Former Speaker of the House Tom Foley dies at 84

[alp227]

Last edited Fri Oct 18, 2013, 05:55 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Spokesman-Review

Tom Foley, a Spokane native who rose to the highest position in the U.S. House of Representatives – a spot two heartbeats away from president – died Friday. He was 84.

Spokane’s most successful politician, Foley served 30 years in the House representing Eastern Washington’s 5th Congressional District, the last five as speaker, before losing both jobs in a historic electoral defeat in 1994. He went on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan for President Bill Clinton from 1997 through 2001, was a presidential adviser on foreign policy matters, a principal at a high-powered Washington, D.C., law firm and served on the boards of many organizations.

He died this morning at 9:13 Eastern time of complications from strokes, according to his wife, Heather Foley.

Tall and in his later years silver-haired, Foley looked like a congressman ordered up from Hollywood’s Central Casting, but he worked his way up through the ranks of the House.

Read more: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/oct/18/tom-foley-former-speaker-dies/

---

The AP also has an obit. So does the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

(Edited around 6pm ET) Now New York Times and Washington Post and Seattle Times.

[KT2000]

1. A good man

I will never understand why Eastern Washington voted out the Speaker of the House for a real zero.

RIP Mr. Foley

[nyquil_man]

2. It's only gotten worse since then.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers holds that seat now.

[titanicdave]

22. And She

is a total embarrassment to those of us who live in Washington State.......merely Boehner's token female......

[Ranchemp.]

5. He lost because on the eve of the vote for the Crime Omnibus Bill.

Last edited Fri Oct 18, 2013, 01:09 PM - Edit history (1)

which contained the Assault Weapons Ban, him and Congressman Jack Brooks, D-TX., and Dick Gephardt, D-MO., went to then President Clinton and begged him to remove the AWB because it would lead to the defeat of several dems in red states come the mid term elections, Clinton refused to believe it and the rest is history.

RIP Tom Foley, you were a good and effective Congressman and House Speaker.

[KT2000]

8. didn't know that

thanks for the info.

[Ranchemp.]

10. No problem,

It's chronicled in Pres. Clinton's book, My Life, fascinating reading, would recommend it.

Here's what Pres. Clinton said about the defeat of dems in '94,

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn't drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

[OneCrazyDiamond]

25. Former President Clinton

would admit when he was wrong, and in writing no less.

I call that integrity.

[Ranchemp.]

32. A truly honorable man.

[Cleita]

12. I blame it on poisonous talk radio, Limbaugh and the likes. n/t

[Ranchemp.]

15. That's not the way President Clinton saw it.

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn't drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

[Cleita]

16. Guess who was ginning up all the talk about that?

I was living in Idaho then and we received much of our media from Spokane. The assault weapons ban would have been a non-issue if there hadn't been this push from the hard right through their radio and TV mouthpieces to make it into one.

[Ranchemp.]

20. Yet it was solid Democrats who told Pres. Clinton what would happen if he insisted on the AWB.

Whom to believe? You? Or President Clinton, who was actually there during the whole debacle?
I choose President Clinton, who happens to have more credibility than you.

[Cleita]

21. Believe what you like. I believe what I think is right too.

It's not that you are wrong. I blame 90% of what is wrong with our nation today on our propaganda media. Clinton was not aware back then in the toxicity of the message that was emerging then. None of us really were.

[Ranchemp.]

23. Ok that's a good point,

but the fact remains that Pres. Clinton blames the loss of the House and Senate on the AWB that Brooks, Gephardt and Foley tried to warn him about.

[AtheistCrusader]

30. I think you underestimate the number of centrists/swing voters, and Democrats that own firearms

that were directly impacted by that ridiculous bill.

It was pretty much the dumbest piece of legislation ever. (Ok, that's reaching a bit, but not by much)

[Cleita]

33. You guys really never worried about assault weapons access

until the NRA backed propaganda machine told you to. They sold it to you that it would be a start to taking away all your weapons which wasn't true.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. That's not true at all.

I have never feared an ex post facto confiscation of my firearms. I don't know which propaganda machine sold you on that lie, but it is a lie.

