White House: Obama Will Not Attend Justice Scalia's Funeral

Today, President Obama spoke on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

"He will no doubt be remembered as one of the most consequential judges and thinkers to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia dedicated his life to the cornerstone of our democracy: the rule of law. Tonight, we honor his extraordinary service to our nation and remember one of the towering legal figures of our time.
...
But at this moment, we most of all want to think about his family, and Michelle and I join the nation in sending our deepest sympathies to Justice Scalia’s wife, Maureen, and their loving family -- a beautiful symbol of a life well lived. We thank them for sharing Justice Scalia with our country. "

Source

Not good enough, Mr, President. Not good enough. You must attend the public event of his funeral and have pictures taken of you crying over the dead body to appease the people...

a reply to: theantediluvian

Come on! You're supposed to be outraged, not fact checking!

originally posted by: ExNihiloRed

originally posted by: the owlbear

Good for him. I wouldn't want to attend the funeral of that man either. Hell, it's not like Obama knew him as more than an occasional handshake or second hand email.

I have attended funerals of plenty of people who I barely knew or did not personally like. I did so because I respected them. There is a difference.

Not really.

You felt obliged to attend.

I never have...

originally posted by: ExNihiloRed

I understand your argument and it has validity, no doubt (with the exception of the unnecessary dingleberry aside). With that said, I still think the President should always attend. Just because others have also been disrespectful, does not change the nature of the disrespectful act.

So you mean every President should attend? that's not so clear in the OP is it, it even says OBAMA in the headline. You talk of conspiracy, and other nod and a wink stuff, exactly my point about dingleberries.
So, you too have a point if it is your desire that every President should attend every funeral for state dignitaries, the solution to that is to petition the White House, they have a page for that.
As for this President, he has already spoken about Scalia having one of the greatest legal minds, and that being Obama's field to some degree or the other, that's quite a statement and the respect comes with it, unless you would prefer, for some reason or the other, to say Obama is just making it up.
As some other poster has mentioned in kind, had he been going to the funeral, there likely would have been a thread here condemning Obama as a hypocrite.
Sometimes here it's like a bunch of fishwives doing tittle tattle, and it's totally irrational in American politics, that you have Reps and Dems gutting one another over who's best, while at the same time, everyone hates the Federal Government..WTF!

a reply to: Jansy


and, maybe that's why he is not going. to respect the families wishes.

Hell be too busy weaselling up a hand picked new Supreme Court Judge to replace Scalia and swing the court to his bidding...Hed be happy dancing on Scalias grave actually.........and he plans to....just watch...

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic

Today, President Obama spoke on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia."

Source

After a few seconds of hesitation, (whitehouse.gov LOL...), I clicked on that link just to see what it was about and the first thing I read was this: "Watch President Obama Speak"

I know some of you may actually enjoy listening to Obama, but for me personally, just the THOUGHT of listening to that voice again makes me feel sick.

If there were ever a source that has zero credibility, whitehouse.gov would be it...

If there were one person on this planet that I no longer trust, Mr. Obama would be that person.

Why in tarnation does anyone believe a single word this man says anymore?

originally posted by: Murgatroid

Why in tarnation does anyone believe a single word this man says anymore?

I suppose if he just said bollocks, I would believe he meant it, it doesn't mean I understood why he said it.
Then there is OBL, Obama killed him, that's official, I've no reason to believe that though, I didn't hear or see a thing first hand.

a reply to: smurfy

Now that the "official story" has been exposed as a fairy tale, the phrase "that's official" no longer carries weight like it used to...

It kinda reminds me of political correctness, best defined as: "the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Eh, not so much. He showed at Mandela's funeral that he's not suited to those kinds of affairs. He was too busy flirting with the hot blonde to behave with the proper decorum and I'm sure he and Mandela were right up each other's alley politically.

If he can't behave at a funeral, then it's wise for him not to be there.

