In Washington, funerals aren’t merely the place to mourn. They’re also a ripe setting for gossip, politicking, business card exchanges, and more—a mosaic of only-in-D.C. behavior that Mark Leibovich depicted brilliantly in the opening chapter of This Town, where he portrayed how Tim Russert’s state-like funeral devolved into a networking happy hour between legislators, top journalists, network executives and “power mourners.” That was 2008. Last week, the town’s swells showed up in droves for the funeral of uber-pundit Mark Shields. 

Attendees included the Times managing editor Carolyn Ryan, journalists Al Hunt and Judy Woodruff, the pundit Mara Liasson, the policy analyst Susan Dentzer and the lobbyist Fred Graefe, who mysteriously made it into the “spotted” section of my old haunt, Playbook. Notably, a main topic of conversation was the gaping hole at the top of the Washington Post editorial page, which has been vacant since its legendary editor Fred Hiatt tragically passed away in December at age 66, opening up the position for the third time since Watergate.