Beautiful ceremony. Spectacular setting. We just don't understand why America thinks Ronald Reagan was so deserving of it. He was a conservative who was not a friend of civil libertarians or minorities or the citizen accused. We feel sorry for Nancy Reagan, but enough is enough. Reagan was not a hero to many Americans. He's an ex-President who suffered cruelly from a terrible disease. Respect, yes. Deification, no. And we resent Bush and his family's attempt to capitalize on his family's obvious grief. Now, it's over. Let's move on.

by TChris

As Republicans attempt to cast George Bush as a clone of their great departed hero, Ronald Reagan, it is worth noting that they share one thing in common: bad judgment about foreign policy.

U.S. support extended to guerrillas to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan has blown back in the form of al Qaeda and extreme instability in Central Asia. U.S. help to Saddam Hussein in Iraq also boomeranged. Iran-contra was not as great an aberration at the Reagan White House as it is often painted today.

Markos at Daily Kos hits the nail on the head:

I am quite amused at Republican attempts to brand Bush the "new Reagan". It's clear Bush has been unable to stand on his own as a leader, hence the efforts to transfer some of that Reagan glow to the failed Bush presidency. But really, I'm not sure why they insist on making Bush/Reagan comparisons. However you look at it, Bush looks so much smaller in relation to Reagan. And it really helps drive home the growing concensus that Bush is, indeed, the worst president ever. In comparison, Bush makes Reagan look positively god-like.

Eric Alterman of Altercation expresses his views of former President Ronald Reagan . He links to this Nation article that he wrote in 2000. He also provides a lot of external source material on Reagan, if you're wanting to know more about him. We point this out mostly for the younger TL readers, and our international ones, who don't know much about him. We believe he was far more complicated and controversial as President than the mainstream media has portrayed to date. Once again, may he rest in peace. And please, go here and donate to The Alzheimer's Association. Even a few dollars will be helpful.

Funeral events for former President Ronald Reagan (all times EDT).

We wonder how much of it will be carried live by the cable news networks, and how much will be replayed in the evenings. We might like to watch the funeral procession and ceremony on Wednesday evening, but we plan to spend the remainder of the time covering other news.

MONDAY
1 p.m.: Reagan family motorcade and hearse leave Santa Monica funeral home en route to Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
2 p.m.: Reagan family private ceremony at library.
3 p.m.: Reagan lies in repose at the library's main lobby for public closed casket visitation which continues through the night. Buses will transfer visitors from Moorpark College in nearby Moorpark.

TUESDAY
9 p.m.: Lying in repose at library ends.

Wednesday
11 a.m.: Nancy Reagan and family arrive at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
11:15 a.m.: Departure ceremony at the library.
11:30 a.m.: Reagan family motorcade departs library for Point Mugu Naval Air Station.
Noon: Departure ceremony at air station.
12:30 p.m.: Aircraft departs Point Mugu for Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.
5 p.m.: Aircraft arrives at Andrews.
6 p.m.: Formal funeral procession to Capitol, with coffin transfer from hearse onto horse-drawn caisson at 1600 Constitution Avenue. The caisson will continue east on Constitution and a 21-aircraft flyover will coincide with the cortege crossing Fourth Street at 6:05 p.m. It will proceed one block on Pennsylvania Avenue to the west side of the Capitol. Eight-member coffin-bearing teams with representatives from each branch of the military will carry the coffin toward a first-floor entrance. Mrs. Reagan will await the coffin inside the Capitol.
7 p.m.: State funeral ceremony in Capitol rotunda for Reagan family and dignitaries. No one but Mrs. Reagan and the immediate family will be seated. The coffin will be arranged with the head to the east and the feet to the west.
8:30 p.m.: Lying in state begins in rotunda and continues through the night. The public will file around the coffin and then leave the building through the same door used to enter.

Yesterday we noted with sympathy the passing of former President Ronald Reagan. As his deification by the media and the right continues today, we thought we'd point out three of his less-than-endearing legacies:

• Mandatory minimum drug sentences in 1986. This was the first time Congress passed mandatory minimum sentences since the Boggs Act in 1951.

• Federal sentencing guidelines: Under this new method of sentencing which went into effect in 1987, prison time is determined mostly by the weight of the drugs involved in the offense. Parole was abolished and prisoners must serve 85% of their sentence. Except in rare situations, judges can no longer factor in the character of the defendant, the effect of incarceration on his or her dependents, and in large part, the nature and circumstances of the crime. The only way to receive a more lenient sentence is to act as an informant against others and hope that the prosecutor is willing to deal. The guidelines in effect stripped Article III of their sentencing discretion and turned it over to prosecutors.

