Inside Politics

Clinton miffed

The Drudge Report said yesterday that former President Bill Clinton is upset at being left off the speakers’ list for the funeral ceremony for former PresidentRonald Reagan at the National Cathedral on Friday.

“President Clinton really held out all hope the funeral would be a nonpartisan event, like Nixon’s was,” the Web site quoted a “top Clinton source” as saying. “He’s angry and disappointed neither he nor President Carter have been asked to speak, as of yet.”

Former President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will join President Bush in eulogizing Mr. Reagan.

As for the ceremony today, when Mr. Reagan’s body is transported to the Capitol to lie in state, only Vice PresidentDick Cheney, House SpeakerJ. Dennis Hastert and Senate President Pro Tem Ted Stevens will speak. With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, that makes for an all-GOP lineup.

That arrangement was fine with Democratic leaders, who said they had been told that’s what the family wanted and what has happened in the past.

“I’d be honored to speak, and I know others would, too, who are Democrats. But if that is the family wish, then certainly we’d respect that,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, adding that he was satisfied with the arrangements for the ceremony.

Congressman quits

Rep. Frank W. Ballance Jr., North Carolina Democrat, resigned from Congress yesterday, saying a neuromuscular disorder has affected his ability to carry out his duties.

Mr. Ballance, 62, was diagnosed in February with myasthenia gravis, a condition that results in muscle weakness.

Mr. Ballance said he was resigning as North Carolina’s 1st District representative in the U.S. House “because I am no longer able to carry out the responsibilities of this office due to my current health condition.”

Spokesman Ken Willis told the Associated Press that Mr. Ballance was at his home in North Carolina, but had been in the hospital last week.

Elected to the House in 2002 after a long career in the North Carolina General Assembly, Mr. Ballance is facing a joint federal-state investigation into activities of a drug and alcohol counseling program he founded in northeastern North Carolina. The John A. Hyman Memorial Youth Foundation was the subject of a stinging state audit in October for conflict of interest and $325,000 in questionable payments.

The foundation has received $2.1 million in state money since 1994, thanks in part to Mr. Ballance, who is chairman of the foundation’s board.

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