[Mulhollanddose]

Speakers seized on the presence of President Bush to attack his policies on Tuesday at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the first lady of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Jimmy Carter, one of four presidents to speak, took a jab at Bush's domestic eavesdropping program during six hours of sermons, speeches and song for the late widow of Nobel peace laureate Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968.

The 10,000 mourners also heard the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil-rights leader, cite Mrs. King's legacy as a champion of racial equality while launching barbs at Bush administration policies on Iraq and health care.

Mrs. King, 78, died on January 30 of complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral at a Baptist church in Lithonia, Georgia, drew a "who's who" of the political and entertainment worlds and the U.S. civil rights community.

She was due to be buried alongside her husband at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change she founded in nearby Atlanta.

With Washington debating the legality of Bush's domestic eavesdropping on Americans suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Carter drew spirited applause with comments on federal efforts to spy on the Kings decades ago.

"It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," Carter said.

Former President Bill Clinton, a favorite among mainstream civil rights leaders, offered a teasing hint of the possible presidential candidacy of his wife, New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who stood smiling at his side.

We know the Democrats have no decency, but have they no shame?...First they turn Paul Wellstone's memorial into a 3 hour Democrat pep-rally, now Coretta Scott King's 6 hour rally?

Disgusting.


WashingtonPost