It's All About Jimmy

Citizen of the world, the loathsome Jimmy Carter, seems to be up to it again. This time the noted coddler of tyrants is upset that he has not been invited to attend the Pope’s funeral as a member of the official U.S. delegation. Not content to attend on his own as a private citizen, “America’s best ex-president” has, as so often in the past, taken his complaints public in what he regards as a slight from the current president.

Jimmy’s complaint simply begs the question, “why, exactly, should the lone diplomat/part-time nail pounder be included in the official delegation in light of his actions since leaving office?” What do I mean? Well, let’s review:

• In 1984 he directly lobbied with the Soviets (our enemies, remember?) to influence a U.S. election
• During the run up to Gulf War I, he lobbied against President Bush with members of the U.N. Security Council and Middle Eastern states to directly contradict U.S. Policy.
• During the Clinton Administration, he tried to publicly subvert the administration’s attempts to impose sanctions on North Korea, after he had been sent by the president as special envoy.
• On the occasion of his Nobel acceptance in 2002, he attacked the current administration’s policies, as per the expectation of his Nobel sponsors
• Not content with the above, he as routinely chosen to cozy up to odious characters such as Arafat, Castro, Ortega and most recently Hugo Chavez. Notably, his actions in South America directly challenged the efforts of JPII to help bring democracy to the continent.

His actions aside, the real reason the king of malaise wants to be part of the delegation, is that in the end, it really is all about Jimmy, and we’re just puppets in his act. Why for example does he want to be in this delegation? The answer, of course, is that this Pope was the most popular and successful in recent memory, and Jimmy wants the love from all those television cameras. Why else would he be so eager to attend this funeral, when he couldn’t be bothered to attend the two Pope funerals that occurred while he actually was president.

By the way, I haven’t noticed, but did he also express his disappointment that Gerald Ford wasn’t included in the delegation? I didn’t think so.