The ban did a couple things, including pricing larger than ten round magazines for the pistol I carry, at 60$ apiece, instead of the 20$ they ought to cost. It also prevented me from obtaining a single rifle with certain safety and ergonomic features allowing my wife and myself to safely and comfortably use the same rifle.

That's all the fucking 'ban' did.

Pointless legislation.

[warrant46]

56. And now its wide open again

[AtheistCrusader]

57. Not exactly.

Prices have come down on high-cap mags, but they never disappeared.

Rifles and such are still regulated by barrel length (can't be too short), caliber (nothing over .50 unless it's a musket), pistols are still regulated by total metal mass, etc. Absolutely NOTHING that can fire more than one shot per pull of the trigger.

The armor-piercing pistol ammo ban emplaced by the same legislation that created the 1994 AWB never sunset either.

Plenty of laws still in effect.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

24. I remember that election very well

We were outraged it happened. We tried to stop Cathy McMorris in 1996, when we saw what they were grooming her for. I can never get over how stupid the people of Eastern Washington are. The joke was that they thought that whomever they elected, automatically became Speaker of the House.

[flygal]

3. That was a heartbreak for me when he lost

I really respected him and saw his defeat as the end of an era. RIP

[meti57b]

4. May his memory be a blessing.

[Tom_Foolery]

6. One of the best...

RIP, Mr. Foley.

[niyad]

7. requiescat in pacem, mr. foley.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Wow. R.I.P.

(also saw this on a NYT breaking banner)

I totally forgot about him as his name hasn't come up much (Tweety seems to like to push Tip O'Neill).

Definitely one of the old-school Democrats.

Gentle crossing sir...

[nolabear]

11. Cross Easy, Mr. Speaker.

You did good.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. K&R for respect. nt

[cristianmarie533]

14. RIP Mr. Foley

I bet he would have been a great president if he was elected. Oh well.

[Cleita]

17. He was one of the good ones.

The Inland Northwest will greatly feel his loss as they did when he lost his seat in congress. May he rest in peace.

[ourfuneral]

18. Very sad

But what's even sadder is the memory it conjures up: RNC Chairman and Sleazoid Extraordinaire Lee Atwater releasing a political ad insinuating Foley was gay. Bob Dole, a Republican, a member of Atwater's party, stood up in the Senate and said, "This isn't politics; this is garbage!"
-
Older readers like me can still remember a time when our system of government actually worked, and politicians were at least capable of honor, though some of them didn't display it. That's the "My Country" I want back.

[2naSalit]

19. Hear hear

and welcome to DU!

[blueknight]

27. AND LEE ATWATER

died a painful, horrifying death, and deserved every moment of it. crude but true. he single handily ruined lives, destroyed reputations and didnt care about peoples families or anything else

[darkangel218]

26. RIP

[billh58]

28. One of the great Speakers

of, and for, the Democratic Party. From a recent MSN article:

"Foley wasn't the victim of scandal or charges of gross incompetence. Instead, his ability as speaker to bring home federal benefits was a point Nethercutt used against him, accusing him of pork-barrel politics.

The public was restless that year, and the mood was dark and angry, Foley recalled later. The electorate turned on many of the Democrats it had installed in a landslide just two years earlier, dumping six congressmen in the Democrat-favored Washington state.

He was replaced as speaker by his nemesis, Georgia Republican Rep. Newt Gingrich, who later called Washington state the "ground zero" of the sweep that gave Republicans their first control of the House in 40 years. Foley, it turned out, was their prize casualty.

In a 2004 Associated Press interview, Foley said, after Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota lost his seat, that the same factors hurt them both: Voters did not appreciate the value of service as party leader, and rural voters were turning against Democrats."

http://news.msn.com/obits/ex-house-speaker-tom-foley-dies-at-84-1?ocid=ansnews11

Contrary to what Gungeoneers would like us to believe, the main cause of the Republican sweep in those elections was Newt Gingrich and the Contract With America neoconservative propaganda machine. The NRA had some influence on local elections, but the Republican landslide in Congress was solely because of the birth of the ultra-conservative movement which was spearheaded by the AEI and Newt Gingrich. This criminal cabal would eventually be the principal authors of PNAC, which led to the Iraq atrocities.

