Bush Funeral Inevitably About Trump

Honoring the 41st President cast a poor light on the 45th.

Teaching undergraduate American government classes twenty years ago, it was seemingly impossible not to stumble into double entendres about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Now, it’s virtually impossible to praise a departed leader without drawing a stark contrast with the current president.

Philip Rucker, WaPo (“Bush funeral: Trump sits with fellow presidents but still stands alone“):

From the moment he crossed the transept of the soaring Washington National Cathedral, tore off his overcoat and took his seat in the front pew, President Trump was an outsider.

When the others sang an opening hymn, his mouth did not move. When the others read the Apostles’ Creed, he stood stoically. And when one eulogist after another testified to George H.W. Bush’s integrity and character and honesty and bravery and compassion, Trump sat and listened, often with his lips pursed and his arms crossed over his chest.

Wednesday’s state funeral was carefully orchestrated to be about one man and his milestones — Bush the father, the friend, the war hero and the lifelong public servant. But inevitably it became about Trump, too, for it was impossible to pay tribute to the 41st president without drawing implicit contrasts with the 45th.

“His life code was: ‘Tell the truth. Don’t blame people. Be strong. Do your best. Try hard. Forgive. Stay the course,’ ” Bush biographer Jon Meacham said in his eulogy. “And that was, and is, the most American of creeds.”

The mourners did not deliver the searing rebukes of Trump the nation witnessed in September for the funeral of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

But despite being crafted to honor Bush’s legacy, their words also served to underscore the singular nature of Trump’s presidency.

Trump was in the company of all his living predecessors for the first time Wednesday, and the encounter was plainly uncomfortable. By 10:49 a.m., when Trump and first lady Melania Trump stepped into the cathedral, a cool hush had come over the pews filled by American dignitaries and foreign leaders, past and present. Trump handed his black overcoat to a military aide and took his seat on the aisle next to his wife, with three past presidents and first ladies seated to her side.

First was the president Trump said was illegitimate (Barack Obama); then the first lady he called a profligate spender of taxpayer dollars (Michelle Obama); then the president he called the worst abuser of women (Bill Clinton); then the first lady and secretary of state he said should be in jail (Hillary Clinton); and then the president he said was the second-worst behind Obama (Jimmy Carter) and his wife, Rosalynn.

The Trumps and the Obamas greeted each other brusquely, but only Melania Trump reached over to shake hands with Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton did not acknowledge the Trumps, keeping her gaze straight ahead as if determined not to make eye contact with the man who continues, two years after the 2016 election, to inspire “Lock her up!” chants at his rallies.

The frostiness of Trump’s interactions with his predecessors was all the more apparent when former president George W. Bush entered the cathedral a few minutes later. Bush shook hands cheerfully with each of the other presidents and first ladies. He slipped what appeared to be a candy to a smiling Michelle Obama — a reminder of McCain’s funeral, when video of Bush giving Obama candies went viral on social media.

[…]

The first of Bush’s five eulogists at Wednesday’s funeral was Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who grew close to Bush as he researched the former president’s life for the 2015 biography, “Destiny and Power.” Meacham explained what Bush meant by his famous volunteerism phrase “a thousand points of light,” which Trump mocked this summer as an ineffective and confusing slogan.

“Abraham Lincoln’s ‘better angels of our nature’ and George H.W. Bush’s ‘thousand points of light’ are companion verses in America’s national hymn, for Lincoln and Bush both called on us to choose the right over the convenient, to hope rather than to fear, and to heed not our worst impulses but our best instincts,” Meacham said.

The next eulogist, former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, praised three of Bush’s achievements in office — negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Clean Air Act.

“There’s a word for this. It’s called ‘leadership,’ ” Mulroney said. “Leadership. And let me tell you that when George Bush was president of the United States of America, every single head of government in the world knew that they were dealing with a gentleman, a genuine leader — one who was distinguished, resolute and brave.”

It was not lost on the audience that Trump has slammed NAFTA as one of the worst trade deals ever; mocked a journalist’s physical disability; and rolled back scores of environmental regulations.

Trump sat through much of Mulroney’s speech crossing his arms over his chest or holding his hands between his knees, at times leaning forward in his seat.

