from American Street: Where’s Jimmy?

The One Former President Most Likely To Attend
the Funeral of Pope John Paul II Is Conspicuous by His Absence

A statement from former president Jimmy Carter’s office earlier this week said that he had asked the White House if he could join the U.S. delegation at the funeral but was told that space was limited and other U.S. dignitaries were eager to attend.

Since when are “other eager U.S. dignitaries” more important, for public show, than a former U.S. President who has not only spoken publically and overtly as a committed Christian, but has shown it in his actions before, during, and after his presidency?

An anonymous Carter aide has said the White House called Carter asking if he’d like to join the U.S. delegation, and Carter replied that he would. According to the aide, the White House soon called back saying the small group did not include former presidents. The White House called once more, saying the first President Bush would, in fact, attend. Carter declined, as a humble gentleman, thinking it was understandable that the president’s father would go and assuming that an extended guest list was essentially closed. The White House certainly didn’t twist his arm. No one told him Clinton would be invited.

When it all falls out, we can see that Jimmy Carter was snubbed. Little Bush, known to be a petty man when it comes to politics, has never forgiven him for refusing to be a Stepford-exPrez. Like Pope John Paul II, Carter, a man of deep and firm conviction, gave Bush tough love in his opinion of the Bush administration’s rush to elective war on Iraq. Just like the citizens who were tossed from a Bush town hall meeting for having the wrong bumper sticker, Jimmy Carter (one of the most decent men to ever have graced the Oval Office) was kept out of the clique because of his own kind of bumper-sticker message: “Unjust War“. That’s a concept borne of Christianity and Natural Law theory. Go figure.

Columnist Myriam Marquez of the Orlando Sentnel has said it best:

Bush should have made sure Carter was part of the official delegation. The pope’s funeral is one occasion that cries out for a statesman, not a partisan. In the spirit of the holy man he came to Rome to honor, Bush should have turned the other cheek.

Ahh, the Bushies had their feelings hurt so they took their ball and went home. Idiots!