Against odds, the stem-winder survives -- July 28, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

One thing hasn’t changed since Democrats first nominated a Clinton for president in 1992.

A national political convention is still “the ideal forum -- perhaps the only forum left – for what has proved to be a remarkably enduring form of American folk art: the political oration.” So wrote The New Yorker nearly a quarter century ago.

“In an age of sound-bites and manufactured images, it turns out, we still appreciate the real thing, the stem-winder. We’re a people that likes to orate, and to be orated at,” an unsigned “Talk of the Town” column in the magazine’s July 27, 1992 issue said.

Some of the best political speakers of the era had just spoken at Madison Square Garden, where presidential nominee Bill Clinton shared his very personal story of growing up fatherless with his hard-working mother and devoted grandparents.

“I still believe in a place called Hope,” Clinton said, extolling the simple values of his hometown.

Surprisingly, in the age of Instagram and 140-character tweets, nearly 26 million people tuned into the 2016 Democratic convention’s first night, when first lady Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders spoke, according to the Nielsen TV ratings.

That was about 3 million more viewers than watched the Republican convention’s first night, with Melania Trump. When the final numbers are in, this year’s conventions likely will have drawn more viewers than in 2012 or 2008.

Why do people still care about this ancient form of political communication?

My guess is that everybody loves a good story, and, this year especially voters are hungry for emotional connection.

Since Ronald Reagan painted rhetorical pictures of morning in America, most politicians have used political convention speeches to inspire. There’s an art to giving a speech that tugs at heartstrings and shows personal values without being cloying. There’s also an art to turning complex issues into understandable take-aways. 

People don’t want the pros and cons of the Trans-Pacific Partnership; they want When Bill Met Hillary.

Bill Clinton did not disappoint in his speech Tuesday night. Clinton made his wife’s career in politics and government sound like a love story in a movie. Fighting the knock that Hillary Clinton is a status-quo candidate, the former president said: “She’s the best darn change-maker I ever met in my life.”

One of the main stories out of the Republican convention in Cleveland was Melania Trump’s speech. Unfortunately, the news was about echoes of Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech. Trump had lifted several phrases of seemingly personal stories about family and parental values.

While most leading Republicans stayed away from Donald Trump’s convention, the presidential candidate used his acceptance speech to paint a dark picture of the state of America – and to bash Clinton.

In Philadelphia, Democrats offered a brighter view of America, waving “Love trumps hate” signs and often talking about love -- when they weren’t blasting Trump.

“We are all neighbors and we must love neighbors as ourselves,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Clinton’s new running mate, said, before mocking Trump.

Vice President Joe Biden unified the raucous crowd by emphasizing the importance of the middle class, a group Biden said Trump neither understands nor empathizes with. Trump has “no clue” how to make America great, Biden said.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a rising Democratic star, said: “Patriotism is love of country, but you can’t love your country without loving your countrymen and countrywomen . . . We are not called to be a nation of tolerance. We are called to be a nation of love.”

Michelle Obama stirred emotions with personal reflections about her family: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent, black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”

“I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before,” President Barack Obama said Wednesday night. “There has never been a man or a woman – not me, not Bill – more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president,” he said.

Will all the oratory matter? We’ll know in November.

©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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'Lock her up!' unites GOP -- July 21, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Alice Roosevelt Longworth would have loved this week’s Republican National Convention.

Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter had a throw pillow in her sitting room embroidered with the line: “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”

Republicans in Cleveland richly rewarded viewers who wanted to hear nothing good about Hillary Clinton. She wasn’t just the wrong choice for president; she’s a criminal, they charged.

“Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” delegates at Quicken Loans Arena shouted, leaping to their feet and shaking their fists. And when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, indicted Clinton’s performance and character in his speech Tuesday night, the crowd bellowed “Guilty!” after each new charge.

Republicans will see how it feels starting Monday, when the Democratic National Convention opens in Philadelphia and attempts to turn Republican Donald J. Trump’s into Public Enemy No. 1.

