Blumenthal: Portrait of an armistice

[kskiska]

Between Reagan's funeral and Clinton's induction into the presidential gallery Bush enjoyed a moment of nostalgia

Time stood still. It was a late grey morning in Washington covered with a light mist as Ronald Reagan's funeral cortege rode slowly up Embassy Row to the National Cathedral. For a full week, the business of government ceased, the political campaign was suspended and the relentless momentum of negative stories undermining the Bush administration skidded to a halt.

(snip)

With the withdrawal of reality, President Bush sought to enter the warm haze of Reagan's evanescent and static world. Nostalgia for Reagan became Bush's motif. His campaign website turned itself entirely into a Reagan memorial.

(snip)

As we made our way in the receiving line from the East Room, I noticed that the Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Hillary had hung, the first and only 20th-century work of modern art in the White House, was gone. In its place was a nostalgic scene of the old west.

President Bush did not stay to receive us. He left the task of shaking hands and posing for photographs with Bill and Hillary and their crowd to his wife Laura. When the line ended, the former president and first lady met on the north portico with dozens of members of the permanent working White House staff, who clustered around them. He was getting ready for his interviews about his memoir that will be published next week, bottled up and eager for new campaigns. She went back up to Capitol Hill to prepare as a member of the Senate armed services committee for more hearings on torture at Abu Ghraib. And while the portrait unveiling was taking place, Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan, announced that the plea from Nancy Reagan for the administration to reverse its policy inhibiting research on stem cell research that might find a cure for the Alzheimer's disease that afflicted President Reagan was rejected. "The policy," he said, "remains the same." Nostalgia is swept away; the clock ticks; the truce is over.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1240620,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The most vomit-inducing Republican remark so far:

"Ken Mehlman, the president's campaign manager, told an Iowa Republican party convention that Reagan had become a hovering angel. "Every time an American soldier, sailor, airman or marine risks his or her life to ensure our security and peace, Ronald Reagan will be there," he said."

Sainthood ain't good enough for Ronnie! He's one of the archangels, I tell ya!

[Miss Authoritiva]

2. This seems to intermingle lines from two different movies:

The closing soliloquy from "Grapes of Wrath" and ZuZu's remark about bells ringing and angels getting their wings from "It's a Wonderful Life." Bizarre.