...and the Bush-Cheney campaign is already using Reagan as a campaign prop.

AMERICAblog: Bush already using Reagan's death to campaign

I just got an email from the Bush campaign, ostensibly to "mourn" Ronald Reagan, but interestingly the email asks me to visit the Bush campaign Web site and to tell all my friends to do the same. The Bush-Cheney 2004 home page has now been made into one BIG Reagan memorial page, with a convenient link to visit the rest of the campaign site.

I have to give the Bushies credit. As Kerry has said he's taking the week off of campaigning, this is a cute way to get their Web traffic up while at the same time not appearing to "campaign." And before anyone defends the Bushies, the bottom line is that they are of course within their rights to send a message mourning Reagan, but any special section they put up on their campaign Web site is PER SE campaign related. There are a lot of sites out there honoring Ronald Reagan - they could have sent them to any non-partisan site. Instead, the Bush campaign has made their home page into one big Ronald Reagan fest as a cheap opportunity to increase their own Web traffic, thus making Reagan's death a part of their presidential campaign. And that stinks.

(Via the invaluable Atrios)

On C-SPAN this morning a caller said that only Republicans are speaking at Reagan's funeral ceremonies - Bush I, Bush II, etc.

I haven't confirmed that, but it would not surprise me because 1) Reagan was President of the United States, and 2) in 2004 only Republicans are Americans. Why would you have a non-American speak at his funeral? (Besides Gorbachev, of course, who's grandfathered in because he was once in a Pizza Hut commercial.)

You don't suppose it'll turn all partisan and disrespectful of the occasion, do you?