Character assassination has a long, colorful history in presidential politics. A newspaper editor who supported Thomas Jefferson in the bitter election of 1800 wrote of John Adams that he had “a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force nor firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” 

But the sustained attacks on Clinton were a new level of mudslinging.

 

“She lied about her emails, she lied about her server, she lied about Benghazi, she lied about sniper fire – why she even lied about why her parents named her Hillary,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared.

The name claim stems from 1995 when the then-first lady said her mother always told her she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mount Everest. But Clinton was born in 1947; Sir Edmund made the climb in 1953. Her presidential campaign conceded in 2006 it was just a “sweet family story.”

 

The GOP convention also showed rare disunity among the party faithful. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former presidential contender, refused to attend, as did other Republican leaders. Some conservative delegates erupted in anger after party leaders stifled a rules change that would have permitted delegates to vote for candidates other than Trump.

On the convention’s first day, the chairman of the Virginia delegation and former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Ted Cruz supporter, threw his credentials on the floor and marched out.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who boarded the Trump train late, sounded plaintive as he tried to unify Republicans. Only with Trump and his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence “do we have a chance for a better way,” he said. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

“Let the other party go on and on with its constant dividing up of people, always playing one group against the other, as if group identity were everything,” said Ryan, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in 2012. “In America, aren’t we all supposed to be and see beyond class, see beyond ethnicity and all those other lines drawn to set us apart and lock us into groups?”

Cruz infuriated some delegates when he used his time at the podium Wednesday night not to endorse Trump but to give what sounded like his first presidential campaign speech of 2020. Delegates booed Cruz and shouted, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” as the presidential nominee walked in.

The most peculiar knock on Clinton came from former GOP presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson, who said one of Clinton’s heroes in college and the subject of her senior thesis was radical organizer Saul Alinsky. In the forward to one of his later books, Alinsky acknowledged Lucifer as the first radical organizer.

“So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?” Carson said. “Think about that.”

Clinton, perhaps previewing her attacks next week, insisted that Trump has nothing to offer the American people so he had to attack her. Trump’s “business model is basically fraud and abuse,” she said. “He talks about America First but his own products are made in a lot of countries that aren’t named America.”

At their convention, Republicans found one thing on which to agree: Hillary Clinton is their enemy. Democrats also agree on something: Trump is theirs.

Even before he endorsed Clinton, rival Bernie Sanders said he would work to defeat Trump. And when he finally did endorse her, Sanders said he wanted to make one thing clear: “I intend to do everything I can to make certain she is the next president.”

© 2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Rollercoaster polls take voters for a ride -- July 14, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

A headline in Politico this week read: “Swing-state stunner: Trump has edge in key states.” The only thing missing was an exclamation point.

Commentators online and on TV chewed over the news that three Quinnipiac University polls found Donald J. Trump slightly leading Hillary Clinton in the battleground states of Florida and Pennsylvania. The two candidates were tied in Ohio.  

The next day, a headline across a full page of The Wall Street Journal read: “Polls: Clinton, Trump Close in Key States.” Clinton and Trump were in a statistical tie in Ohio; she had a 3-point lead in Iowa and was ahead by 9 points in Pennsylvania, the latest Journal/NBC News/Marist polls found. 

And The New York Times reported the same day that Clinton and Trump were tied nationally, each with 40 percent of registered voters, in the latest Times-CBS News poll. 

  

But a different national poll a few days earlier had showed Clinton with a double-digit lead over Trump. Yet another put Trump ahead by single digits.

A reader could get a headache trying to parse the polls. But do polls matter? Not really. Not in July.

Everyone needs to remember that polls are a snapshot in time. If there’s anything we know about this presidential campaign, it’s unpredictable. 

Yes, Democrats would rather see Clinton on a positive trajectory, leaving Trump in the dust. And Republicans would like to see Trump steadily gaining ground on Clinton, although so far, while she seems to be sliding, he’s not rising.