I didn't take my toddler to his great-grandfather's funeral for the same reason.

Yes, obama was not very presidential at the funeral.

I thought it was important for libs that the potus be presidential at all times.

To be fair, wherever obama goes, it's a pita for everyone within 10 blocks.

So if biden is going, fine.

Obama can stay home.

Does anybody SERIOUSLY CARE whether he goes or not? It's some other little petty-ass thing to complain about.
I don't care if he goes or not. I can't believe anybody really does.

a reply to: ExNihiloRed

Obama's decision that he and his wife will not attend the funeral of a Supreme Court Justice flies in the face of all norms and protocols observed by Western nations. It is unthinkable that a President or Head of State would not attend the public funeral of a justice or chief justice of the nation's highest court who died in office. It simply is not done unless the President or Head of State is too ill to attend or had a conflicting funeral in his own family or even conceivably in the government.

In a short check of funerals of Supreme Court Justices who died whilst sitting on the bench, in each case the US President attended the public funeral. My search was not exhaustive, but I wanted to be sure that there was not some bizarre deviation from international norms peculiar to the USA wherein the President would routinely not attend a funeral of a sitting Justice. The simple norm and basic protocol of the USA has been that the President attends the funeral of a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court.

Although Obama's die-hard corporatist supporters will and do forgive him everything including ordering the murders of people by drone strikes on a regular basis, his absence from the funeral will throw fuel on the fire of speculation that the Justice was the victim of murder and that the President had something to do with it. Causing that particular narrative to increase in public perception without substantiated facts is both unfortunate and potentially destructive in ways I do not wish to imagine.

a reply to: angeldoll

People just love complaining these days, I guess it makes them feel somehow important or relevant.

originally posted by: the owlbear

Good for him. I wouldn't want to attend the funeral of that man either. Hell, it's not like Obama knew him as more than an occasional handshake or second hand email.

You don't know the president but would most likely attend his funeral if invited.

A good man of your country died, who played a much bigger role in your country then you, and all you have to say is something disrespectful?

"Of that man".... shows what you know about the people behind your nation.

Did someone tell you make that comment...

It saddens me that the president will not attend a Supreme Court justice's funeral. Barack Obama has proven once again to be a very small man in character and dignity. He never misses a single opportunity to prove that he does not care about all Americans....only those that kiss his skinny arse.

A better man would put ideological differences aside and be there to pay his respects to a man that many consider to be one of the best jurists our country has ever had. He was beloved by so many, even those that disagreed with his views. Obama doesn't have it in him. He is a spiteful small grudge-holding American-hating ideologue, imo. I cannot wait till he is out of office so we don't have to look at his head bobbing lectures about how evil a huge swarth of us Americans are.

a reply to: queenofswords

He is going to the supreme court where the judges body will be the day before

Obama is not ignoring his death,just not going to the funeral but going the day before.

Jesus the only ones being small here are all of you just using this molehill of an issue to feed your ODS.

a reply to: Kapriti

It is unthinkable that a President or Head of State would not attend the public funeral of a justice or chief justice of the nation's highest court who died in office.

Read the article, not even true, literally says so in the OP's source.

originally posted by: queenofswords
He never misses a single opportunity to prove that he does not care about all Americans....only those that kiss his skinny arse.

I know this is something of a shocker, but you have no evidence that "all Americans" agree with your postulations like this; it is unreasonable to ask you to limit your proclamations to what you personally believe and leave the rest of us out of it?

Just because the right-wing fringe worships Scalia doesn't mean anyone else in America does.

And just because the same fringe hates Obama doesn't mean everyone else in America does.

Here's another personal opinion that carries just as much rational evidence (well, actually more) than your position:

Scalia doesn't deserve ANY national honors for the simple fact that he man did everything he could to transform the Supreme Court into yet another politically-biased body (against the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution) and further worked tirelessly against equality for ALL Americans as well as working to diminish the separation of Church and State.