Howard Baker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Howard Henry Baker, Jr.
14th United States Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1985
Preceded by	Robert Byrd
Succeeded by	Bob Dole
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office January 3, 1967–January 3, 1985
Preceded by	Ross Bass
Succeeded by	Albert A. Gore, Jr.
Born	November 15, 1925 (age 81) Huntsville, Tennessee
Political party	Republican
Spouse	(1) Joy Dirksen, (deceased); (2) Nancy Landon Kassebaum

Howard Henry Baker, Jr. (born November 15, 1925) is a former Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a former United States Ambassador to Japan.

Known in Washington, D.C. as the "Great Conciliator," Baker is often regarded as one of the most successful Senators in terms of brokering compromises, enacting legislation, and maintaining civility. A story is sometimes told of a reporter telling a senior Democratic senator that privately, a plurality of his Democratic colleagues would vote for Baker for President of the United States. The senator is reported to have replied, "You're wrong. He'd win a majority." Baker is an alumnus of the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.

Contents 1 Family history 2 Political career 3 Personal life 4 See also 5 External links 6 Further reading

[edit] Family history

Baker was born in Huntsville, in Scott County, Tennessee. He attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and after graduating he attended Tulane University in New Orleans and later the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 and graduated from the University of Tennessee Law College in 1949. That same year, he was admitted to the Tennessee bar and commenced his practice. The rotunda at the University of Tennessee College of Law is now named for him.

Baker's father, Howard H. Baker Sr., served as a member from Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives from 1951 until 1964.

[edit] Political career

The younger Baker began his own political career in 1964, when he lost an election to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Estes Kefauver to Ross Bass. In the 1966 Senate election, Bass lost the Democratic primary to former Governor Frank G. Clement. In the general election, Baker capitalized on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base, specifically Tennessee labor, and won. He thus became the first Republican Senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction.

Baker was re-elected in 1972 and again in 1978, and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1985. For the last eight of those years, he led the Senate Republicans, with two terms as Senate Minority Leader (1977-1981) and two terms as Senate Majority Leader (1981-1985). Baker was also the influential ranking minority member of the Senate committee, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin, that investigated the Watergate scandal. He is famous for having asked aloud, "What did the President know and when did he know it?", a question given him to ask by his counsel and former campaign manager, future U.S. Senator Fred Thompson.

Baker ran for President in 1980, dropping out of the race for the GOP nomination after losing the Iowa caucuses to George Bush and the New Hampshire Primary to Ronald Reagan. Baker's duties as Senate Minority Leader prevented him from campaigning heavily in these important early test races.

He did not seek re-election in 1984, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom the same year. However, as a testament to his skill as a negotiator and honest and amiable broker, Reagan tapped him to serve as Chief of Staff during part of his second term (1987-1988). Many saw this as a move to mend relations with the Senate, which had deteriorated somewhat under the previous Chief of Staff, Donald Regan. (Baker had complained that Regan had become a too-powerful "Prime Minister" inside an increasingly complex Imperial Presidency.)

In 2001, the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy was set up at the University of Tennessee in honor of the former senator. Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech at the 2005 ground-breaking ceremony for the Center's new building.

[edit] Personal life

Baker has been married to the daughters of two prominent Republicans. Since 1996 he has been married to former U.S. Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, the daughter of the late Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon, who was the Republican nominee for President in 1936. Baker's late first wife, Joy, who died of cancer, was the daughter of former Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen.

[edit] See also

• Snail darter controversy

[edit] External links

• Congressional Biography
• Biography from the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee
• Citigroup biography

[edit] Further reading

• Annis, James. Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crises. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1994
• U.S. Congress. Senate. Tributes to the Honorable Howard Baker, Jr., of Tennessee in the United States Senate, Upon the Occasion of His Retirement from the Senate. 98th Cong., 2d sess., 1984. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1984.

Preceded by Ross Bass	United States Senator (Class 2) from Tennessee 1967-1985 Served alongside: Albert A. Gore, Sr., William E. Brock, James R. Sasser	Succeeded by Albert A. Gore Jr.
Preceded by Hugh Scott	United States Senate Minority Leader 1977–1981	Succeeded by Robert Byrd
Preceded by Robert Byrd	United States Senate Majority Leader 1981–1985	Succeeded by Bob Dole
Preceded by Donald Regan	White House Chief of Staff 1987–1988	Succeeded by Kenneth Duberstein
Preceded by Tom Foley	U.S. Ambassador to Japan 2001–2005	Succeeded by John Thomas Schieffer

White House Chiefs of Staff
Steelman • Adams • Persons • Haldeman • Haig • Rumsfeld • Cheney • Jordan • Watson • J Baker • Regan • H Baker • Duberstein • Sununu • Skinner • J Baker • McLarty • Panetta • Bowles • Podesta • Card • Bolten

United States Senate Majority Leaders
Lodge • Curtis • Watson • Robinson • Barkley • White • Lucas • McFarland • Taft • Knowland • Johnson • Mansfield • Byrd • Baker • Dole • Byrd • Mitchell • Dole • Lott • Daschle • Lott • Daschle • Frist • Reid

United States Senate Minority Leaders
Underwood • Robinson • McNary • Austin • McNary • White • Barkley • Wherry • Bridges • Johnson • Knowland • Dirksen • Scott • Baker • Byrd • Dole • Daschle • Lott • Daschle • Lott • Frist • Daschle • Reid • McConnell