But neither camp should get too exercised about polls this far out. They rarely predict Election Day.

Better to sit back, take a deep breath and ponder how Britain can change prime ministers in days while our presidential elections drag on for years. Here’s a poll tidbit that rings true: Six in 10 Americans are worn out by the presidential campaign.

Part of what’s driving the poll frenzy is news organizations’ trying not to miss the Trump story – again. Many political reporters -- I include myself -- thought Trump was a flash in the pan. Obviously, we were wrong.

But whether Trump or Clinton wins in November, some pollsters will be able to say they saw the incipient victory during the summer.

That’s fine, but voters need to know that analysts can’t even agree on polling methods.

Some analysts fault Quinnipiac, contending its sample size favors Trump by including larger percentages of white people and fewer minorities than voted in various states in 2012. Since minority voting is rising and white participation falling, Quinnipiac’s polls are biased, these critics say. We won’t know who’s right for nearly four months.

Naturally, Trump brags about his positive poll numbers and discounts those he doesn’t like. The Clinton campaign tweets that it always expected battleground states to be tight, and supporters just have to work harder.

When it comes to polls, though, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

After the Republican National Convention concludes July 21 and the Democratic convention wraps July 28, we’ll be bombarded by polls. The conventions traditionally bring the largest swings in polls during the campaign, say political scientists Robert S. Erikson and Christopher Wlezien. They studied polls from 1952 to 2008 for their 2012 book “The Timeline of Presidential Elections.” Traditionally, first, one party’s candidate gets a bounce and then the other.

In simpler times, most voters were just learning about presidential candidates by watching convention coverage on TV, and the conventions were spaced weeks apart. 

The exposure traditionally gave the nominees an average 5-point increase in the polls, Gallup reports, but the convention bounce has declined since 1996.

In 2012, a year like this one with back-to-back conventions, Republican Mitt Romney saw a 1-point dip after the GOP convention, and President Barack Obama got a 3-point bounce after the Democratic convention. Polls tightened by Election Day, as they usually do.

As always, the people who cast ballots Nov. 8 are the only poll that matters. And there’s something else to consider: One in 10 voters for both Clinton and Trump say they could still change their minds before Election Day.

©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Here come the conventions -- again -- July 7, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

In a year of voter anger and disgust, we’re about to see the coronations of two presidential candidates most Americans don’t like in a spectacle of speeches paid for by fat cats and lobbyists.

National political conventions we will have – Republicans July 18 to 21 in Cleveland and Democrats July 25 to 28 in Philadelphia – but why?

Because that’s the way we’ve always done it, since the 1830s anyway. Conventions are a relic of the 19^th century, like getting ice from a horse-drawn wagon.

Not even shiny new convention apps or 360-degree cameras can save the conventions from their retro feel. Their original purpose was to select each party’s presidential nominee and platform, but they’ve evolved into four days of infomercials.

A few months ago, there was talk of a brokered or contested convention, which would make the occasion both newsworthy and significant. Then Donald Trump shocked the world by nailing the GOP nomination before Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic one. Anti-Trump forces still hope to derail his train by changing convention rules, but don’t count on it.

And most people – especially the nominees -- don’t care about party platforms. Sorry, Bernie.

The vice presidential candidates likely will be announced before the conventions, so there goes another shred of news. You could go on vacation off the grid for a couple of weeks and miss nothing, politically.

To be fair, some political scientists argue that having national political conventions every four years is good for our democracy. Conventions give the parties the opportunity, unfiltered by the news media, to reintroduce themselves and their values to voters, they say.

But convention viewership on television has been sliding since 1960. An exception came in 2008 when nearly two-thirds of all U.S. households – a record -- watched at least one convention, an analysis by the Nielsen TV ratings firm found. The numbers dropped in 2012. 

Drawing the most convention viewers does not translate into more votes for the party in November, however. Studies show most voters watch only the convention of the party they already favor.

