Last Act

by Craig Shirley

  He never spoke at Harvard, because even though they had invited the president to speak at the 350th anniversary graduation, the egalitarians of the Yard refused to present President Reagan with an honorary degree. The Reagan White House politely told Harvard thanks but no thanks.76

  At Eureka, a bust of him adorned what was called the “Peace Garden.” All told in his career, Reagan had given thirteen speeches at the tiny school, according to John Morris, the school’s director of development.77

  Back in 1957, he was awarded an honorary degree from Eureka, and acknowledging his own indifferent academic record at the school said, “I always figured the first one you gave me was honorary.”78

  His last speech there was in 1992, giving the commencement address four years after leaving the presidency and sixty years after graduating from the school, one of forty-two seniors. It was his third and final commencement remarks, and he told the graduates there were other things besides politics to go into for a career, fearing the establishment of a permanent political class. He told the seniors instead to “get your own life . . .”79 He was funny and poignant. Reagan opened by telling the smiling graduates, “I haven’t heard such applause since the day I told the Washington media I was leaving town.” He closed by telling them that years later “fond memories steadily will burn . . .”80

  Along the way, an insufferable crowd of campaign consultants evolved—or devolved—from shadowy characters to bona fide celebrities. They became guests more and more frequently on the weekday cable shows and the weekend network shows. To complement the culture, a new documentary on the Discovery Channel about the consultants was airing. The days of the shadowy Mark Hanna and Louis Howe were long gone. The new power bosses in both political parties were the consultants. Reagan had never paid them much mind. He enjoyed being briefed on politics and policy and listened intently when his pollster Dick Wirthlin told him how he was doing and how Americans regarded his policies, but the last consultant who tried to tell Reagan what he could say and not say, John Sears in 1980, got a loud dressing down from Reagan and later almost a punch in the mouth, courtesy of the candidate.

  The consultants of both the Bush and Kerry campaigns had decided that Ohio was going to be a battleground state. Ironically, Ohio had been a battleground state going back to the election of 1860.

  Part of the cancellation of John Kerry’s week included a large fund-raising event at the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Performances by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond and Billy Crystal were cancelled.81 Hollywood had changed—radically, one might say—since Reagan’s days. The New Deal had been replaced by the New Nastiness and the New Arrogance and, ironically, the New Entitlement.

  There were New Deal Democrats (like Reagan) in the 1930s and ’40s, and there were political conservatives (like Reagan) and John Wayne and Robert Taylor and Arlene Dahl and many others. But the liberals and the conservatives mingled easily with each other in that era, and all were unified by their patriotism. By the time of Reagan’s election in 1980, he had the support of just a handful of actors and actresses, most of them from his generation, like Jimmy Stewart and George C. Scott and a handful of younger actors like Michael Landon.

  And a wall of unremitting hostility was being erected by the Hollywood Left against what remained of the Right in 1980. By 2004, there was very little right in Hollywood and those left met in hiding, like the opponents of Stalin who met in private, fearful for their lives and fortunes. Not to say the Hollywood left didn’t enjoy celebrity, position, status, access, and riches that would embarrass Croesus. The compassionate liberals of Hollywood like George Clooney screeched from media stop to media stop, lecturing everybody else on how to live their lives and then hopped into a limousine and then onto a private jet—leaving behind an enormous carbon footprint that screamed hypocrisy.

  Reagan had been of the Hollywood culture for many years and through his work as president of the Screen Actors Guild negotiated residuals for elderly actors from the studios, saving many from a lifetime of poverty, though this went unremarked and unnoted.

  The newspapers were littered each day with stories about what a mess Iraq had become. Bush was in conference with European leaders in Sea Island, Georgia, including the interim president of Iraq, Sheik Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar.

  He and Bush were enthusiastic about the future of a democratic Iraq.

  Reporters probed more deeply into the complex relationship between the Reagan family and the Bush family. It was clear to all that George H. W. Bush and Reagan had gotten over their mutual disdain that reached its peak in the primaries of 1980; a partnership of eight years, their weekly private lunches and Bush’s grace and manners combined with Reagan’s grace and manners helped two supremely self-confident men move beyond the old animosities. No such détente existed between Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan. One former Reagan aide went on background to tell reporters that “Mrs. Bush felt she had been slighted by Mrs. Reagan. What I’ve found is that the wives of political people have long memories. They tend not to forget.”82

  In her book My Turn, Mrs. Reagan related a mild dustup she had with then–vice president Bush in 1987 over the controversial chief of staff Don Regan. She told Bush he needed to tell her husband to fire Regan. Bush brushed her off saying, “Nancy, that’s not my role.” To which she snapped, “That’s exactly your role.”83

  In 1988, when Bush was giving his acceptance speech in New Orleans—a speech seen as a rebuke of Reaganism—the vice president told of a “kinder and gentler” approach to the world, and Nancy Reagan was overheard snapping, “Kinder and gentler than whom?”84

  Ironically, while many so-called American political pathologists could not accurately see the role of Nancy Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev never doubted her importance, saying she had encouraged her husband to pursue renewed relations with the Soviets. “She may have been the greatest influence in that regard because he truly believed her.”85 Gorbachev and Reagan had actually developed a deep friendship. It was not a public relations stunt. There was real affection between the two men, and anyone could see the former Soviet president was really saddened by Reagan’s passing. Fred Ryan had been with Reagan when the two men met in Moscow, after Reagan’s departure from the White House, and saw how with nothing to gain or lose they acted as friends and colleagues.

