Tip O'Neill

This article is about the politician. For the baseball player, see Tip O'Neill (baseball).

For other people named Thomas O'Neill, see Thomas O'Neill (disambiguation).

Thomas "Tip" O'Neill
55th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
In office January 4 1977 – January 3 1987
Preceded by	Carl Albert
Succeeded by	Jim Wright
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 11th, 8th district
In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	John F. Kennedy
Succeeded by	Joseph P. Kennedy, II
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Millie O'Neill

Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician. O'Neill was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts of Massachusetts. He was the Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987, making him the second longest-serving Speaker in U.S. history after Sam Rayburn.

Early life and political career

O'Neill was born to Thomas Phillip O'Neill, Sr., and Rose Ann (Tolan) O'Neill in what was known as the Irish middle-class area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. During his childhood, O'Neill received the nickname "Tip" after the baseball player James "Tip" O'Neill. Educated in Roman Catholic schools, O'Neill first became active in politics at 15, campaigning for Al Smith in his 1928 presidential campaign against Republican Herbert Hoover. Four years later, he helped get out the vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a senior at Boston College, O'Neill lost his first campaign, which was for the Cambridge City Council, by only 150 votes.

After graduating in 1936, O'Neill was elected as a Democrat to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In 1949, he became the first Democratic Speaker of the State House in Massachusetts history. He remained in that post until 1952, when he ran for the United States House of Representatives from a district in the Boston suburbs.

Congressman O'Neill

Quick rise in the House leadership

O'Neill was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952. The seat was being vacated by Senator-elect John F. Kennedy (who had just been elected to serve his first term). During his second term in the House, he was selected to the House Rules Committee where he proved a crucial soldier for the Democratic leadership, particularly Speaker John W. McCormack. In 1967, as the chairman of the committee, O'Neill openly criticized President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam War. In a meeting at the White House, O'Neill told the President: "In my heart and in my conscience I believe your policy is wrong." During the Vietnam era, many notable politicians that were opposed to the war were voted out of office because some viewed their stances as anti-American and labeled them as being soft on national defense. However, O'Neill became more popular in part due to his stance on the war. O'Neill won the trust and support of younger House members who also had the same stance on Vietnam, and they became important friends as O'Neill rose in power throughout the House.

In 1968, while discussing the John F. Kennedy assassination during a shared dinner with former Kennedy presidential aide and close friend Kenneth O'Donnell, O'Donnell stated to O'Neill that while he was riding only 30 feet behind Kennedy during the assassination, and felt sure that two of the shots came from behind the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll picket fence (which was to the front and right of Kennedy). O'Donnell also stated that he had told the FBI about this, but that the FBI told him it could not have happened that way (O'Donnell said the FBI told him he was misinterpreting echoes). O'Donnell also claimed that he testified to the Warren Commission the way the FBI wanted him to help the Kennedy family put the assassination behind them. O'Neill stated that former Kennedy presidential aide and Kennedy family friend David Powers (who was sitting next to O'Donnell during the assassination) was also at the same 1968 dinner, and that Powers agreed with what O'Donnell said about there being shots fired from the grassy knoll.

House Majority Whip and Majority Leader

In 1971, O'Neill was appointed Majority Whip in the House, the number three position for the Democratic Party in the House. In 1973, he was elected House Majority Leader, after Hale Boggs died in an plane crash in Alaska. As the majority leader, O'Neill was the most prominent Democrat in the House to call in 1973 for an investigation and possible impeachment of President Richard Nixon because of the Watergate scandal.

O'Neill's association with Republican Leader Gerald Ford

O'Neill became friends with his counterpart on the Republican side, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, and had a hand in his nomination as Vice President. However, O'Neill took many opportunities to criticize the Ford administration. O'Neill said Ford was "a lovely guy but a lousy President" and "worse than Harding and Hoover put together".

Speaker of the House

O'Neill replaces Carl Albert

As a result of the Tongsun Park scandal in 1975, House Speaker Carl Albert retired from Congress. O'Neill was elected Speaker in 1977, the same year Carter became President.

O'Neill's work with President Jimmy Carter

With substantial majorities in each house of Congress and control of the White House, O'Neill had hoped that the Democrats would be able to implement many social programs, such as universal health care and more jobs programs. Instead, the Democrats lacked party discipline on such matters. While the Carter administration and O'Neill began strong with passage of the ethics and energy packages in 1977, it had some major stumbles. Troubles began with Carter's threats to veto a water projects bill, a pet project of many members of Congress. O'Neill was also irked by some of Carter's appointments to federal offices as well as his staff. Due to a continuing weak economy and the Iran hostage crisis, prospects looked bad for Carter and the Democrats in the upcoming congressional and presidential election.