“It’s safe to say that ratings have little to no electoral meaning,” University of Virginia professor Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball blog said in an analysis of the numbers.

This summer’s conventions may draw the curious. What will Trump’s family say? What will Bernie Sanders’ supporters do? And if, heaven forbid, the protests outside turn violent, people will watch.

Trump’s wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and sons Eric and Donald Junior will speak in prime time, along with famous sports and entertainment figures. No one ever knows what Trump himself will say.

President Obama previewed his role at the Democratic convention Tuesday in his first joint appearance with Clinton. He still has the power to energize the Democratic faithful in ways Hillary Clinton can only dream of.

Speaking at a national convention can be a career boost, as Obama demonstrated in 2004, so expect a parade of Democrats hoping to make a connection.

Many Republicans, though, are avoiding Trump’s party. Among those staying home: both Presidents Bush, 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and 2008 nominee John McCain. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will not attend, nor will boxer Mike Tyson. Trump tweeted that Tyson wasn’t asked to speak.

Beginning in 1976, taxpayers paid for the national political conventions. The post-Watergate idea was to avoid corruption by using public funds from the tax return checkoff for presidential campaigns. In 2012, the Democratic and Republican parties each received about $18.2 million for their conventions. Not this year.

Congress turned off the spigot in 2014 – except for $100 million in security grants to law enforcement agencies in the two host cities. The security money has been allocated separately since 9/11.

So, this year, lobbyists, labor unions and corporations that have supported conventions in the past are bearing more costs and having even more influence. This is progress?

Anachronistic though they are, conventions live on. So, enjoy the spectacle of balloons and funny hats, but don’t take the speeches too seriously.

©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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For politicians, a better time to receive -- June 30, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

The Supreme Court on Monday gave public officials the green light to accept lavish gifts from people wishing to do business with the government – and then give their benefactors a leg up.

It’s OK for public officials to make phone calls, set up meetings and host events on behalf of goodie-givers – as long as they stop before taking any official acts. An official act is a focused and concrete exercise of government power, such as a lawsuit or a hearing, the court said.

The opinion, overturning the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on corruption charges, will make it harder for federal prosecutors to go after corrupt politicians, and it rightly outraged many who decry money and undue influence in politics.

In a few months, voters will choose between two presidential candidates most people distrust. It would be reassuring if tighter laws apply to presidents and the gifts they receive than to other public officials. Alas, that’s not the case. 

The president is subject to the same porous bribery laws at issue in the McDonnell case. Worse, the president is exempt from many Office of Government Ethics rules that apply to other federal officials and employees, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Federal officials, for example, are banned from receiving presents from “prohibited sources” – those doing business with, seeking action from, or regulated by their agency. No such rules encumber the president. The president is free to accept unsolicited personal gifts from any American.

There are limits: The president may not solicit the gifts. He or she must disclose in annual financial reports gifts over a certain amount. And, the Constitution prohibits all federal officials, including the president, from receiving personal gifts from foreign governments, without the consent of Congress.

So, when Donald J. Trump recently blasted Hillary Clinton for accepting “$58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei when she was secretary of state,” he failed to mention it was not a personal gift. Clinton accepted on behalf of the United States and transferred the baubles to the General Services Administration.

The hand-off is standard procedure; the United States doesn’t want to embarrass foreign countries by refusing their gestures of friendship. The president or official who takes a fancy to a foreign gift can buy it, at fair market value.

In the Virginia case, businessman Jonnie Williams wanted state universities to conduct research on a nutritional supplement he was promoting. He gave McDonnell and his wife Maureen a luxury watch, designer clothes, gifts and loans worth more than $175,000.

McDonnell argued he did no more for Williams than officials commonly do to help businesses. The Supreme Court agreed and said the instructions to the jury were so broad they could potentially make ordinary constituent service criminal.

A 1999 Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Sun-Diamond Growers of California, foretold the court’s rationale. Writing for a unanimous court, the late Justice Antonin Scalia said a president’s hosting a championship sports team at the White House was not an official act. To think otherwise would invite the “absurdities” of corruption charges.

