We've lost a great American

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Bret Scowcroft, KBE- foreign policy advisor to seven presidents and National Security Advisor to President Ford and the first President Bush- has died at the age of 96.

A "straight shooter," Scowcroft's reputation was as someone who would tell his president what he needed to hear, whether or not it was what he wanted to hear. He wouldn't have lasted long under the current administration. Though personally a Republican, he advised President Obama in setting up his national security team and was highly thought of by presidents of both parties.

The consummate "grown-up," he was a throwback to the days when presidential advisors were hired because they knew what they were talking about and when presidents listened to them, especially when they realized that they could learn something by doing so. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H.W. Bush and knighted by Queen Elizabeth, few men or women have served their country and the cause of freedom so long or so ably.

When historians look back on Gen. Scowcroft's time, they'll remember it as the era when America was great in fact as well as in rhetoric, and when presidents honored gifted patriots like him and Gen. Mattis by giving them medals instead of ignoring their sound advice when they tried to prevent them from doing something stupid and then publicly insulting and denigrating them for not meekly going along with foolish policies.

Despite all my reservations about and disagreements with Joe Biden, I look forward to something like the spirit of Bret Scocroft returning to the West Wing come January when the grownups get another shot at governing a nation that never stopped being great until we elected a very small man to be our president. It's time to return the governance of this land to people like Gen. Scowcroft, who have some idea what they're doing.