This Is Surreal: Lt. Gov. Shows Up At Marine Funeral, To Bash The War

[Annie]

Links at site. I'm too mad to write more.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/07/lt_governor_cra.html

The uninvited Lt Governor

"I swore to myself that I would not let them down. They sacrificed and gave to me something that I could never repay; freedom." - Staff Sergeant Joe Goodrich in an email to his wife from Iraq about making the ultimate sacrifice.

Baldilocks just sent this article of one politician's visit to a funeral that was selfish, tactless and in poor taste. The more I learn about Marine Staff Sergeant Goodrich (he was one good man), the angrier I am becoming over this event. Joseph Goodrich, a second generation Marine and former Police Officer, was killed in Hit, Iraq, on July 10th.

Lt. gov. crashed Marine's funeral, kin say

Saturday, July 23, 2005

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

Rhonda Goodrich of Indiana, Pa., said yesterday that a funeral was held Tuesday at a church in Carnegie for her brother-in-law, Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32. She said he "died bravely and courageously in Iraq on July 10, serving his country.
<...>

"Our family deserves an apology," Rhonda Goodrich said. "Here you have a soldier who was killed -- dying for his country -- in a church full of grieving family members and she shows up uninvited. It made a mockery of Joey's death."

What really upset the family, Goodrich said, is that Knoll said, 'I want you to know our government is against this war,' " Goodrich said.

She said she is going to seek an answer from Gov. Ed Rendell's administration if it opposes the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan...

You can also contact Governor Rendell and ask him that question.

More on Sergeant Goodrich here.



Posted by Blackfive

 

[no1tovote4]

Why would anybody have an idea that this would be the right thing to do? What a self-serving moron! From Baby kissing to insulting the dead? What has happened to our politicians?

And they wonder why there is such a rift between the ideologies nowadays...

 

[Annie]

Why would anybody have an idea that this would be the right thing to do? What a self-serving moron! From Baby kissing to insulting the dead? What has happened to our politicians?

And they wonder why there is such a rift between the ideologies nowadays...

Hey, you think she was just jealous of all the attention Durbin got? If I were in PA I'd join something like this:

http://dumpdickdurbin.blogspot.com/

Please note, it's not a 'recent' entry into blogdom. Many of us in Illinois have known how bad his is for a long time.

 

[Gunny]

Someone should have grabbed her by the hair and dragged her ass out of the church and dumped her in the parking lot. And that IS exercising restraint.

Stupid bitch.

 

[insein]

im suprised that any member of Fast Eddie's staff would be that STUPID!!! Ed Rendel, for those that dont know, is as slick a politician as they come. He caused much of the corruption you hear about in Philly these days and parlayed it into a bank roll for governor. Now governor Rendell has been stock piling cash for a presidential run. For a member of his staff to be that stupid is rare. I wonder what he'll do.

 

[Annie]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003100.htm

THE FUNERAL CRASHER: SORRY EXCUSES
By Michelle Malkin · July 25, 2005 03:17 PM

I just got off the phone with Sal Sirabella, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's chief of staff. They are in the midst of drafting a letter of apology to Marine Sgt. Joseph Goodrich's family, which I will post as soon as Sirabella faxes it over. Sirabella read parts of the letter on the phone, and it will include boilerplate pablum about how Knoll "supports the troops" and is "sorry for the misunderstanding" (as if the family is somehow to blame for misinterpreting her anti-war sermonizing at Sgt. Goodrich's mass?).

Meantime, Sirabella says that Knoll has no plans to make herself available for public comment about her obnoxious crashing of Sgt. Goodrich's funeral. She will not hold a press conference. She will not take phone calls from the media. She will not address constituents who have complained or veterans who have protested.

If Knoll thinks the letter is going to put things to rest, she clearly misunderstands the situation.

Update 4pm EST: Here's the letter from Knoll addressed to Sgt. Goodrich's wife...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 25, 2005 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA Office of the Lieutenant Governor Commonwealth News Bureau Room 200, Main Capitol Harrisburg, PA 17120 LT. GOVERNOR CATHERINE BAKER KNOLL LETTER OF APOLOGY HARRISBURG: July 25, 2005

Dear Mrs. Goodrich,

I am writing to further apologize and clarify what happened at the funeral of your beloved husband, Joseph. As a wife and mother, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to lose your spouse so suddenly. As an adored member of your family and one of Pennsylvania’s sons serving with soldiers from across the commonwealth, SSGT Joseph Goodrich, is one of this nation’s heroes.

As I said in my phone message to Rhonda, after I learned through press reports that your family was offended by my attendance, I was incredibly upset. I wanted to assure you once again that my intention was not to add to what must be a tremendously, heartbreaking, difficult period.

The war on terror is an immensely personal conflict for the thousands of people whose families continue to serve with honor, and I have attended dozens of funerals to offer my sympathy and condolences to the families of soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

My heart and prayers are with your family, and to the families of all the men and women serving the cause of freedom in the fight against terror. I unfortunately, did not arrive at the church services for SSGT Goodrich’s funeral in time to offer my personal condolences to you. As I also mentioned on Rhonda’s phone message, as I do with many Pennsylvanians I meet, I offered my business card so she could contact me, and as a sign of my willingness to help the family through this difficult time in any way I can. To do anything that was deemed insensitive was completely counter to my intent.

