Posted on 06/06/2004 8:09:46 AM PDT by knighthawk
Democrats who battled him and Republicans who sainted him joined yesterday to celebrate Ronald Reagan's strength and sunny optimism in a less poisonous political time. Reagan really made people feel it was 'morning in America,' they said. "A giant left us today," said GOP Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, who was House minority leader in the Reagan era.
"Ronald Reagan had a sense of principles he believed in, and no amount of polling data or press could cause him to alter these principles," said Hyde. Ed Gillespie, chairman of a Republican Party that is now wholly modeled on Reagan's policies, said, "Because Ronald Reagan lived, people across the globe live in greater freedom and prosperity."
Democrats remembered Reagan as the "Happy Warrior" who left even vanquished opponents smiling.
"Reagan represented the best of civility in American politics," said Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe.
"Even during the toughest political fights, he and former House Speaker Tip O'Neill could always sit down together after the workday was done, as friends and fellow patriots."
Those who worked closely with Reagan also remembered his ability to charm everyone and anyone.
"He was just one heck of a leader who made people feel better about themselves and their country," said former Secretary of State James Baker, Reagan's first White House chief of staff.
"We could go through the most difficult and divisive cabinet battles, but nobody who lost one of those fights ever left feeling bad because his optimism rubbed off on everybody," Baker told the Daily News. "It was part of his magic."
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Reagan's love of country was infectious: "Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate."
Ex-President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, said the Gipper personified "the indomitable optimism" of Americans.
"We will always remember his tremendous capacity to inspire and comfort us in times of tragedy, as he did after the loss of the space shuttle Challenger," Clinton said of one of Reagan's most famous speeches.
"Now he, too, has 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God,' and we can rest assured that, as joyous a place as Heaven is, his wit and sunny disposition are making it an even brighter place to be."
Reagan sparked fierce loyalty in those who worked most closely with him.
"This is a guy I would walk off the plank for," said Reagan's Secretary of Education Bill Bennett. "Destroy evil and shrink the size of government. Those were his goals. The rest didn't matter."
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another actor-turned-politician who now sits in Reagan's old gubernatorial office in Sacramento, called the two-term President a "hero to me."
"He renewed the promise of America," said the Austrian immigrant. "He had the courage to tell us that it was all right to stand tall and believe in our country, and believe in ourselves."
Ping
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