Even when legal, though, extravagant gifts can cause politicians heartburn.

In the 1980s, first lady Nancy Reagan was lambasted for “borrowing” designer gowns and jewelry for formal occasions. She stopped the practice. When the Reagans left office, undisclosed friends reportedly bought the couple a $2.5 million home in California. Nancy Reagan said the house was also a loan, paid back with interest.

President Clinton and Hillary left office in 2001 with gifts worth $190,027. When The Washington Post reported that $28,000 worth of furniture on the Clintons’ moving truck was intended for the White House, not as personal gifts, the Clintons returned those furnishings.

Their close friend Terry McAuliffe reportedly put up $1.35 million in cash to guarantee the Clintons’ mortgage in Chappaqua, New York. McAuliffe is now governor of Virginia.

Regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, the court of public opinion takes a dim view of politicians’ getting and giving special favors.

 

The unfortunate McDonnell ruling reminds voters that we need stronger state and federal ethics laws. But foxes rarely pass laws policing henhouses.

So it would behoove us all this election year to vet the character of candidates and ask what they’ll do to restore integrity to government.

As Reagan said: Trust, but verify.

©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Pandering to religion, Trump style -- June 23, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Before the 2012 election, businessman Donald J. Trump made wild, false accusations that President Barack Obama was a Muslim and not a citizen.

So it’s hardly a surprise that candidate Trump questioned Hillary Clinton’s religious faith.

“We don’t know anything about Hillary in terms of religion,” Trump told evangelical leaders Tuesday. “She’s been in the public eye for years and years and yet there’s no – there’s nothing out there.”

That’s ridiculous. Clinton, a church-goer, doesn’t wear her faith on her sleeve, but she does talk about it.  

In January, when a voter in Iowa asked Clinton about her faith, she began a lengthy response with, “I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I have been raised Methodist. I feel very grateful for the instructions and support I received, starting in my family but through my church…”

Courting evangelical leaders, Trump followed his slam on Clinton with a pander. He promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who oppose abortion. In a Trump administration, he said, department store clerks will say “Merry Christmas” again. And he will end the ban on political campaigning by tax-exempt churches.

“I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity – and other religions – is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it,” he said.

Trump, who also wants to change the libel laws so he can sue news outlets, either doesn’t understand the Constitution or has little regard for it.

The ban against politicking applies to any tax-exempt charity -- secular nonprofits as well as houses of worship.

Religious leaders can and do endorse candidates – just not from the pulpit. They also can support ballot measures and take stands for or against issues. They can run non-partisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives.

Since Thomas Jefferson wrote approvingly on Jan. 1, 1802, that the First Amendment had built “a wall of separation between church and state,” Americans have been arguing over religion and government.

Conservatives have railed against the politicking ban for decades, claiming that it limits pastors’ free speech. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., has made repeal his pet issue, but his attempts have gone nowhere.

We have Lyndon B. Johnson to thank -- or blame -- for the ban. In 1954, the senator from Texas introduced the ban in an amendment to the IRS Code. The measure was so uncontroversial it passed by unanimous consent, reflecting agreement that tax-exempt groups should not be overtly partisan.

While historians disagree about Johnson’s motives, it seems clear he wanted to stop groups – not churches – that were critical of him as he ran for re-election from sending campaign materials to voters.  

Congress has strengthened the ban over time. To qualify for 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, a church or charity may not “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

Despite what Trump says, the ban has not stopped religious leaders from speaking up about their candidates of choice. Several ministers have endorsed Clinton.

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the late televangelist, endorsed Trump last January. But the nonprofit university, which calls itself the largest Christian university in the world, does not endorse candidates, Falwell says.

The IRS rarely has revoked a church’s tax-exempt status, but it did after Church at Pierce Creek in upstate New York took out full-page ads in USA Today and The Washington Times four days before the 1992 election.

