"In matters of national security, the best politics is no politics." - Scoop Jackson



Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, ca. 1972, Courtesy UW Special Collections

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan awarded Henry "Scoop" Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. To Reagan, giving the nation's highest civilian award to the legendary Democrat was a no-brainer. In Reagan's White House diaries he noted Jackson's passing as "a real loss." At the award ceremony the president called him "one of the greatest lawmakers of our century..." It's hard to imagine any of today's high profile Republicans offering such affection and admiration for any member of the Democratic party, for any reason.

President Reagan's remarks from the ceremony (from Wikipedia):

Scoop Jackson was convinced that there's no place for partisanship in foreign and defense policy. He used to say, 'In matters of national security, the best politics is no politics.' His sense of bipartisanship was not only natural and complete; it was courageous. He wanted to be President, but I think he must have known that his outspoken ideas on the security of the Nation would deprive him of the chance to be his party's nominee in 1972 and '76. Still, he would not cut his convictions to fit the prevailing style.I'm deeply proud, as he would have been, to have Jackson Democrats serve in my administration. I'm proud that some of them have found a home here.