A job well done in honor of a former VP who was elected president by a man hoping eventually to follow his example. Pence’s boss made a nice gesture towards the Bushes today too:

A White House official tells me the Trump WH extended the Bush family an invitation to stay at Blair House while they’re in Washington for events surrounding H.W.’s Wednesday funeral. https://t.co/L05SMmrhSX

— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) December 3, 2018

This is also gracious and surprising given the bad blood between POTUS and Jeb Bush in particular:

Plans being made for President Trump to visit privately with members of the Bush family at Blair House at some time ahead of memorial service Wednesday, a source familiar with the planning says – @PeterAlexander

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 3, 2018

Trump has been magnanimous about Bush 41 in word and deed at every turn since Friday night. Whether that’s a lesson learned from the backlash to how he handled McCain’s passing or genuine warmth in response to Bush inviting him to the funeral, I don’t know. Both, probably. As for Bush, my banal thought about him is that he may have been the most comprehensively accomplished public figure of my lifetime. Reading the narratives of his life this weekend reminded me of just how many hats he wore — war hero, Yalie, businessman, congressman, UN ambassador, CIA director, vice president, president, and a success in every role. The world was throwing life-and-death challenges at him before he turned 18 and kept it up for the better part of 50 years, adding more weight to them occasionally, and he shouldered all of it. People who achieve great success tend to develop character deficiencies in pursuit of it, sometimes glaring, like ruthlessness or cruelty to enemies, sometimes more mundane, like family neglect. Bush somehow avoided that. He was as successful personally as he was professionally, possibly more so; the fact that he was able to set aside the bitterness of 1992 and end up great friends with the man who ended his career is him all over. How did he manage it all?

Exit quotation: “I equate toughness with moral fiber, with character, with principle, with demonstrated leadership in tough jobs where you emerge not bullying somebody, but with the respect of the people you led. That’s toughness. That’s fiber. That’s character. I have got it. And if I happen to be decent in the process, that should not be a liability.”