Although the NRA has way too much political influence, and needs to be eradicated as a political entity, the "cold dead hands" Gungeoneers seldom miss a chance to spread neoconservative NRA lies of "the Democrats are coming for our guns."

[derby378]

29. Bill Clinton would probably disagree with you

We could have avoided several government shutdowns and probably the George W. Bush regime if Clinton had just backed off from the gun ban and supported the Second Amendment. Some actions have long-term consequences.

[billh58]

37. Bill Clinton

was facing many problems, and gun control was constrained to specific areas, including Washington State which Tom Foley represented. The main reason that Congress changed hands was a successful neoconservative "Contract With America" propaganda campaign against his health care proposals, and his other DLC attempts at "centrist" triangulation positions.

"The Democratic Party had run the House for all but four of the preceding 62 years. With help from the Harry and Louise television ads, the Republican party was able to unite the majority of Americans against President Clinton's proposed healthcare reform. Capitalizing on the negative perception Clinton received because of this push, the Republicans alleged Clinton had abandoned the New Democrat platform he campaigned on during the 1992 Presidential election and united behind Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, which promoted immediate action on institutional reform and the decentralization of federal authority."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1994

The damage that Newt Gingrich and his band of criminals did to this country remains, and as much as Gungeoneers would like to believe otherwise, it had very little to do with the Democratic Party's stand on gun control. To say that we Democrats do not "support the Second Amendment" is just perpetuating the neoconservative NRA lie. Quoting portions of Bill Clinton's book out of context does absolutely nothing to address the facts at hand.

NRA supported lies about over-reaching gun control by Democrats may sway elections in some areas, especially where it is reinforced by so-called Liberals who parrot the NRA propaganda. In the end, Americans care much more about money and the economy than they do about some nebulous political threat of losing their Second Amendment rights.

P.S. Only NRA apologists could turn a tribute to a great Democrat into a Second Amendment argument.

[Ranchemp.]

39. Sorry, going to have to go with Bill Clinton.

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn't drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

He was there, he was in the know.

[AtheistCrusader]

40. Washington State may be a blue state, but

our legislature snuffs every single gun control law that comes down, in a dark alley.

We are a slightly... different shade of blue here.
We just got legal silencers last year, and the state SC clarified the expansiveness of open carry.

Gun control proposals do not fly well here. We're to the right of Texas on every gun-related issue, except fully automatic weapons.

[NYC_SKP]

44. "Only NRA apologists could turn a tribute to a great Democrat into a Second Amendment argument."

It's an unnecessary insult directed toward a fellow member of the DU community.

LOL at the perpetual, irresistible, totally predictable use of namecalling by the side that regularly loses arguments on matters of substance.

Condemnation by association is a very McCarthy-esque move and unbecoming an honest progressive with solid arguments to make.

I wish it would stop.

[derby378]

51. Thank you...

...and I agree wholeheartedly.

[Ranchemp.]

52. I got blocked from GCRA group for daring to challenge a statement he made.

[NYC_SKP]

53. The GCRA is a safe group.

And they will ban anyone they want for the slightest hint of not fitting what they want.

That's not against the rules, it's what it is.

[Ranchemp.]

54. Thanks for the information,

did not know that.

[Ranchemp.]

31. The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton disagrees with you.

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn't drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

[jimmy the one]

45. rightwing mythology at work on DU

Seems ranchemp, derby, & skip adhere to rightwing republican far right mantra. That's the 2nd Amendment Mythological spin on clinton's assault weapon ban (awb), not in any way to be confused with the truth, the whole truth (but maybe the half truth could go).