• The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988: This law established a federal death penalty for "drug kingpins." President Reagan called it a new sword and shield in the escalating battle against drugs, and signed the bill in his wife's honor:

Former President Ronald Reagan died today. May he rest in peace. To endure Alzheimers' for a decade is a cruel fate. Here's an open thread to discuss his life, his Presidency and his legacy

Update: The Washington Post has a long obit up by his biographer. Here's a quote from John Kerry:

Mass. Sen. John Kerry: "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate."

Kerry's official statement is here.

by TChris

Is the White House melting down?

For months now, the same administration whose members once prided themselves on never contradicting one another in public has been riven by conflicting pronouncements. Senior officials keep missing opportunities to keep their signals straight, prompting cases of vicious backbiting that one senior member of Mr. Bush's national security staff said with disgust the other day "make us sound like Democrats.''

If "some of us sound like Democrats" means "some of us are telling the truth," more power to them. Maybe the White House can't stay on message because the message is so often false or nonexistent.

Even President Bush -- who likes to criticize John Kerry for "flip-flopping" -- has difficulty staying on message, or figuring out what the message is, as evidenced by his varying and indecisive descriptions of the degree of sovereignty Iraq will enjoy after June 30.

It has all sown such confusion that a European foreign minister, asked on a recent visit what he thought of the latest administration plan for the handover, smiled and responded, "Last week's or this week's?''

The linked article recaps some of the administration's internal disagreements and external flip-flops, then asks: "how did an administration that made an art form of singing from the hymnal suddenly lose its rhythm?"

by TChris

It's understandable that Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) would be upset at "the small but vocal group of national Republicans that attacked [his] patriotism and compared [him] to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden at the very same time [his] son was defending our nation in Afghanistan." And it's understandable, but not acceptable, that he lashed back in like fashion by referring to "the Taliban wing of the Republican Party."

Name calling has attained the status of an art form in the blogosphere, but it isn't productive in the political arena. It impairs the ability to engage in a rational dialog. It offends gratuitously. Public officials don't serve the public by indulging in it. Nor do they serve their parties by providing ammunition to an opposition trying to arouse its base.

To his credit, Sen. Johnson is capable of admitting error and apologizing, as he did today.

Wonkette Rules. She has been mercilessly obsessing on the Washingtonienne scandal. Washingtonienne is a staffer of Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine who published her sexploits on her now defunct weblog. We won't go into details here, just go read Wonkette. But there's real news today: Gannett News reports that Senator DeWine has issued a statement.

Sen. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he has not decided whether to fire an aide who allegedly posted her exploits in an Internet diary, including accepting $400 from a married man for sex. "We're in the process of completing a review," the Ohio Republican said. "It's a personnel matter." DeWine said he expects to make a decision soon.

....In the blog, the woman said she had a variety of partners. These included an older man, a co-worker with whom she was involved in an "office sex scandal"; and a married Bush appointee who also gave her money.

The cached version of Washingtonienne's blog is here. Be forewarned, it's graphic explicit.

Update: DeWine fires Washingtonienne. She calls Wonkette and gives a taped interview . Her name is Jessica Cutler. The Washington Post will have an article about her, with a picture, on Sunday.

Rudy Guliani was greeted with heckles by families of 9/11 victims today as he as he appeared for his testimony before the 9/11 Commission:

Outraged relatives of World Trade Center victims heckled former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Wednesday as their hopes that he would be grilled by the Sept. 11 commission faded in the face of gentle questioning and effusive praise from panel members. "My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" shouted Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the trade center. Seated three rows behind Giuliani, she jabbed her finger at the former mayor and waved a sign that read "Fiction" as he gave the city's emergency response a glowing review.

Giuliani finished his testimony and abruptly left the auditorium minutes later, leaving many family members upset that they received few answers. Monica Gab*ielle, who lost her husband, Richard, called it a "lost opportunity." "This was not a time for Rudy Giuliani to talk about all the great things he did on 9/11," she said. "He can save that for his talking tours. He should have told us what went wrong and what we should do now."

Why are they so angry?

by TChris

The House rejected an ill-conceived effort to turn doctors into snitches. A bill proposed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) would have denied emergency room care to undocumented immigrants (only citizens and legal visitors have the right to live when an appendix ruptures, after all, and it's much better to have illegal workers spreading communicable diseases than coming in for treatment). It also would have invaded physician-patient privilege by requiring doctors to report undocumented immigrants to immigration authorities, a move that would have dissuaded illegal workers from seeking the health care that the bill denies them anyway.

Dumping on the desparate workers who cross borders for jobs used to be politically popular, but not this year. The bill was defeated 331-88.