John F. Harris, Politico Magazine (“Bush’s Funeral Wasn’t About Trump. But Of Course It Was.“):

The memorial service for George H.W. Bush was a perfectly civil and eminently civilized event, and if one was listening in a literal-minded way it all sounded like a grand exception to life in modern Washington—two hours of stories and tributes that were entirely bereft of political tension.

The only way to listen in a literal frame of mind, of course, was through some equivalent of self-lobotomy—to be willfully oblivious of context, guileless in a way that certainly does not describe Bush or any of the people he chose to speak at his farewell.

The service was replete with praise for the 41st president that could, with just the slightest nudge of interpretation, be heard as implied rebuke of the 45th president. But only implied, never explicit—this, unlike almost everything else in American politics today, was not about Donald Trump.

And yet it very much was. Speakers rhapsodized about Bush’s natural good cheer and optimism; his willingness to share credit and accept blame; his preference for self-deprecating humor; his gift for personal diplomacy; his loyalty to friends when they were down; his talent at assembling international coalitions; his mistrust of “unthinking partisanship”; his inaugural address in which he said that Americans must judge our lives by kindness to friends and neighbors rather than the pursuit of “a bigger car, a bigger bank account”; his commitment to truth and to living up to the obligations of a “gentleman.”

Who wouldn’t admire these traits? Or expect that any president should try to emulate them?

To be political while sounding apolitical is a lost art in contemporary times, and it would be hard for President Trump to claim injury because his name was never mentioned. President George W. Bush—who, like his father, broke with his party in not supporting Trump—swerved skillfully around that by starting his remarks by thanking “distinguished guests” and then, with seeming emphasis, adding “including our presidents and first ladies” but mentioning none of them by name.

[…]

Three months ago, the same space—the Washington National Cathedral—hosted another memorial service after the passing of Sen. John McCain. Like Bush, he had the lead time to carefully plan his own service, which became weaponized after a dying McCain made clear that he did not want the man who derided him for having been captured in Vietnam to be present. The Bush family, by contrast, was willing to set aside its disdain for Trump—the taunts of “low-energy” Jeb, the relentless criticism of George W.’s Iraq war. Whether out of respect for the office or a desire to avoid another politicized Washington funeral, they made it clear that their leader had very much wanted the current president to be there, and in remarks in recent days family members had emphasized that Trump has been “very gracious.” Assuming that comment to be entirely sincere, it is still a shrewdly effective way to shift the week’s events toward ground—polite, decorous, devoid of controversy—that is hardly Trump’s natural terrain. One supposes that he was not sorry when the plane that is normally Air Force One lifted off to carry the 41st president back to Texas for burial, allowing Washington to return to normal business for the first time since Friday evening.

The commentariat’s focus on Bush’s contrast with Trump tended to take attention from what might otherwise have been the dominant motif of the memorial service: the contrast, and communion, between generations.

Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller, Associated Press (“Trump odd man out as presidents assemble for Bush funeral“):

There was no mistaking the odd man out.

Wednesday’s funeral service for former President George H.W. Bush served as a rare reunion of the remaining members of the presidents club, but the front-row banter among Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and their spouses came to an uneasy end when President Donald Trump and wife Melania arrived.

The encounter was a real-time illustration of the uneasy ties between the current occupant of the White House and his predecessors, suggesting Trump as a member-in-name-only of the Oval Office fraternity. While the funeral ceremony itself was a warm celebration of the late president, the relationships between the surviving presidents are considerably cooler.

Trump gave the two Obamas a handshake before taking his seat in Washington’s National Cathedral without greeting the others. Hillary Clinton nodded at Melania Trump but then stared straight ahead.

The last of the five presidents to arrive was George W. Bush, who made a point to shake hands with all four couples — and appeared to share a moment of humor with Michelle Obama, slipping something into her hand. Bush then took his seat with the rest of the Bush family, across the aisle from the ex-presidents.

Some discomfort with Trump was perhaps to be expected.

Since his swearing-in, Trump has spurned most contact with his predecessors — and they have snubbed him in return. But while the staid group of Oval Office occupants has been disrupted since Donald Trump’s election, the Bushes had made it known to the White House months ago that, despite differences in policy and temperament, the late president wanted Trump to attend the national service.

