A Truth to Power Moment

The political tempest in a teapot du jour is the comments by various speakers at Coretta King's funeral. Apparently, some of the people who gathered to honor a woman who spent her life fighting for civil rights had the audacity to launch a few salvos at President Dubya for doing his level best to undermine civil rights during his time in office. Gasp and swoon! Who wudda thunk it!?!? /sarcasm off

To Bush's credit he was there in person to absorb the rhetorical blows, but he was politically obligated to do so. Presidents Clinton, Bush Sr., and Carter were also in attendance. President Ford's poor health was probably the only thing that kept him from attending. If George Jr. had been conspicuously absent it would have been a political blunder, so he was forced to change his schedule at the last minute and be there in person.

Now the right-wing echo chamber is trying to paint the speakers as disrespectful to the President. Pa-leees! Give me a break. Why should they have been respectful? The funeral was about a woman who fought against injustice. It was not just another photo-op for a President who is trying to institutionalize injustice. I guess the last-minute nature of King George's arrival didn't give the FBI enough time to set up one of his now infamous free-speech zones where the speakers could have had their say without polluting Dubya's beautiful mind. By the way, did you notice that Ms. Beautiful Mind herself, Barbara Bush, couldn't be bothered to attend? AP reports that she was giving her own speech down in Orlando.

Ms. King's funeral put me in mind of another funeral in 2002. When Senator and liberal Democrat standard bearer Paul Wellstone was tragically killed in an airplane accident shortly before the 2002 election a large funeral was organized. As with Bush and King's funeral, the resident Republicans were obligated to attended and feign grief for the passing of a man who they had been vilifying only a few days before. Not surprisingly, in that politically charged environment the speakers had a few choice words for the Senator's political opponents who were then unceremoniously booed by the mourners who were there to actually mourn.

The Republicans immediately went into spin mode, and painted the grieving followers of Senator Wellstone to be an angry mob that soiled the proceedings. The lap dog media picked up on the Reps spin, and before you knew it they turned it into a full-blown scandal that went a long way to bolster Republican Norm Coleman's rise to Wellstone's Senate seat.

Will it work again? Can the Republican spin machine once again paint those who dare speak truth to power as a menagerie of fringe elements? The early returns say no. Ms. King is not an unknown Senator from Minnesota. The national audience and the caliber of the people in attendance will not allow them to easily distort the facts. This spin job is a much harder sell, and the credibility of the Republican machine has started to slip. Besides, most Americans are not yet seriously thinking about the elections in November. They aren't a very receptive audience at the moment. Heck, there's a new episode of "Lost" on tonight. We can't be bothered with politics until October.