Howard Henry Baker, Jr.
(November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014)
Wait, what is this? Metacrock Lamenting the passing of a Republican? He was more than just a republican he was the last of the great statesmen. I was jarred by the words of the News anchor Brain Williams who said "we used to call them statesmen." I assume that we used to call them that because we don't any more and we don't anymore because there are no more statesmen!
The concept of the statesman was that of a politician who transcended the narrow confines of the party line and who voted as he saw best for the country. That was Backer. He is most famous as the vice-chariman of the Watergate committee who asked the most relivant question that became the focal point of the whole Watergate affair: what did the President know and when did he know it? In asking that in that context he transcended party and became a man of the people. He also showed that same kind of statesmanship in all of his dealings in the Senate.
He was the son-in-law of the great Everett Dirksen, the "lion" of the senate. "he married former U.S. Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, daughter of the late Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon, who was the Republican nominee for President in 1936." [1]
Howard Henry Baker, Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was a Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a United States Ambassador to Japan. He worked as a lobbyist and adviser at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.[1]
Known in Washington, D.C. as the "Great Conciliator", Baker was 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.[2]
Williams (NBC News) said that he was so moderate as a Republican if he were running today he would be a Democrat. We have slid so far to the right that if a Republican is not a right-wing tea party lunatic he's considered a liberal.
see Youtube vido "784 days that changed America part 3"
[1] "Howard Baker,"Wikepeidia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baker#Personal_life
[2] Ibid
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