A Funeral for a Handshake?

Jamie Stiehm
Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:05:11 -0800
Opinion

WASHINGTON — A moment in former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral at the National Cathedral brought me to tears. Not for the departed and grim old warrior but for the tableau in the front row.

A hint: something as simple as a handshake between two men who would — or should — be president.

Former President Joseph Biden and former first lady Jill Biden took their places: not too thrilled to see them. Former Vice President Kamala Harris beamed her big laugh, which reminded me of her choosing the wrong moments to do so. She sat next to former Vice President Mike Pence.
Updated: Wed Nov 26, 2025

WASHINGTON — A moment in former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral at the National Cathedral brought me to tears. Not for the departed and grim old warrior but for the tableau in the front row.

A hint: something as simple as a handshake between two men who would — or should — be president.

Former President Joseph Biden and former first lady Jill Biden took their places: not too thrilled to see them. Former Vice President Kamala Harris beamed her big laugh, which reminded me of her choosing the wrong moments to do so. She sat next to former Vice President Mike Pence.

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell sat in pews near the front. Both are retiring from Congress and passing the torch to younger leaders. They conducted themselves with perfect solemn decorum.

First, the stately trumpet solo in composer Gustav Holst's melody, which became "I Vow to Thee, My Country," soared to the neo-Gothic arches.

That's the soundtrack to my stunning epiphany.

Then former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, arrived to sit in their reserved spots. Directly behind them stood former Vice President Al Gore, looking swell, fit and younger than his years (77). Bush, 79, hasn't aged as flawlessly as Laura, also 79.

Gore and Laura Bush exchanged a word and a smile. Then, still standing, Gore reached out to shake Bush's hand and nod at his past political rival. The gesture was gracious — and, yes, dignified — on both sides.

That's the way American democracy is supposed to be. One freighted moment framed the peaceful transfer of power.

As a witness to the Jan. 6 mob President Donald Trump sent to the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election, that handshake hit me hard.

Their historic deadlock was exactly 25 years ago now. But few can forget the glass-cut drama of Bush vs. Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Actually, it was a five-week trauma the nation lived through, which set the new 21st century off on the wrong track.

In the Baltimore Sun newsroom, we were up all night, reading tea leaves of red- and blue-state returns. Gore refused to concede because Florida was the ultimate prize and that outcome wasn't clear. Conveniently for Bush, his brother Jeb was the Florida governor.

The race was bitterly fought, practically tied and finally settled by the (Republican) Supreme Court, 5-4. One man, one vote, literally decided the winner. Even worse for our side, the Supreme Court stopped the recounting of votes in Florida. A mere 537 votes was Bush's margin of victory.

That ended the golden Clinton-Gore '90s of peace and prosperity. Soon after taking office, the Bush-Cheney White House gathered force for "wars of aggression" as revenge for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Iraq War turned out to be based on a falsehood, that dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction; he did not. Nor did he have a hand in the attacks.

Cheney even endorsed torture as a means of interrogating suspects in the so-called global war on terror. He succeeded in spooking us Americans into a "homeland security" state. Kids today don't know any other way.

Sorry, I shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But Cheney's 11th-hour conversation into voting Democratic (for Harris) in 2024 doesn't really change much in the long run.

I've never fully forgiven the Supreme Court for that naked partisan blow, crafting an opinion that contradicted the Republican fondness for states' rights.

But that handshake healed a broken part of me.

We are in a new era now, of Trump's "dis-coarse," his talent for inciting MAGA violence and lashing out in verbal abuse, saving his worst for the press corps.

Seeing the Bidens brought back their fateful folly, holding on too hard to the White House. The Democratic relief pitcher, Harris, lost to Trump.

Note: The old guard of Pelosi, Pence and McConnell were the stalwart heroes of Jan. 6. They insisted we all go back into the vandalized Capitol and finish the constitutional task of certifying the Electoral College, until the darkness before the dawn.

Their stand: Democracy wins the day and night over the mob — one last time, at least.