But one lesson needs to be resisted: The idea that passing a more expansive gun control law in 1994 came back to bite Democrats in the midterm elections... But were guns really the issue in 1994? U.S. News & World Report (1/17/13) runs down some of the research, which points out that most of the seats lost were in Republican-leaning districts, and there were a number of other big issues–including the healthcare debate, NAFTA and a soft economy. Writing in the American Prospect (2/22/12), Paul Waldman took a look at some of these NRA myths.
New York Times editorial page (5/9/09), Dorothy Samuels wrote: The {AWB} law certainly enraged many NRA members and might explain the loss of certain Democratic seats. However, there were other major factors in the Democrats' 1994 loss, starting with perceived Democratic arrogance and corruption.. Add to that voter unhappiness with Mr. Clinton's budget, his healthcare fiasco, the Republican Party's success in recruiting appealing candidates, and that ingenious Republican vehicle for nationalizing the elections known as the "Contract With America." The contract, by the way, did not mention guns.
As Waldman argues, the people who most loudly champion the electoral power of the National Rifle Association are the National Rifle Association. These mythologies shouldn't be treated as facts.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/04/19/democrats-cant-blame-guns-for-94-losses/

[Ranchemp.]

47. Whatever you say.

But, I'm going with the man who was there at the time, not some anonymous internet poster who seems to have no clue of what they're talking about.

It would seem that you're calling President Clinton a liar, are you?
Also, it would seem that you're calling President Clinton an RW'er, are you?
Because those aren't the words of a RW'er, they're the words of President Clinton, so, which is it?

[ReRe]

35. So long, Speaker Foley...

... I will always remember Tom Foley. Really had a kind disposition.

[gopiscrap]

36. Rest in Peace this should be the headline on DU tonight!

I remember speaking on the same program as him. He was very kind and gracious.

[jmowreader]

38. I'm going to disagree with the Big Dog here

Newt Gingrich saw defeating Tom Foley as his personal project for two reasons.

First is that Tom Foley always got reelected fairly easily, because the Inland Empire had relevance with Foley in Washington. To defeat Foley would send a message to the rest of the country that there was no such thing as a safe seat.

The other is that Foley was in Newtie's chair.

[hadrons]

41. I'm sorry he passed away, but the guy was a hack....

I remember that 1994 election ever well and people can focus on the weapons ban all they want to explain the results, but honestly that wasn't the issue, the reason for the Dems big losses that year was simply that people wanted change in how Washington was ran (Clinton won in part because of this) and the establishment Dems simply were acting as business as usual.

Foley was Mr. Business as Usual to the point of punishing freshman Dems who didn't go along with the establishment agenda. Foley, BTW, was the guy who saved ... Newt Gingrich's career. Back in 1990 Gingrich was on the ropes and Dem candidate Ben Jones ('Cooter' on The Dukes Of Hazzard) looked like he was going to take the seat, but Foley had the Democratic leadership pull out all the money to Jones when Jones started making the Congressional pay raises Gingrich voted for an issue (Foley supported and helped this raise.) Without that money, Jones lost by a narrow margin and America got Newt.

Foley's no Bonehead Boener, but he's no different than Max Bacus.

[Delphinus]

42. The things I learn

are so helpful - thanks for sharing this.

[kath]

43. Thanks for this. he gave us Gingrich 'cuz of Congressional pay raises. Jeebus.

Second the other poster- one can learn SOOOOO much at DU!

[washnwmn]

50. No way!

Yes I'm somewhat biased having known the man personally, but I believe Tom Foley did what was necessary to compromise. Congress worked that way back then, worked together - give a little - get a little and it went both ways, compromises, but things got done some good things and some not so great. So yes, you can snip and snipe, but it seems far better to give a little and get a little than to engage in gridlock. BTW, Foley had practically no money to show for his years representing the people. There are no big industries in the 5th district of Washington, that's for sure, not then and not now.

[Beacool]

46. My condolences to his family.

May he rest in peace.

[shenmue]

48. Rest in peace

[washnwmn]

49. He was a rare breed in congress, statesman and gentleman.

I worked in many of Foley's elections from the time I was a kid, and my mother, who worked in his office at the federal bldg. in Spokane, says he was like a big brother.

As a person he was sincere and looked you in the eye when speaking or listening, and he did listen to his constituents, personally helping many.

I once read an article in a Sunday magazine rating congress-persons on how they got along with others. Foley was at the top of the list as being most respected by members on both sides of the aisle.

He will be missed, and not forgotten.

[Recursion]

55. The first speaker i ever worked for

And a good man. RIP.