it was a case of Sen. Clinton in the midst of what she has called the vast right-wing conspiracy.
suntimes.com
Invitation-only service highly conservative
June 12, 2004
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON — The two-hour funeral at the National Cathedral on Friday was a fitting climax to the remarkable week since the death of Ronald Wilson Reagan. Just as there has been little hint since his death last Saturday of the debate and conflict that marked his presidency, there was no ambiguity surrounding the final ritual.
That was not the case in Washington’s last state funeral for Lyndon B. Johnson 31 years ago, marking the passing of a man whose accomplishments were marred by the expansion of the Vietnam War and the implosion of his Democratic Party. In 1994, the family of Richard M. Nixon ruled out a state funeral for the first president to resign his office.
Reagan’s political and ideological opponents did not interrupt the flow of praise all week, and it crested at the cathedral on Friday. The eulogies hailed him as the victor over communism, the savior of the U.S. economy and the restorer of American confidence. Most of those who disagreed had been loath to express their disagreements, and there were not many naysayers at the cathedral.
Of course, paying their respects were the nation’s most prominent Democrats — John Kerry, Jimmy Carter, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, among others. But the 2,100 invitation-only guests were overwhelmingly Republican, and conservative Republican at that. I was delighted to be among a scattering of invited journalists, but I could not spot any liberal commentators among them.
Rather, it was a case of Sen. Clinton in the midst of what she has called the vast right-wing conspiracy. As President Bush said in his remarks, Ronald Reagan had been lost to the world for a decade through Alzheimer’s. So there was a spirit of joyous satisfaction rather than sadness as the mourners gossiped and renewed acquaintances as they waited for the ceremonies to begin. “This is an Irish wake without the whiskey,” a former Reagan political operative told me.
Perhaps the most graceful performance came from a man not well-known for graceful performances: the first President Bush. He was witty and reverential at the same time, but did almost lose his composure when he recalled how much Reagan had taught him. His son, the current president, sometimes garbles brilliantly written speeches. Not this time. His praise for Reagan’s success in building economic and military might have been interpreted as hope that his presidency also will be interpreted that way. In fact, it was a well-constructed, nonpolitical eulogy.
Lady Margaret Thatcher, who was Reagan’s enthusiastic partner in changing the world, had been advised by her doctors to give up formal public speaking. But Reagan himself had stipulated that the former British prime minister must speak at his funeral. She managed it by recording a speech that celebrated the West’s triumph over communism. “He won the Cold War,” she declared, turning “enemies into friends.” Thatcher was rumored to be confined to a wheelchair. But still a beautiful woman, she walked down the aisle on high heels.
Thatcher was seated next to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last ruler of the Soviet Union and once boss of the all-powerful Soviet Communist Party. As speaker after speaker lavished praise on Reagan for the victory over communism, I wondered what was going through Gorbachev’s mind. He had instituted reforms not to destroy communism, but in a failed effort to save it.
In an age where many Washington funerals are not only nondenominational but nonreligious, this funeral was not. The presiding priest was former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, an ordained Episcopalian minister. In his homily, he made clear that it was a “religious” ceremony. While there had been published reports that this was to be an interfaith service, it was straight Episcopalian.
The sight of Danforth, just nominated to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, invoking God and Christ may have raised hackles of the purist advocates for separation of church and state. But it did not bother the mourners here.
Sandra Day O’Connor, appointed by Reagan as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, read the famous sermon by the Pilgrim preacher John Winthrop referring to the Massachusetts Bay Colony as “a shining city on the hill.”
After the funeral, evangelist Pat Robertson asked me whether I thought O’Connor had fully understood Winthrop’s admonition that God would watch closely how that city would conduct itself.
But such criticism of anything said at the funeral was rare. Friday was less a day of sorrow but remembrance of the triumph by the Hollywood actor whose historic role was affirmed eloquently at the Washington cathedral. |