The ceremony’s tributes at times stood as an unspoken counterpoint to Trump’s leadership, as historian Jon Meacham eulogized Bush by recounting his life’s credo: “Tell the truth, don’t blame people, be strong, do your best, try hard, forgive, stay the course.” George W. Bush added of his father: “He could tease and needle, but not out of malice.”

The late Bush was the de facto chair of the modern incarnation of the president’s club, transcending contentious campaigns and party lines to bring together fractious personalities who share that rarified experience.

Trump has sought to meet the elder Bush’s passing with grace, a contrast to the rhythms of much of his tumultuous presidency. He came to office after a campaign in which he harshly criticized his Democratic predecessors and co-opted a Republican Party once dominated by the Bush family. Despite the traditional kinship among presidents, Trump’s predecessors have all made their discomfort known in different ways.

“It’s unusual that a cabal of ex-presidents from both parties dislike a sitting president and that’s what you’ve got happening right now,” said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University.

The Trump-Obama handshake marked the first direct interaction between the current president and his immediate predecessor since Inauguration Day 2017. Trump has not spoken to Democrats Clinton or Obama since that day.

He did speak with the younger Bush during the contentious confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as the previous Republican president helped lobby for his former aide. Democrat Carter has been briefed by White House officials on North Korea, though it was not clear if he has engaged directly with Trump.

By virtue of health, longevity and opportunities for continued influence, ex-presidents are sticking around longer than ever and staying active in the public eye.

Past presidents often built relationships with their predecessors, Brinkley said. “Bill Clinton would reach out to Richard Nixon for advice on Russia,” he said. “Harry Truman leaned heavily on Herbert Hoover. It’s endless.”

To be sure, Brinkley added, those ties vary from president to president and there have been chilly relationships as well, noting, for example, that “FDR would never talk to Herbert Hoover.”

Busy with a mix of personal pursuits, charitable endeavors — and, in some cases, paid speaking gigs — the former leaders don’t mingle very often, making a funeral in their group a big occasion. Bonded by the presidency, they tend to exercise caution in their comments about each other. Still, all the living former presidents have aimed barbs — directly or indirectly — at Trump.

Barack Obama frequently described the presidency as a relay race, in which the current occupant advanced the baton as far as one could before handing off to the next, hoping that they would continue advancing the interests of the country. With rare exception, because it’s such a small club, the members have a special bond that transcends the nastiness of campaigns and inevitable disputes over policy. While he’s officially a member of the club, Trump isn’t accepted as one of them. One simply can’t imagine him being asked, as all of the living former Presidents—and quite notably the man being honored yesterday—were, to serve as a goodwill ambassador for the country one he’s out of office.

FILED UNDER: The Presidency, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. The lack of camaraderie between Trump and his predecessors was blindingly obvious, but entirely understandable given the things the President has said about each of them since entering the campaign and long afterward. Additionally, unlike his predecessors, who we have learned in subsequent years frequently consulted with their predecessors at difficult times during their Presidencies (one of the more surprising in that regard was the revelation that President Clinton had spoken with President Nixon numerous times after taking office and before Nixon died in 1994) one does not picture Trump, who barely listens to his own advisers, consulting with any of the men who preceded him in office.

    At the same time, I don’t think that there was anything in the eulogies yesterday that was intended to be an attack on Trump. Instead, what we saw were four perspectives on Bush the man and the Preisdent. If Trump feels like he was being attacked in this context, it’s only because he fails to measure up to the man who was being eulogized and everyone in that cathedral yesterday knows it.

    29
  2. One other point, I think it’s clear that many of the speakers at John McCain’s funeral were indeed making an effort to draw comparisons between the Senator and the President. I do not believe there was any such intention this time.

    8
  3. Bob@Youngstown says:

    @Doug Mataconis:

    I don’t think that there was anything in the eulogies yesterday that was intended to be an attack on Trump.

    Perhaps not an “attack” but the contrast was stark. OTOH, Trump may consider some comments as an “attack”, or he may have been simply present in body but oblivious. (Can one ever really know ‘the mind of Trump’?)

    3
  4. Kathy says:

    trump knows that when he dies, the eulogies for him won’t be like those given for McCain and Bush the elder.

