HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Nation’s leaders gather to pay respects at Capitol Rotunda
WASHINGTON — As befitting a fallen leader, George H.W. Bush’s final trip to Washington on Monday was marked by bands, honor guards and 21-gun salutes.
But while the hearse carrying his casket crept toward the colonnades of the U.S. Capitol, gentler times past descended over a city caught in the war between an embattled chief executive and the same machinery of government central to the Bush legacy.
In the morning hours as the 41st president was memorialized in Houston and flown to the nation’s capital on Air Force One — renamed “Special Air Mission 41” for his last journey — President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of tweets about Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, Robert Mueller and other figures in the ongoing Russia investigation.
Settling into a mellower mood as the plane carrying Bush’s casket took to the air, Trump
“He embraced this city and we embraced him back.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner
tweeted, “Looking forward to being with the Bush Family to pay my respects to President George H.W. Bush.”
Out of deference to Bush, who died Friday at 94, Trump also agreed with the decision of congressional leaders to postpone what had been expected to be a weeklong partisan battle over funding for his proposed border wall — a fight that could end with a partial government shutdown.
But for a moment, to the soft strains of “My Country Tis of Thee,” there was a brief spell of unity in America.
A day of contrasts
The public tributes in Washington began spontaneously Sunday night at the Kennedy Center, where a gala event honoring American artists began with an extended standing ovation in Bush’s memory at the request of singer Gloria Estefan.
“I think it’s appropriate to recognize the passing of a wonderful man who dedicated his life to service and who graciously attended this event many times during his administration, laughing, applauding, singing along and even shedding a tear from right up there in the presidential box,” Estefan said.
Her remarks provided a contrast to Trump’s combative relationship with many of the artists and Washington figures featured in the event, which Trump has skipped as president.
Trump is expected at Bush’s funeral service Wednesday at the National Cathedral. He also is expected to meet privately with members of the Bush family, including George W. Bush, who accompanied his father’s casket on the plane from Ellington Field in Houston.
Although Trump did not attend Monday's bipartisan ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump paid respects after the ceremony ended. They spent about two minutes at the casket before saluting and returning to the White House. Bush’s body will lie in state at the rotunda until the service at the National Cathedral, funeral site of Ronald Reagan, John McCain, and other towering figures of American history.
Only 27 people have lain in state or in honor in the Capitol — McCain the most recent. Bush’s casket will lie upon the catafalque constructed in 1865 to support the casket of President Abraham Lincoln.
Lying in state in the Capitol, Bush was returning a half century later to where he began his political career as a two-term congressman.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “hallowed cathedral.” House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was in college during Bush’s presidency, praised the late president for “a fundamental decency that resonates across generations.”
Vice President Mike Pence brought a chuckle to an otherwise somber gathering of lawmakers and VIPs by recalling that Bush had once said that for a vice president “there was nothing substantive to do at all” — a testament to Bush’s self-deprecating humor.
‘Point of light’
Dignitaries and ordinary Americans started forming lines at the Capitol even before Bush’s plane landed at Joint Base Andrews in nearby Maryland. Among those paying their respects were a number of Texans who saw a message that government service can be a force for good beneath the pomp and circumstance.
“It’s very much in our hearts and minds — the somberness, but more importantly, it comes to us so poignantly that he is larger than life,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat whose husband, Elwyn Lee, was mentored through high school and college by then-Houston Congressman George H.W. Bush. “If you listened to his story over these last couple of days since his passing, first of course was God and family. Then you begin to think, this giant of a man touched every aspect of government that Americans look to.”
Jackson Lee summarized Bush’s lifetime of public service:
“First, unselfishly signing up and putting on a uniform at a very young age, surviving a horrific war, and then taking his talents, and leaving the comfort of New England, to the rough and tumble of Texas, and becoming a bigger-than-life Texan, a walking ‘point of light,’ as well, walking us through a historical journey — serving in almost every single capacity that any American could serve — and then ultimately becoming the president of the United States.
“I think what it says to us is that government can be good,” she continued. “We can be good people, we can do good things, we can lose and then we can win. We can win, and then we can lose. We can be servants of the people, and we can serve the nation. We can still make a difference in people’s lives. For me, that’s what George H.W. Bush was about.”
For Jackson Lee, as for many veterans of today’s acrid political culture, the celebrations of Bush’s presidency were colored by a nostalgia for a bygone era.
“For those of us serving in Congress in this tumultuous time, there’s a sweetness and a goodness about George H.W. Bush, and we are reflecting on that sweetness and goodness,” she said. “His story is very important to our lives.”
David Adams, 52, who grew up in Sugar Land and now lives in New Jersey, traveled to Washington by train to honor a president he described as selfless and of a generation that put country before themselves.
“He was the last of an era it seems. It’s even more pronounced with the politics these days,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s when you don’t have someone anymore that you realize how important they were.”
Congressman, CIA director, vice president, president: Bush’s long career in government was on the minds of many as they waited in line.
Nancy Clare, who was in Washington for her son’s birthday, told her husband, Jeff, she wanted to delay their flight back to Massachusetts so they could pay their respects. They described Bush as out of place in the modern age.
“After Bush, it was the age of designer politicians. It’s not what they can do but how they talk” Jeff Clare said.
Weekend 2l-gun salute drills
Hours before the motorcade carrying Bush’s body arrived at the Capitol, Army troops from the Presidential Salute Battery set up their guns on the National Mall.
Among them was Lt. David Marthy, the platoon leader, who said his team had been practicing since early Saturday morning to ensure the traditional 21-gun salute went off without error.
Marthy wasn’t even born when Bush was president, but over the weekend his father extolled the former president’s accomplishments.
“He was a great American who served this country,” Marthy said. “He wore the same uniform.”
The plane carrying Bush’s casket was met on the tarmac by friends and family, including son Jeb Bush, who Trump defeated in the testy 2016 GOP presidential primaries. Also on the tarmac were representatives of the crew of the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, members of the Army Golden Knights parachute team, and Air Force One pilots and Secret Service members who protected him as president.
Among those on the plane were his eldest son, former President George W. Bush, his grandson, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, best friend and former Secretary of State James Baker, and his service dog, Sully.
Honor guards presented arms and a band rendered “Ruffles and Flourishes” and “Hail to the Chief,” followed by a 21-gun salute into the clear blue sky of a crisp, 56-degree December day.
The casket was carried to the waiting black hearse through a cordon of honor guards, accompanied by the hymn “My Country Tis of Thee.”
The band stopped playing when the casket was placed in the hearse for the trip to the Capitol Rotunda.