A celebration – and wake – for a political time gone by

They came to the baking desert to honour one of their own, a political professional, a legend and a throwback to a time when gatherings like this one — a companionable assembly of Republicans, Democrats and the odd newspaper columnist — weren't such a rare and noteworthy thing.

- Mark Z. Barabak, Tribune News Service

They came to bida last farewell to Stuart Spencer, who died in January at age 97. They came to Palm Desert on a 98-degree spring day to do the things that political pros do when they gather: drink and laugh and swap stories of campaigns and elections past. And they showed, with their affection and goodwill and mutual regard, how much the world, and the world of politics, have changed.

"This is how politics used to be," Democrat Harvey Englander said after sidling up to Republican Joel Fox. The two met through their work with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a spawn of the Proposition 13 taxpayer revolt, circa 1978.

"We had different views of how government should work," Englander said as Fox nodded his assent. "But we agreed government should work."