Republicans target O'Neill in 1980

Republicans made O'Neill a target of their 1980 campaign, portraying him as a washed-up old politician with liberal ideas. The National Republican Congressional Committee produced a television commercial that had an actor who resembled O'Neill laughing off warnings that his vehicle was low on fuel, until the vehicle finally ground to a halt. The announcer then proclaimed, "The Democrats have run out of gas." Although the Republicans made significant gains in the House in 1980, coinciding with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan, similar efforts to target O'Neill in the 1982 elections backfired and the Democrats remained firmly in control of the House for more than a decade.

O'Neill at odds with President Ronald Reagan

O'Neill became a leading opponent of the Reagan administration's domestic and defense policies. This political rivalry was comprable to that of Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. O'Neill called Reagan the most ignorant man who had ever occupied the White House. O'Neill also said that Reagan was "Herbert Hoover with a smile" and "a cheerleader for selfishness". He also said that Reagan's policies meant that his presidency meant it was "One big Christmas party for the rich". Privately, O'Neill and Reagan were always on cordial terms; As Reagan himself put it in his memoirs, they were only friends "after 5PM".

Working for peace in Northern Ireland

One of O'Neill's greatest accomplishments as Speaker involved Northern Ireland. He worked with fellow Irish-American politicians New York Governor Hugh Carey, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-New York. They became known as the "Four Horsemen". Beginning with the "St. Patrick's Day declaration" in 1977 denouncing violence in Northern Ireland and culminating with the Irish aid package upon the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, the "Four Horsemen" convinced both Carter and Reagan to press the British government on the subject.

After Congress

O'Neill retired from his seat in 1987. That same year O'Neill wrote (with author William Novak) about his career in the best-selling book Man of the House. During his retirement, O'Neill made commercials for a credit card company, a motel chain, and a personal computer. He also made a brief appearance in the 1993 film Dave (as himself) assessing the work of the fictional American President in the movie. He did a voiceover for a segment of the Ken Burns series Baseball. The lifelong Red Sox fan read the Boston Globe from the day the Red Sox won the first World Series.

He also had a cameo role in a 1984 episode of Cheers two years before his retirement when he ducked into the bar to escape a woman who pestered him on the street about his political ideals. She turned out to be Diane Chambers. He later said that the show was ranked 60th in the Nielsen Ratings at that time and that the week afterward it jumped some 20 places.

Later on in retirement, O'Neill, who had suffered from colon cancer, made public service advertisements about cancer in which he joined athletes and movie stars in talking candidly about having the disease.

Death and legacy

O'Neill died in 1994, survived by his widow, Mildred, and their children. Upon his passing, then-President Bill Clinton said: "Tip O'Neill was the nation's most prominent, powerful and loyal champion of working people... He loved politics and government because he saw politics and government could make a difference in people's lives. And he loved people most of all."

The Speaker's oldest son and namesake, Thomas P. O'Neill III, a former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, is in public relations in Boston. Another son, Christopher, is a Washington lawyer, and a third, Michael, is in business in Cambridge. One daughter, Susan, has her own business in Washington, and another, Rosemary, is a political officer for the State Department.

O'Neill's wife, Millie, died on October 6, 2003. In addition to their children, they are survived by eight grandchildren.

The Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel, built through downtown Boston as part of the Big Dig to carry Interstate 93 under Boston, is named for him. Other structures named for him include a federal office building in Boston, a golf course in Cambridge, and the main library at his alma mater, Boston College.

In the Book Hardball by Chris Matthews Tip O'Neill is used about as frequently as the word "the".

Notes

• The phrase "All Politics Is Local" is attributed to Tip O'Neill.
• Book: All Politics Is Local: And Other Rules of the Game (Paperback) by Tip O'Neill, Gary Hymel — ISBN 1-55850-470-2

References

• Farrell, John A. (2001). Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 0-316-26049-5.
• Thomas P. O'Neill, Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill With William Novak (1987)
• Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., a Democratic Power in the House for Decades, Dies at 81 obituary

External links

• United States Congress. "Tip O'Neill (id: O000098)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• http://www.jafarrell.com
• in his 1987 autobiography, "Man of the House" (page 211), and 18:50 into this video documentary, "Beyond 'JFK' The Question of Conspiracy," O'Neill speaks about the two Kennedy friends/presidential aides/close witnesses to the assassination of President Kennedy stating that shots were fired from the grassy knoll
• Obituary, NY Times, January 7, 1994 Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., a Democratic Power in the House for Decades, Dies at 81

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