“Christians Beware. Do not put the economy before the Ten Commandments,” read the headline. The ad urged people not to vote for Bill Clinton and solicited tax-deductible donations to pay for the ad. A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling backing the IRS.

There’s a simple solution for churches and other tax-exempt groups that want to electioneer, and it has nothing to do with Trump. They can give up their tax- exempt status.

©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Arlington Cemetery a living tribute -- June 16, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

When President John F. Kennedy visited Arlington House, the plantation home of Robert E. Lee surrounded by Arlington National Cemetery, in March 1963, he was so taken by the splendid views of Washington from the sloping hillside, a giant post oak in the foreground, that he mused he could stay there forever.

A few months later, JFK was laid to rest in the beautiful place. Landscape architect John Warnecke incorporated the Arlington Oak in his design for the gravesite, and special care was taken to protect the tree during construction.

Hurricane Irene in 2011 demolished the 220-year-old oak. The loss was devastating to tree and history lovers alike, but it wasn’t the end of the story.

Today, three post oaks grow in lush Kentucky bluegrass near the Kennedy gravesite. 

But they’re not just any trees, Stephen Van Hoven, chief of the horticulture division of the cemetery, said last week during a walking tour of trees.

They were propagated with acorns from the original Arlington Oak, a gift of American Forests, a conservation group.

While some areas, like the Kennedy gravesite, are formal in design and others more natural, the cemetery has visual and emotional impact by intention.   

“Nothing could be more impressive than rank after rank of white stones, inconspicuous in themselves, covering gentle, wooded slopes and producing the desired effect of a vast army in its last resting place,” said the 1901-1902 McMillan plan for the capital city. The nation’s first attempt at city planning, the plan was named for Sen. James McMillan of Michigan.

Almost nothing is left to chance. The cemetery’s contract for weekly grass cutting specifies that the grass may be no higher than 3 1/2 inches to 5 inches, Van Hoven said.

The cemetery has long invited visitors to imagine the stories the 400,000 people buried in the nation’s most hallowed ground could tell. Only recently, though, has it also encouraged visitors to look at the trees.

Last year, the Arlington National Cemetery, with more than 8,600 trees on 624 acres, became an accredited arboretum.

“The Arboretum serves as a living memorial to those who have served our nation and connects visitors to the rich tapestry of the cemetery’s living history and natural beauty,” the cemetery says.

Horticultural walking tours help educate visitors, as do about 300 aluminum labels installed on notable trees. Special screws were used to discourage theft.

One of the first stops on our tour was a Shumard oak and plaque to the 199^th Light Infantry Brigade, “In honor of the Redcatchers for their service and selfless dedication to duty in the Republic of Vietnam 1966-1970.” It’s one of 142 Memorial Trees in the cemetery, commemorating various groups.

The cemetery also has 36 trees honoring Medal of Honor recipients and three Virginia state champions and one co-champion trees. Champions are the largest of their species in the state.

Only three Memorial Trees have been added in the last 10 years, though, because planting a Memorial Tree now literally requires an act of Congress. The concern was that there would be too many. The cemetery also stopped accepting private donations of trees last year, Van Hoven said.

You can read more about the arboretum and see an inventory of trees in the Explore section of the cemetery’s website.

With Memorial Day behind us, Veterans Day may be the next time many Americans think of the cemetery, where national observances of the two holidays take place in the Memorial Amphitheater.

Another popular destination is Arlington House, the Custis-Lee Mansion that was the family home of Lee’s wife, Mary Custis Lee. The Union confiscated the property after Lee became the Confederate Army’s commanding general, and began burying war dead in the yard in 1864. It is a National Park Service site.

Behind the mansion is a stunning deodar cedar, planted in 1874 by David Henry Rhodes, landscape gardener of the cemetery for more than 50 years, Van Hoven said. Rhodes wrote about the cedar’s top being blown off in a hurricane in 1896, but the tree survives.

At Arlington National Cemetery, trees are a living tribute to veterans and all who are buried there.

©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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