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Sen. Reid to Skip Ford Funeral for Peru Trip
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will miss the state funeral for former President Gerald Ford at the Capitol Rotunda on Saturday night, opting instead to lead a delegation to South America with an expected stop at the Machu Picchu Inca ruins.
Reid, D-Nev., left Wednesday afternoon from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland with a bipartisan group of five other senators, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the incoming assistant majority leader, for what has been described as a weeklong visit to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
The highlight of the trip is said to be separate meetings with the presidents of the three nations, with the last one scheduled in Peru on Tuesday afternoon.
"They would be difficult to cancel," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said via mobile phone as the congressional delegation took off in a U.S. military plane.
The senators are also scheduled to be in Cuzco, Peru, on Sunday, which would give them an opportunity to view the nearby Inca ruins and anything else in advance of New Year's Eve.
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Manley said the senators opted to skip Ford-related ceremonies over the next few days because of the long-scheduled meetings with the South American presidents, noting that U.S. relations with some of the countries are in need of improvement.
Manley did not rule out the possibility that the delegation might return to Washington for at least one Ford-related event, perhaps a church service Tuesday morning. But their meeting with Peru's president, scheduled for the afternoon, could interfere with that, he said.
"Senator Reid has tried to reach Mrs. Ford," Manley said, adding that the senator had not received a return call from her before the delegation had departed for South America. Manley later added that Reid had called the former first lady to express condolences, and also to explain why the delegation might not make it back to Washington for the funeral. Durbin's office released a statement before he left, calling Ford, who died Tuesday at age 93, "a man of principle, integrity and honesty who helped heal the nation during some of our darkest times." He offered his "deepest condolences" to the Ford family.
Other senators making the trip are Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
© 2006 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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