Now the obsequies are over, it is time to examine Donald Dewar's bequests. To the Scottish nation, a parliament. To the Scottish Labour Party, a mess.
The party is sorting out Donald's muddle with a half-cock election, clumsy wheeling and dealing, simmering resentment and a little dishonesty - in other words, a typical Labour fix-cum-farce.
What is it with the Labour Party and internal elections? After the Welsh leadership shambles and the London mayoral muck-up, the assumption might have been that things would be different in Scotland, where devolution is up and running and due process is in place.
Donald Dewar was still on the life- support machine when the fixers moved in. To be fair, they had no choice. Just as many of the problems of the Scottish Executive's first year were due to Dewar's pernickety personality, so the constitutional crisis was caused by his death.
The Scotland Act, Dewar's brainchild, which he argued through Westminster clause by clause, lays down that a new first minister must be sworn in within 28 days, or the parliament be dissolved and a general election held. It was foreseen that under proportional representation, no party would have an overall majority and the Scottish Parliament could be paralysed by failure to agree on a first minister.
That would not have been a problem, if Dewar had not refused to have a deputy Scottish leader. When he was elected with a 99.8 per cent vote, the post of deputy was quietly dropped. He did not want a potential challenger, and hoped that in time his favourite, the talented but controversial Wendy Alexander, would grow into the job.
With no automatic nominee, the Labour Party's electoral college, composed of parliamentarians in London, Edinburgh and Strasbourg, 30,000 Scottish members, 100,000 trade unionists and affiliated organisations, could not be organised in 28 days.
So the Labour machine cranked into action. The front-runner was Henry McLeish, the experienced minister for enterprise and lifelong learning, but a strong challenge was bound to come from Jack McConnell, former Scottish Labour Party general secretary and now finance minister.
Key figures in the initial emergency consultations were: the Secretary of State for Scotland, John Reid, Downing Street's linkman in Scotland; John Lambie of Unison, Scottish Labour chairman; Lesley Quinn, Scottish Labour general secretary; Margaret McDonagh from Labour's Millbank HQ; and backroom strategist Lord (Murray) Elder. Oh, yes, and - whatever may be said to the contrary - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Their solution was for a single unopposed candidate to "emerge" and be "anointed".
It immediately became known that Henry McLeish was that candidate. One union source said: "The consensus was that Henry was the man, and we were simply asked if we had any problems with that." McConnell was warned that if he triggered a party split, he would not be forgiven.
Some had the feeling of deja vu, recal-ling what happened in the immediate aftermath of John Smith's death, when Gordon Brown was left at the starting-line by the indecent haste with which the Blair camp swung into action. Supporters of McConnell immediately started an unofficial campaign, with one Westminster MP assuring everyone on his behalf that they wouldn't allow a one-horse race.
The inevitable backlash kicked in and the Scottish leadership panicked at allegations of London "control-freakery". No 11 declared that Gordon Brown had not even thought about the succession. Hmm . . . And No 10 said: "Tony Blair is staying right out of it; that's devolution." Double hmm . . .
An announcement was rushed out stating that there would be an election, after all, with a curtailed college comprising just the 54 Labour MSPs and the 27 members of the Scottish Executive who have voting rights.
The irony is that Donald Dewar wanted neither of the present runners to succeed him. McLeish (52) is clear favourite because of his 13 years at Westminster and his status as Dewar's de facto, if unelected, deputy. He has typified the consensual "new politics" of coalition government.
McConnell (40) is brighter and brasher, and has some leadership question marks hanging over him. He was a member of Scottish Labour Action, the now defunct radical group that sought a greater degree of home rule than the Scottish Parliament now has. His connections with a lobby firm triggered the cash-for-access "Lobbygate" inquiry, which cleared him, but left questions about his judgement in taking a job with lobbyists in the months before the Scottish election.
The simpler, "fast-track" election gives McConnell a better chance, given that the bigger unions had privately declared for McLeish. But the leadership's favourite is still expected to win. By the time a full electoral college is held, planned to happen by the end of the first week in December, McLeish should be in an unassailable position. It would be too embarrassing for the party if he was spurned after sitting in the First Minister's seat for months.
McLeish will have his work cut out to establish his mandate as Scottish Labour leader, demonstrate his independence from London and set out his vision for Scotland's future.
His first priority will be to ensure that he is not Scotland's Alun Michael, in place but open to challenge.
It may not be the way he wanted to inherit the mantle of Donald Dewar, but McLeish will have to make the best of his flawed legacy.
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