Funeral Crasher?

The rage on conservative talk radio yesterday was over a funeral crasher. Apparently Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll attended the funeral of a Marine who had been killed in Iraq. Here is the story from the Pittsburg Port-Gazette.

The article says that Knoll attended the funeral uninvited. The reasonable concern is that she apparently took every opportunity to politicize the event. To politicize a funeral for personal gain is the ultimate in bad taste, but can be remedied at the ballot box.

My concern is not that Lt. Gov. Knoll acted in such a boorish and insensitive way. That much is obvious. My concern here is that every conservative talk radio host I heard reference the story was furiously offended that Knoll had attended the funeral though she hadn’t been invited.

I have never heard of funeral by invitation. Certainly there are times when the family desires a closed or very limited service, but in general funerals are attended freely by all who want to pay respects to the deceased. That Knoll seemingly intended to pay no respect is a great point of discussion for talk radio and partisan debate. Who attends which funeral is not.