When it comes to the difference between a statesman and your run-of-the-mill politician, the political philosopher Harry Truman said a “statesman is a politician who’s been dead 10 or 15 years.” I thought of that bit of Truman humor last week when I heard that former Republican Governor of Washington Dan Evans passed away at age 98. I might quibble with Harry a bit and suggest that if a politician waits too long to pass from this earth, there won’t be many folks around to remember him and speak to his statesman-like qualities.