Turning a Funeral into a Political Party: Evil with Wellstone, Perfect for Reagan

Liberal Oasis tackles a subject that has been rankling me for a few days as I watched the Bushies - along with an all too helpful mainstream media - turn Ronald Reagan's funeral into a week long right-wing campaign rally.

Even before neoconman Bill Kristol said yesterday that President Bush should take advantage of the situation, you were hearing quiet mumblings about this among the right as they got exclusive airtime non-stop last week under the guise of Reagan remembrances. The more to the right of the lunatic fringe the devotees were last week (Bill Bennett, Peggy "Loony" Noonan, Henry "War Criminal" Kissenger, Ed Meese, Oliver North, et al), the more apt their opinion on Reagan was sought.

I still don't think Paul Wellstone's was the great political rally that the right made it out to be. It certainly paled in comparison to went on last week. But Kristol and other invoke Wellstone as justification for taking the politicization to a whole new level with Reagan's death and so-called legacy.

You don't have to be a liberal or a Reagan-hater to find last week's slavish behavior by the media obscene. Several Republican friends and associates have voiced surprise and irritation - and some, were flat out appalled - at the 24/7 constant coverage, the bringing out of Republicans who were completely discredited during the Reagan years (there were a LOT of investigations and a few convictions, as some may recall, over Iran Contra and other issues).

And unlike Wellstone, where the right made it clear they saw him as a loon, Democrats joined last week in the praise of Reagan, most hardly mentioning any of the severe problems with that administration. It was all blind devotion, with the emphasis on blind.