  Another foreign leader was also “saddened” by the death of Reagan, but for different reasons. Libya’s tin horn dictator, the unstable Muammar Gaddafi, said, “I express my deep regret because Reagan died before facing justice for his ugly crime that he committed in 1986 against the Libyan children.”86

  It was also pointed out by the newshawks that the current President Bush had no relationship with Reagan whatsoever. Newspapers were filled with the self-serving quotes of GOP consultants going to extremes to make out the current President Bush to be the reincarnation of Reagan. Few took the consultants or their mythical observations seriously. The fact remained that the relationship between the two families was and would remain complicated.

  Few knew what really constituted a state funeral. Betty Koed, a Capitol Hill historian, quipped, “You can lie in state without having a state funeral and you can have a state funeral without lying in state.”87

  FDR had a state funeral in Hyde Park but did not lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. Richard Nixon had a state funeral in Yorba Linda, California, and did not lie in state in the Capitol.

  Generally, the rule for a state funeral relates to station in government. Presidents automatically qualified and five-star generals were made eligible for state funerals, although both Douglas MacArthur in 1964 and John Pershing in 1948 had to be granted such designations by presidents Johnson and Truman, respectively. Good for MacArthur, too, that he lived a long life because he probably never would have attained a state funeral designa
tion from his mortal enemy Truman.

  The Reagan funeral would be the biggest event in the city since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and because of the ongoing threat of terrorism, the event was officially designated a “national security special event,” said John Ashcroft, U.S. attorney general, grimly.88

  The city was a hubbub of activity as airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines practiced for the first state funeral the city had seen in thirty-one years. Already, thousands were streaming into Washington but the media and the city paid them little mind. On Constitution Avenue twenty-one army howitzers were lined up to salute a fallen leader but even the nonchalant Washingtonians were stunned to hear the guns going off on Tuesday, practicing for the arrival and procession up to Capitol Hill the next day. To top that off, a squadron of thirteen Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles practiced thundering over the city at only one thousand feet in altitude.89

  The eight military pallbearers practiced with a silver hearse and another practiced with a riderless horse and caisson. Actually, it was a small procession that began with the section chief in front, riding, followed by the caisson that was pulled by six horses with three riders seated only on the horses on the left, and followed at last by the riderless mount, led by a lone soldier. A caisson was used in war to transport ammunition. In peace, it was used to transport deceased commanders in chief.

  City residents were warned to beware of increasing and heavy traffic, and hotels were already seeing an upswing in walk-in business and reservations, including hundreds of foreign visitors. Travelers along the East Coast were warned to avoid the Beltway around Washington because of the potential for congestion. City officials and Maryland bureaucrats were planning on closing dozens of streets in the metro area.

  Crowds were already beginning to swell in Washington, especially on the Mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument and under the leafy oak trees on a park bench. But thousands also ducked into any number of Smithsonian museum buildings or the National Gallery more for the air conditioning than to look at a Renoir on temporary loan or mechanical equipment on display at the National Museum of American History. Americans of all ages and all walks of life were streaming into the capital, drawn by curiosity, yes, but also by a chord that had been struck in many by their memories of Reagan. Feelings were evoked of times not so long ago, of a naïve pride in America, in being an American and not being ashamed when an American president spoke in a way that drew prideful tears.

  Only in recent memory had FDR and JFK touched the deepest chords of the American psyche and hearts of the American citizenry. There was just something about this guy that made people want to sit up and take notice, even if they virulently disagreed with him.

  Five honorary pallbearers had been announced. The number made some wonder why Paul Laxalt or Jim Baker or Ed Meese was not the sixth pallbearer, but to their credit they never said anything publicly.

  As if American hearts were not already weary, more sad news arrived that week from Los Angeles with reports of the death of Ray Charles, America’s beloved jazz and blues singer and pianist, at the age of seventy-three. Frankly, Charles had his own style and most people loved it. Charles had died of liver disease. In 1984, he appeared onstage the last evening of the Republican National Convention in Dallas to sing his tear-jerking happy rendition of “America, the Beautiful” in his own unique jazzy and evocative idiom.

  Holding hands and singing along were the Reagans, the Bushes, and dozens of party dignitaries on stage. The floor of the Dallas Convention Center was jammed with thousands of people locked hand in hand, arm in arm, all crying, singing along with Charles and the president of the United States. The director of northeast fund-raising for the Republican National Committee—an agent of the Reagan-Bush reelection committee—was there with her husband, who was working on an independent effort supporting Reagan’s reelection. Though it was against the law for agents of the reelection campaign to coordinate efforts with agents of independent committees supporting Reagan’s reelection, their devotion to and support of Reagan was nonetheless coordinated. They, too, were crying tears of joy.