    Oh, his base will always love him and tear their vestments and hair, and cover themselves with ashes and dung when he dies. But will they still feel the need to flatter him to feed his overfed ego? What world leaders will show up and wish to speak? Putin? Mohammed the killer? Duterte? Thugs and dictators with whom he has warm relationships.

    I said in another post that “One cannot reign innocently.” This may be true, in many ways it’s unavoidable, but a decent head of state tries anyway. Trump doesn’t even bother.

    6
  5. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    The eulogies were attacks in the very same way that stating facts is an attack on this little orange child.

    14
  6. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    @Kathy:

    trump knows that when he dies, the eulogies for him won’t be like those given for McCain and Bush the elder.

    By the time everything is said and done he will be a cast out. No one will want to eulogize him for fear of being associated with him.

    4
  7. Kathy says:

    @Bob@Youngstown:

    (Can one ever really know ‘the mind of Trump’?)

    In a legal drama, I’d say “Objection. assuming facts not in evidence.” 🙂

    On a side note, it would be cool if former presidents would get together once a year. Perhaps in a public setting, maybe an academic one, where they could speak about their time in office, or take questions from scholars and the public.

    3
  8. MarkedMan says:

    As I listened to some of the eulogies, I found myself wondering who would speak at the other presidents’ funerals. For each, it would be easy to list off dozens of people with both the closeness and the stature to address the assemblage and the nation. Carter could especially draw on a long, long list of international and domestic humanitarians he has worked with. But when I got to Trump, I had difficulty. Sean Hannity? Jeanine Pierro (or whatever the heck her name is)? Laura Ingraham? The idea of speaking to the nation beyond the Fox News Bubble will no doubt have appeal to them. But his “true friends” like Putin and MSB, will turn their backs on him as soon as he’s out of power. They use chumps like Trump, they don’t respect them. Will he even get a eulogy from his children? Hard to imagine it coming from Tiffany or Barron. (Interesting note: Trump spent Father’s Day this year playing golf.) I guess it is possible that Erik, Don Jr or Ivanka might speak, but even that’s not a guarantee. If nothing else, they may well be in jail.

    3
  9. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Kathy:

    his base will always love him and tear their vestments and hair, and cover themselves with ashes and dung when he dies.

    They aren’t waiting till he dies, especially the ashes and dung part.

    4
  10. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @MarkedMan:

    (Interesting note: Trump spent Father’s Day this year playing golf.)

    I have never done anything special on Father’s Day, with or without my sons. It’s a Hallmark Holiday that is devoid of meaning for me.

    3
  11. Joe says:

    This event was about Trump only because we can’t seem to focus on anything else. I get everyone’s points above, but just like a cigar is sometimes just a cigar, a funeral for Bush Sr. is just a funeral for Bush Sr.

    1
  12. Scott F. says:

    With rare exception, because it’s such a small club, the members have a special bond that transcends the nastiness of campaigns and inevitable disputes over policy. While he’s officially a member of the club, Trump isn’t accepted as one of them.

    There’s been a lot of chatter over the years about Trump’s desperate desire to be welcomed, or at least accepted, in various social circles that have predominately rejected him.

    Having the door to the Ex-Presidents Club barred to him is going to chafe Trump no end.

    7
  13. Kathy says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They aren’t waiting till he dies, especially the ashes and dung part.

    Isn’t that like water to a fish kind of thing?

  14. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Kathy: They do immerse themselves in it.

    1
  15. Kathy says:

    @Doug Mataconis:

    Nixon was kind of a scoundrel, but he was competent and he was capable of learning. Many leaders realize their mistakes years or decades later (Napoleon regretted the Louisiana Purchase, for example).

    Perhaps a future president will ask Dennison how to bamboozle voters effectively. That seems to be his sole political talent. But what advise could he give on policy, when he’s even more ignorant of policy than many ordinary citizens?

    4
  16. al Ameda says:

    @Scott F.:

    Having the door to the Ex-Presidents Club barred to him is going to chafe Trump no end.

    It’s always galled Trump that he’s never been accepted by the high-end NYC-Manhattan establishment. He’s very motivated by being ignored or ‘disrespected.’

    4
  17. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Joe:
    Ten great people from history: Mandela, Lincoln, FDR, Churchill, Boudica, Shakespeare, Homer, Einstein, Da Vinci and the Buddha. Put them all on stage at the same time before an audience of a thousand.

