Political Poignancy

There are few truly poignant moments in American politics--the sort that unite political foes in common purpose, that weave a link between the past, the present and the unseeable future. They are the moments that transcend today’s bickering over the budget, tomorrow’s partisan battle on tax reform and next year’s elections.

Those rare moments often occur against the backdrop of tragedy or national strife. Often it is when leaders gather and are able to share the meaning of the burden of leadership in ways that few can understand.

Such a gathering occurred in 1981 when President Reagan collected three of his predecessors--Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon--at the White House before sending them off to Egypt for the funeral of Anwar Sadat.

Another such occasion took place the other evening when President Reagan arrived at the McLean, Va., home of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts to help raise funds for the John F. Kennedy Library.

On most days Reagan and Kennedy are adversaries, men with deep political and philosophic differences and men with starkly different personal backgrounds. Even so, the two greeted each other with “genuine respect and affection,” a Kennedy aide said. They are, after all, men whose lives have been touched by the sudden terror of an attacker’s bullet.

And on this evening in Virginia the President reflected in a very personal way on the unique experience of living in the White House, noting, “Nothing is ever lost in that great house; some music plays on.” He talked about the “sound of certain memories brushing by” on a still moonlit evening, and called forth living visions of some of his predecessors like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt.

Here was the whir of F.D.R.’s wheelchair and his bellowing for Eleanor. There, the stocky Rough Rider strutted the hallways with robust outbursts of “Bully!”and such. “Walk softly now,” Reagan said, inviting his listeners along to the John F. Kennedy White House, “and you’re drawn to the soft notes of a piano and a brilliant gathering in the East Room, where a crowd surrounds a bright young President who is full of hope and laughter.”

Afterward, Ted Kennedy seemed to catch the President by surprise when he presented him with a brass eagle that used to occupy a spot on his brother’s desk, saying, “I believe he would very much have wanted you to have it.”

A brief poignant moment in American politics.