  The Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol had been emptied of tourists and was now filled with technicians, aides, technical equipment, and lighting to broadcast the thirty-six hours during which Reagan would lie in state. The catafalque was stored in a room there called “Washington’s Tomb.” When the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol was laid (by Washington in a Masonic ceremony and not a presidential ceremony) in 1793, plans were made for the construction of a room to hold the remains of the first president of the United States. But Washington demurred and the room went unused though it retained the name. It was there that the catafalque first used by Lincoln and then by more than two dozen others, including presidents and Unknown Soldiers, was stored and now would be hauled out for Ronald Reagan.90

  The stupendous outpouring in Simi Valley and along the road transporting his remains to the Library on Sunday and then to the airport on Wednesday was duly noted by the national media, yet not dwelt upon. All along the way were seen the young and the old, men and women in uniform, saluting. Old men in walkers straightened up and saluted, too, as the Reagan procession passed. Children waved little American flags. Many were shedding not just tears of sadness but of pride as well, pride for the man who had been a part of their lives for so many years and who they believed so ably and effectively led their country.

  The funeral entourage was winging its way to Washington now, with Reagan’s coffin aboard, touchdown scheduled for late afternoon on June 9, with a procession to Sixteenth Street and Constitution Avenue set to begin at 6:05 p.m. There, the coffin would be hoisted onto the four-wheel caisson. From there, the motorcade would proceed slowly to the east, up Constitution Avenue to the Capitol.

  Planes would fly over in several formations, including one missing man formation. At the foot of the Capitol, the army howitzers would fire a 21-gun salute before 7:00 p.m., and then Reagan’s coffin would be tenderly carried up the front steps of the Capitol where a closed state funeral was scheduled to begin at 7:00 and end at 8:30 p.m.91 Vice President Cheney was to give the eulogy there. Dignitaries from Congress, the Bush administration, the diplomatic corps, the Washington establishment, former Reagan administration officials, and corporate executives would attend. All in all, several hundred of the cream of the American power elite.

  Then, the doors to the U.S. Capitol would open to the general public at 9:30 p.m. on the evening of Wednesday, June 9, to walk in a circular motion around the Reagan catafalque, solemnly and slowly paying their respects. As they departed, all would be handed a palm card memorializing the life of Ronald Wilson Reagan. Five guards representing the five service branches would guard the president’s mahogany-stained, velvet-lined casket, covered by the American flag. They would rotate positions every thirty minutes.

  The Rotunda was scheduled to stay open all night Wednesday, all day Thursday, all Thursday night, and would finally close Friday at 8:00 a.m., to begin the official day of national mourning for President Reagan.92 But no one really expected that with all this time available to pay their respects that any wait of extended duration was in the cards. Of course, they hadn’t thought it would take six hours for people to get a ride on the shuttle buses going up to the Library either.

  For every individual who had or was planning to pay his or her respects in person to Reagan, there were millions watching on television in America and around the world. “But it’s also true that the simple gesture of turning on a television today has become a way to share the communal grief . . .”93 It was not the first time the American community held hands via the magic of the screen. The first time was the afternoon of November 22, 1963, and then for three awful days when millions sat with tears pouring down their faces as their young champion was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery. Now an
old champion was being laid to rest and though there was less painful grief for some, there was still a lot of love for this fallen president.

  Even with the national attention mostly turned toward the Reagan day of mourning, Father’s Day was still approaching, as well, and the newspapers and electronic media were filled with helpful suggestions for gifts for Dad. The electronics store Best Buy was touting DVD players for as little as $799.99 and a 50-inch plasma TV with “built in HD tuner” for $8,999.99.94 Many fathers would have to dig deep into their pockets to pay for the gifts their families purchased for them on Father’s Day. Other suggested gifts included the usual accoutrements of barbecue grills and hammocks and exercise equipment. Bill Clinton’s autobiography, My Life, was selling for Father’s Day but at a 40 percent discount.

  One popular item on sale for Father’s Day was Big Russ and Me, a small but touching book by Meet the Press host Tim Russert about his own father.95 The father had been a blue collar laborer in Buffalo and his son never forgot the life lessons he learned about community, a parish paradigm of faith and family. Russert was a Democrat, having once worked for Mario Cuomo and Pat Moynihan, but he’d transformed into a consummate reporter and host and was well regarded for his balance and professionalism. Meet the Press had become a “must watch” show under his leadership and all foresaw a long and successful career for the popular and down-to-earth host and Buffalo Bills football fan.

  Another book being ballyhooed as a Father’s Day gift was one on advice and ethics entitled Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong. The New York Times recommended the book in part because of the “peculiar problems that come with celebrity.”96 Other books being hyped for Dad included Suzanne Somers’s The Sexy Years, about how “bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can promote fabulous sex . . .” and Sarah,97 about one of the most famous if misunderstood women in the world, accused by some of being a Philistine, by others of being deceitful, and by still others of not being smart, though all agreed she was very attractive and also very controversial. She had an “Old Testament” view of the world.