Nevada Lt. Gov. Harry Reid meets with Vice President Gerald Ford in Washington in March 1974 to discuss tourism and the country's fuel crisis. In a 1983 file photo, the former president takes a puff from his pipe.

When it comes to state funerals for former presidents, as it is with all public displays of grace and etiquette, right and wrong give way to the tricky nuances of good form and judgment.

As a guy who still thinks dark brown cowboy boots look fine with a tux, I'm probably the last one in Nevada to give a lecture on the ways of Washington pomp and circumstance. Therefore, I won't say Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was foursquare wrong to skip the funeral of former President Gerald Ford. But in taking his wife on a junket to South America instead of participating in this slice of American history, I will say Harry made an unnecessarily poor choice.

When Sen. Reid missed the state funeral of President Ford, he missed out on an historic event, and he signaled to the nation what Nevada has known all along: In his political education, Harry Reid majored in partisanship with a minor in kick-butt in-fighting. Statesmanship is a class he's yet to pass.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying my fellow Nevadan won't be able to rise above this error in judgment. Stupid he is not. And the only thing constant in politics is change. But it seems evident to me that putting a garden variety Christmas break trip to Bolivia ahead of showing respect for a nation in mourning was a lapse in judgment. It also speaks to Sen. Reid's ability to win bipartisan cooperation in the Senate. It's a faint hope at best.

The death of a president -- Republican or Democrat -- is a time for Americans to recall the ties that bind us as a nation. It's an opportunity for our leaders, if only momentarily, to exhibit leadership and build good will. Harry missed the chance.

Now, it is true that Sen. Reid made it back to the country in time to attend a secondary funeral for Ford in Michigan. That was a good thing. But the important event, the one that fixed the nation, was a day earlier at the National Cathedral. Harry's absence was conspicuous.

Sen. Reid is no longer an obscure legislator from Nevada. He's the leader of the U.S. Senate. He should have shortened his trip by 24 hours and been there.

The eulogies for President Ford were both uplifting and poignant. Former news anchor Tom Brokaw poetically focused the nation on the essence of a man whose "hymn" to the nation was of "hosannas to his decency, his honesty his modesty and his steady-as-she-goes qualities."

"Sometimes there are two versions to these hymns, one public and one private, separate and discordant," Brokaw said. "But in Gerald Ford, the man he was in public, he was also in private."

But it was Henry Kissinger who pegged the historical significance of the Ford presidency perfectly, which I now quote for you in its entirety:

"According to an ancient tradition, God preserves humanity despite its many transgressions because at any one period there exist 10 just individuals who, without being aware of their role, redeem mankind. Gerald Ford was such a man. Propelled into the presidency by a sequence of unpredictable events, he had an impact so profound it's likely to be considered providential.

"Unassuming and without guile, Gerald Ford undertook to restore the confidence of Americans in their political institutions and purposes. Never having aspired to national office, he was not consumed by driving ambition. In his understated way he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery. Gerald Ford had the virtues of small-town America: sincerity, serenity and integrity.

"As it turned out, the absence of glibness and his artless decency became a political asset, fostering an unusual closeness to leaders around the world which continued long after he left office.

"In recent days, the deserved commentary on Gerald Ford's character has sometimes obscured how sweeping and lasting were his achievements. Gerald Ford's prudence and common sense kept ethnic conflicts in Cyprus and Lebanon from spiraling into regional war. He presided over the final agony of Indochina with dignity and wisdom.

"In the Middle East, his persistence produced the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt. He helped shape the final act of the Helsinki European Security Conference, which established an internationally recognized standard for human rights, now generally accepted as having hastened the collapse of the former Soviet empire. He sparked the initiative to bring majority rule to southern Africa, a policy that was a major factor in ending colonialism there.

"In his presidency, the International Energy Agency was established, which still forces cooperation among oil-consuming nations. Gerald Ford was one of the founders of the continuing annual economic summit among the industrial democracies.

"Throughout his 29 months in office, he persisted in conducting negotiations with our principal adversary over the reduction and control of nuclear arms.

"Gerald Ford was always driven by his concern for humane values. He stumped me in his fifth day in office when he used the first call made by the Soviet ambassador to intervene on behalf of a Lithuanian seaman who four years earlier had, in a horrible bungle, been turned over to Soviet authorities after seeking asylum in America. Against all diplomatic precedent and, I must say, against the advice of all experts, Gerald Ford requested that the seaman, a Soviet citizen in a Soviet jail, not only be released, but be turned over to American custody. Even more amazingly, his request was granted.

"Throughout the final ordeal of Indochina, Gerald Ford focused on America's duty to rescue the maximum number of those who had relied on us. The extraction of 150,000 refugees was the consequence. And typically, Gerald Ford saw it as his duty to visit one of the refugee camps long after public attention had moved elsewhere.

"Gerald Ford summed up his concern for human values at the European Security Conference when, looking directly at Brezhnev, he proclaimed America's deep devotion to human rights and individual freedoms. 'To my country,' he said, 'they are not clichés or empty phrases.'

"Historians will debate for a long time over which president contributed most to victory in the Cold War. Few will dispute that the Cold War could not have been won had not Gerald Ford emerged at a tragic period to restore equilibrium to America and confidence in its international role.

"Sustained by his beloved wife, Betty, and to the children to whom he was devoted, Gerald Ford left the presidency with no regrets, no second-guessing, no obsessive pursuit of his place in history.

"For his friends, he leaves an aching void. Having known Jerry Ford and worked with him will be our badge of honor for the rest of our lives.

"Early in his administration, Gerald Ford said to me, 'I get mad as hell, but I don't show it, when I don't do as well as I should. If you don't strive for the best, you will never make it.' We are here to bear witness that Jerry Ford always did his best, and that his best proved essential to renew our society and restore hope to the world."

When Harry Reid hangs it up and retires to his spread in Searchlight, I think he'll sit on the back porch and regret he didn't do his best to be there.

Sherman Frederick is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media. Readers may write him at sfrederick@reviewjournal.com.