Magog: Unguarded
Magog: Unguarded
Swarming Around... cats living with dogs... total chaos.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Oh, Now He's Available

MRC reports on the networks' obsession with the supposed snubbing of Jimmy Carter by the Bush administration for not including the former president in the entourage to Pope John Paul II's funeral. As they noted:

NBC continued to obsess Wednesday night and Thursday morning, as NBC reporters and anchors had on Wednesday's Today, over the supposed snubbing of former President Jimmy Carter who is not part of the official U.S. delegation to the Pope's funeral. On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams insisted from Rome that "the arrival here tonight of three U.S. Presidents has some asking why Jimmy Carter isn't a part of the official American delegation." On MSNBC's Countdown, fill-in host Alison Stewart declared: "Notably absent from the day's arrival of the U.S. delegation, former President Jimmy Carter." She fretted to Andrea Mitchell that "the Air Force One presidential club took off without the Nobel Peace Prize winner." On Thursday's Today, Matt Lauer raised the subject with Tim Russert who contended that "I'm not sure we'll ever know the true facts until the biographies come out." Two hours later on Today, Katie Couric pressed an Archbishop: "Were you surprised...that President Carter was not a part of the delegation given the fact that the Pope visited President Carter at the White House?"

Yet an AP story notes that Bush is the first president to attend a papal burial:

Bush is the first U.S. president to attend a papal burial ceremony. Lyndon Johnson led the delegation to Pope John XXIII's funeral in 1963, when Johnson was vice president.

Which is interesting, because the infamous "Year Of The Three Popes" occurred in 1978, squarely in the middle of Carter's lone term as president, which means that there were no less than two papal burials in the same year, including that of Pope Paul VI, who reigned for 16 years. Now, I don't know what circumstances may have distracted Carter at that time--perhaps he was too busy burying the country in a deep malaise to attend the burying of two popes--but it's clear who did the snubbing here.

UPDATE: The Corner reports that Jimmy sent his wife in his place.

posted by the wolf | 10:15 AM
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