The Legacy of Sarge

This week, I attended a daylong symposium sponsored by the University of Virginia Center for Politics, spearheaded by Dr. Larry Sabato, an old friend from my TV days who has become perhaps the pre-eminent political commentator in the country. The subject of the conference was J. Sargeant Reynolds (pictured above), former lieutenant governor of Virginia, almost surely destined to become governor and quite possibly president. That is, until he was tragically cut down by a brain tumor at the young age of 34.

I happened to be a Senate page during the two sessions that Reynolds served as lieutenant governor and can speak to his charm and charisma. It takes a lot for a politician to break through in any meaningful way to a 14-year-old, but I worshiped him. He never talked down to us or made us feel unimportant. I can still remember crossing the street on my way to the bus stop after the session adjourned late one afternoon and hearing an oncoming car honk its horn at me. I looked up and there, behind the wheel, was Reynolds waving at me like I was an old friend.

One of the many interesting aspects of Reynolds that was covered in this symposium was his relations with the media. Despite his "Kennedy-esque" charisma, he tended to avoid news conferences, because he disliked the inevitable "pack journalism" questions. He was a man of substance and wanted that reflected in his media stories.

He also disliked traditional liberal-conservative labels. Just months before he died, he attended an old-fashioned political meeting in southside Virginia that, at the time, was closed to women and blacks to express his belief that a Supreme Court decision the previous day upholding school busing should be respected. He chose an unfriendly crowd to make his point, knowing they were precisely the ones who needed to hear his message. The following day, he made clear his personal opposition to busing. If it sounds unusual, that's because it's called political courage, and we don't see much of that anymore. We also don't see people who could wrap the media around their little fingers choose not to engage in certain types of exchanges because they lack depth. Imagine that.

J. Sargeant Reynolds has now been gone about as long as the total amount of time he was with us. I did not know him well, but he has a place in my pantheon of heroes.

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