“Whatever you think of Washington and politics, sentimentality prevails when the old administrations come together. It’s a high school reunion where most in the room had – and some still have – a title and a security clearance. They’re also grayer, paunchier, and fewer each time. I’m sure it was not lost on any of them that as we filed from the packed, festive cocktail party in the Capitol’s Senate side Mansfield Room, and walked through the Rotunda, past the Reagan statue, to dinner in the glorious House side Statuary Hall, we passed a medical stretcher parked just outside the Hall’s door. Now, maybe it’s routine, but it was also a reminder of time’s cruel tab.”