that rare critter, a civil and agreeable Republican...

From Fraters Libertas:

Reader (and writer) Gary Larson points out this little nugget from a tribute to the late Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen, that appeared in the Metro Section of Friday's Star Tribune:

Despite being a prominent and committed Republican, Dirksen believed in civility and compromise, pragmatism rather than ideology. He possessed "the rare but all-important ability to disagree without being disagreeable," as biographer Byron Hulsey put it.