WASHINGTON — Tall and courtly, Tom Foley served 30 years in the House when partisan confrontation was less rancorous than today and Democrats had dominated for decades. He crowned his long political career by becoming speaker, only to be toppled when Republicans seized control of Congress in 1994, turned out by angry voters in Washington state with little taste for incumbents.
Speaker Foley, the first speaker to be booted from office by his constituents since the Civil War, died Friday at 84 of complications from a stroke, according to his wife, Heather....
In 1990, Speaker Foley let the House vote on a resolution authorizing President George H.W. Bush to use force against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait, despite ‘‘strong personal reservations and the strenuous objections of a good many’’ House Democrats, Bob Michel, an Illinois Republican who was House minority leader at the time, recalled Friday.
‘‘But he granted our request for a vote because it was the right thing to do,’’ Michel said in a statement. “He was that kind of leader.’’
Yes, letting a war based on lies happen is the right thing to do in AmeriKan politics.
Speaker Foley was also at the helm when, in 1992, revelations that many lawmakers had been allowed to overdraw their checking accounts at the House bank provoked a wave of anger against incumbents. In 1993, he helped shepherd President Bill Clinton’s budget through the House.
He never served a day as a member of the House’s minority party. The Republican capture of the chamber in the 1994 gave them control for the first time in 40 years and Speaker Foley, it turned out, was their prize victim....
Speaker Foley was defeated in 1994 by 4,000 votes by Spokane attorney George Nethercutt, a Republican who supported term limits, which the speaker fought. Also hurting Speaker Foley was his ability to bring home federal benefits, which Nethercutt used by accusing him of pork-barrel politics.
Speaker Foley later served as US ambassador to Japan for four years in the Clinton administration....
After leaving Congress, he joined a blue chip law firm in Washington, D.C., and earned fees serving on corporate boards....
And thus he gets a full eulogy in my corporate pre$$.
--more--"
