witnessed it, something close to a masterpiece — laughter used as a shield for genuine grief.
That combination — wit sharp enough to cut glass wrapped around a heart that actually broke when he lost friends — is extraordinarily rare in any walk of life. It is practically extinct in American politics.
The tributes crossed every line Washington usually treats as uncrossable. Cory Booker shared a video about their work together on criminal justice reform that was, as Joe Concha noted, genuinely moving and refreshingly sincere. John Fetterman called him a foreign policy giant and said he’d always been kind, gracious, and thoughtful. Mark Warner
