An update to this story:
Rendell to send apology to Marine’s family
Written apologies will be sent to a fallen Marine’s relatives angered by Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll’s uninvited appearance at the soldier’s funeral and her criticism of the war in Iraq, Gov. Ed Rendell said Sunday.
Rendell said he will send a personal letter to the family of the late Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, of Westwood, and will ask Knoll to do the same. Goodrich, 32, a police officer and infantry unit leader, died July 10 in a mortar attack in Hit, Iraq.
Rendell said he hadn’t spoken with Knoll about the incident, but was disturbed by the family’s charge that she made a political statement against the war.
“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,” Rendell said during an appearance in Mt. Washington.
That’s great, but what about an apology from the Lt. Governor herself?
Michelle Malkin has more.
Related: Captain Ed posts about a disgusting story of how some anti-war types set fire to 20 American flags underneath the car of the sister-in-law of a fallen soldier who’d been buried just 24 hours prior:
It doesn’t take Scotland Yard or Hercule Poirot to figure out that the arsonists had a problem with the American flags. Likely, the arsonist(s) knew nothing about the funeral, but got offended by the sight of so many American flags at one house. They probably presumed that the flags constituted a statement about support for the Iraq War, and America in general, and decided that the appropriate response was to burn the family to death, and failing that, at least get their car. (Maybe it was even an SUV — making it doubly satisfying for the arsonists.) Fortunately the car alarm went off before the fuel tank exploded and involved the entire house, or else the Wessels could have lost much more than a car and the flags that honored their son-in-law and his sacrifice to this country.
Read the whole thing, if you can stomach it.
Mid-morning update: Mudville has more.
Also blogging about this: Jack Kelly (please read his entire article). Wink to Blackfive, who is also blogging on this.
Update 3:22 p.m. ET:Michelle Malkin has contacted the chief of staff of Lt. Gov. Knoll. Click here to read how the conversation went.
The LT. Governor’s Chief of staff has released a press release. Which can be found at michele malkins site: http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003100.htm
The contents are incredulious. An apology to the family in the form of a press release. Disgusting!!
Comment by Craig Lueschow @ 7/25/2005 - 5:14 pm
Thanks for the update, Craig.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 7/25/2005 - 6:01 pm
Re. Tim Hines funeral and the ‘flag burning’, it appears that two teens were on a vandalism spree and didn’t realize what the flags were for. IOW, this was (it appears) genuinely ‘random’ vandalism. Jim Wessel, Tim’s father-in-law, counsels moderation toward the two.
The outpouring of community support–$130,000 from an anonymous donor for the education of Hines’ children, offers to build a house for his family, etc.–far outweigh the witless acts of two numbskulls.
Comment by Eric Jacobson @ 8/1/2005 - 4:30 am
Thanks for the update, Eric. Read about this late last night before I logged off and hadn’t yet had a chance to blog about it but you’ve taken care of that for me
You’re right - the outpouring of community support was indeed amazing. Isn’t this country great?
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 8/1/2005 - 7:23 am