Sergeant Goodrich’s service was beyond the call of duty. If my regard for his family’s grief was seen another way, it is thoroughly regrettable. The fact that you have been offended deserves and receives my most profound apology.

I will continue to support our troops in my role as Lt. Governor and support our President as an American. That I somehow conveyed an impression that was interpreted as other than that will forever be saddening and upsetting to me.

Again, please accept my heartfelt apology and deepest sympathy.

Sincerely,
Catherine Baker Knoll
Lieutenant Governor

Brian J. Noggle observes: "When the first words of a personal message are FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, you know it's a poll-felt communication from a politician."

Yep.

Blackfive: ""One of Pennsylvania's sons"? Guess that makes the Lieutenant Governor the Wicked Step-Mother..."

 

[Bonnie]

The Pennsylvania funeral furor
Jay Bryant
July 26, 2005

On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story about Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll's uninvited attendance at the July 19 funeral of Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, who was killed in Iraq on July 10. According to the paper, Knoll passed out business cards during communion, and told a grieving relative, "I want you to know our government is against this war."

Reading the story carefully, what stands out to me is this: the Light Governor really thought she was saying something comforting.

That's more shockingly revealing, in a way, about how the liberals just don't get it than supposing she was being a mean-spirited bitch of the Michael Moore genre. Moore, who as columnist Jack Kelly reminds us in a column on Knoll's gaffe, disgracefully used footage from the funeral of an Air Force officer in Fahrenheit 9-11, doesn't give a rat's necktie who he offends and makes a (damned good) living off being a political shock jock.

Knoll, on the other hand, is just a wimpy liberal sap. She may have outstanding academic credentials and must have come from something like a normal background, having been the wife of a postmaster (since deceased), but she's been so sucked in by left-wing propaganda that she imagines any family which has lost a loved one in the Iraqi War would be comforted to know that "our government is against this war."

Meaning the Pennsylvania state government, headed by her boss, Gov. Ed Rendell, who promptly apologized to the Marine's family once the story had broken. Rendell, no left-wing loony, but rather a hard-nosed, back-room Philadelphia politician, can sniff the acrid odor of electoral dynamite from the other side of the mountain. As of mid-afternoon Monday, Ms. Knoll is AWOL. She hasn't been seen since the story broke. (But since that wasn't until Saturday, and the funeral was Tuesday, she spent a blissful three days not knowing she had already committed political suicide. One wonders if she even suspected the magnitude of what she had done.) An anonymous member of Knoll's staff issued a "hearts go out" statement in her name, but admits (or claims) the statement was not approved by the boss. Rendell, too, maintains he has not talked to her.

Perhaps not, but you can be sure someone in the Governor's office has. What you can't be sure of is whether Knoll will ever resurface from the rock quarry somewhere south of Scranton to which she has been banished in order to keep her from stepping on her tonsils again.

What's going on there is that a Rendell-sent gang of toughs from the Italian Market neighborhood is reeducating her, perhaps with truncheons, in a crash course she probably won't list alongside the proud references to Duquesne, Harvard and Wharton on her resume, but from which she may, nonetheless, learn something.

Meanwhile, back in Harrisburg, Rendell and the rest of his staff are trying to answer the question of whether to: a) accept Knoll's resignation immediately; b) quietly drop her from his reelection ticket next year; or c) tough it out and hope the quarry crew has beaten some sense into her head, and that she won't do anything else stupid for the next sixteen months.

Conservatives are demanding option a, but option b seems most likely to me. It'd be the least newsworthy course, and that's the one a seasoned pol wants in a case like this. It's a tough call what to do with her for the remainder of the term, but I'd say for one thing that if Ms. Knoll wants to witness any more funerals, she'll best do it by watching Six Feet Under.

The Gazette and other newsies will be monitoring her actions like buzzards, and if she so much as drives off wearing a black dress, cameras will descend, upsetting the solemnity of the moment you may be sure.

In his statement, Rendell says, "It's not the business of state government to support the war, but our state supports the men and women who are fighting this war." That's technically right, of course, and probably the only thing the Governor can say. The Constitution gives the conduct of foreign policy to the Feds, and states, per se, have no business taking sides.

But someone needs to tell these Democrats that you can't be against the war and supportive of the troops at the same time. Because if you do, you are saying something like, "Have a good fight – even though you're not fighting for anything worthwhile."

That's not an acceptable position, and particularly not in the presence of a grieving family that desperately needs reassurance their loved one's life was given in a noble cause, as Sgt. Goodrich's most certainly was.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jaybryant/printjb20050726.shtml

 

[Hobbit]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003100.htm

It's a Dick Durbin apology. If you condense it, it says, just like Dick Durbin, "I'm not sorry for what I said, just that you were offended."

 

[Annie]

It's a Dick Durbin apology. If you condense it, it says, just like Dick Durbin, "I'm not sorry for what I said, just that you were offended."

Not to be overlooked, the implication that while the apology is given for the 'misunderstanding' the one who reacted to such is just slightly 'less intelligent' than the one that insulted. :chains:

It brings the age of 'no responsibility' a step further; I can say what I want, how I want, if you choose to 'misunderstand', no matter how obvious you heard exactly what I wanted you to, it's your fault.