    Now, add a masturbating clown.

    999 out of 1000 people will look at the masturbating clown. We watch Trump for the same reason we watch car accidents as we drive past, despite knowing that all we’re doing is slowing traffic.

    8
  18. Not the IT Dept. says:

    I think you can make a case that GHWB was the beginning of the long downward road to Trump. He was all of those things in his hagiobituaries but he was also the guy who Bob Dole furiously demanded “stop lying about my record!” in the 2000 primaries, and who attacked Dukakis’ patriotism (“What is his problem with the pledge of allegiance?”). Yeah, classy guy, that GHWB.

    We’re never going to really appreciate the reasons for Trump until we realize the many small bargains the GOP made starting 30 years ago that lead to 2016. And until we do, there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again. There’s a narrative building up that once Trump is gone, it will all be great again. It won’t. There’s other people out there who are smarter than Trump and more dangerous, and they can see how taking over a party can be done. And Putin – and others – have seen how easy it can be to fool low-information Americans when they don’t think they have anything to learn and when corporations refuse to see past the bank account.

    “A republic – if you can keep it.” – Ben

    “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” – Tom

    We are in for bad times this century.

    22
  19. Kathy says:

    @Not the IT Dept.:

    And Putin – and others – have seen how easy it can be to fool low-information Americans when they don’t think they have anything to learn and when corporations refuse to see past the bank account.

    Lenin supposedly said “The capitalists will sell us the rope we’ll use to hang them.” That’s not exactly what Facebook et al did, but it’s not too far from it.

    6
  20. KM says:

    @MarkedMan :

    As I listened to some of the eulogies, I found myself wondering who would speak at the other presidents’ funerals.

    Well, depending on how charitable (or masochistic) the President of the time might be, they may decide to do one hell of a mitzvah to the nation and take that bullet. Speak in vague generalization if being cautious or if feeling bold, cite the salient truth that your purpose in life is nothing more then to serve as a warning to others… and he was a magnificent warning, much bigly. History will never forget the warning he gave us about democracy and our nation, blah blah yadda yadda toss something about freedom in there blah blah requiescat in pace. It’s a shame this happened. Okay, now let’s go pray and get sh^tfaced.

    I do *not* envy that speech writer. In fact, somebody should get on that crap now so you have some time to smooth out the BS and make it somewhat palatable. I’d imagine that’s the kind of work that takes years of rewrites and edit to be passable pablum.

    3
  21. Paine says:

    I guess it’s a sign of just how much respect the Obama’s have for the Bush’s that they were willing to sit next to that pos and his trophy wife. If it were me I would have got up promptly and found a nice wall in the back to lean against.

    And god, the thought of Trump getting the same degree of respect and ceremony when he blesses us with his departure sickens me.

    2
  22. grumpy realist says:

    @Paine: But the line to piss on Trump’s casket will be much longer…..

    4
  23. gVOR08 says:

    @Not the IT Dept.: Forty plus years ago. Reagan’s great accomplishment was putting a pleasant, avuncular face on conservatism. I blame him more than HW. And it was in the 70s that corporations and wealthy individuals started seriously putting money into politics.

    4
  24. Kathy says:

    @KM:

    When Ceaușescu was deservedly killed, SNL did a sketch on his funeral. there were a few people standing by the coffin, trying to come up with something good to say about him.

    One person comes up with “he was… about five nine.” Another mentions he was on the firing squad and, “He made it real easy. We shot him, and he just fell dead.”

    El Cheeto is no Ceaușescu, not yet. But he will present the same problem. Think of the families who’ve been separated for months now, with scant prospects of being reunited, of children sent back to poor countries without their parents.

    While the devastation this creates is far less than that visited on Iraq by Bush the younger, the intention was to inflict such suffering on poor immigrants and asylum seekers, not an inevitable part of carrying out a necessary policy, however wrong Bush might have been in its conception.

    3
  25. gVOR08 says:

    It’s kind of required that eulogies mention the deceased’s virtues. It’s not the eulogisers’ fault that any mention of virtue, any virtue, in Trump’s presence will be seen as an attack.

    2
  26. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Joe: Absolutely! On the other hand, it’s difficult for the comparisons not to show glaringly. Because courtesy is what it is, if people see this event as being about Trump even though it isn’t, it is only because of the raging dichotomy between who Trump is and who Bush Sr. was [e.t.a.] when both are in the same room–even with the one present only in spirit.

    One simply can’t imagine him being asked, as all of the living former Presidents—and quite notably the man being honored yesterday—were, to serve as a goodwill ambassador for the country one he’s out of office.

    It’s unimaginable simply because Trump is not a man of good will to begin with. He is the reason that Karma and Irony are the bitches that they are. As related to him, they have no other role available to play.

  27. Kathy says:

    Time for a random Trump joke.

    Trump goes to see a fortune teller. Near the end of the session, she informs him he will die on a Mexican Holiday.

    “Do you know which one?” asks Trump.

    “The day you die,” the fortune teller replies, “will be declared a holiday in Mexico.”

    4
  28. wr says:

    @MarkedMan: There are a lot of “respectable” white evangelical preachers like Franklin Graham who would be willing to continue their permanent Trump tongue bat.

    2
  29. wr says:

    @Kathy: “El Cheeto is no Ceaușescu, not yet.”

    I think of the end (and actually the beginning, since there’s a flashback structure) of Bertolucci’ 1900, where the peasants who have been oppressed by the Fascists spot Attila and Regina trying to break for it and all grab pitchforks off the hay wagons…

    2
  30. Not the IT Dept. says:

    I don’t think they allow state funerals when you die in prison.

    2
  31. SC_Birdflyte says:

    @Kathy: To paraphrase John L. Lewis speaking of one of his opponents: “Explore the mind of Donald Trump? I give you my word there is nothing there.”

    2
  32. Stormy Dragon says:

    There’s great photo of the VP row behind Trump where Quayle, Cheney, and even Pence are all staring daggers at Trump.

  33. JohnMcC says:

    @Kathy: I’ll match that with an Irish joke:
    Paddy died and was laying in his casket in the church. The whole town was there and the priest was reciting a long list of Patrick’s virtues and qualities. He went on and on; he was a wonderful father and husband, a reliable neighbor and friend to everyone; he was a faithful worker and supporter of the church.

    The widow whispered to her oldest son, ‘step up there and make sure that’s your father’.

    It works better with a pretend accent and a glass of Jamie’s.

    It’s the way we all expect a Trump funeral to go; make sure it’s him. And make SURE he’s dead

    3
  34. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    Don’t care whether he’s dead or not. Lid screwed down? Enough dirt on top of him that he can’t get out? Close enough!

    3
  35. DrDaveT says:

    @gVOR08:

    Reagan’s great accomplishment was putting a pleasant, avuncular face on conservatism. I blame him more than HW.

    PBS replayed the 3-hour Bush “American Experience” biography from 2008 yesterday. I was struck by a few things I hadn’t known — including his all-in endorsement of Barry Goldwater and open-arms welcome of racist Democrats fleeing that party over the Civil Rights movement. The dissonance between his best moments and his worst moments was almost Jeffersonian.

    1
  36. SC_Birdflyte says:

    @One American: You’d better get your vision checked. Those of us whose vision isn’t clouded by drooling admiration of Trump saw none of what you saw.

    2
  37. MarkedMan says:

    Wow. That was a cogent and legitimate post by One American. That’s a first…

    2
  38. CSK says:

    @One American:

    Again, asking politely, but did it bother you that Trump, beloved of the Evangelicals, couldn’t be bothered to recite the Apostles Creed? It was printed in the funeral program.

    1
  39. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy: In the same spirit, I offer this from Eduardo Galeano:

    It is Porfirio Diaz’s birthday, and all the whore houses in Mexico are closed.

  40. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: In fairness, I grew up with Evangelicals–and the Fundies that preceeded them. The number of Evangelicals that I know who even know that there is an Apostles’ Creed can probably be counted on one hand with 5 fingers left over. Still, Donald Trump claims the Riverside Church as the church he would attend if he went to church, so his failure on that point is significant–unless, of course, he doesn’t actually believe in “…one God, the Father, almighty, creator of heaven and earth…” in which case not reciting the creed may be the only honest statement he’s made all year.

  41. queen says:

    @Doug Mataconis: …………….. Have you ever noticed that each of them had said about Trump…. the coin has two sides……