By AP
LOS ANGELES –
Journalist Cokie Roberts says that when former first lady Betty Ford was planning her own funeral she asked Roberts to deliver a eulogy about politics.
Roberts, a commentator on National Public Radio, said Monday that Mrs. Ford asked her five years ago to talk about a time in Washington when Democrats and Republicans were friends. She said Mrs. Ford recalled when her husband, Gerald R. Ford, was House
minority leader and Roberts' father, Democratic Congressman Hale
Boggs, was majority leader.
Roberts said the topic seems particularly appropriate this week when Democrats and Republicans are divided over dealing with the debt ceiling.
Roberts will join former first lady Rosalynn Carter and a member of the Betty Ford Center board in eulogizing Mrs. Ford at her funeral Tuesday in Palm Desert, Calif.