between Saddam Hussein and his aides that may lead to some much-needed conclusions being met. The New York Sun is reporting a renewed effort in the search for the missing weapons of mass destruction.

Though not attracting much attention even around the blogosphere (which is more concerned with the worldwide Muslim riots and the standoff with Iran), I think this is a very important development in the war in Iraq. Reaching closure on the location of the weapons of mass destruction can destruct the “Bush lied, people died” myth once and for all (in the eye of the public) and show the Democrats for the politicking clowns they really are. More imporantly, once these weapons are located we can get them - before they are passed along to terrorists (unless they have already been).

Hat tip to Captain’s Quarters.

Both of these papers have had the stones to publish the infamous cartoons of the Prophet, making them the first major American newspapers to do so. Their editors deserve praise for not bowing down to Islamic intimidation and violence. Jim Geraghty over at NRO has some nice commentary on this so check him out. Oh and one more thing: