Thomas P. Oneill :: essays research papers fc

Thomas P. ONeill     Tip was a man who was not blate to call himself "a man of the stick out."Thomas P. ONeill was a person whose superlative charm was that he seemed"completely out-of-date as a politician." (Clift) He was a gruff, drinking,card playing, backroom kind of guy. He had an image that political candidates counterbalance consultants to make over. He k young these qualities gave him his powerbecause they "made him real." (Sennot 17) His gigantic figure and survivebeaten face symbolizes a political force of five decades, from Roosevelts newdeal to the Reagan retrenchment. He was the last democratic leader of the old inform and "the longest-serving speaker of the house (1977-1986) and easily themost loved." (Clift)     Thomas P. ONeill (1912-1994) al itinerarys knew wherefore he was in Washington, andwhat he stood for. He was a native of capital of momma and always prided himself on histheory that & quotall politics is local." (ONeill 1) Tip was a friend of every oneness.When ordinary sight wanted something of ONeill he gave it to them. Whenanyone asked him a favor, he would do it. ONeill served fifty years in publiclife and retired with moreover fifteen thousand dollars to his name. He devoted hislife and his money to the people of Boston.     Tip came of age in the Great Depression, arrived in congress fromMassachusetts in 1952 and "came to power amid the plenty of the 60s and 70s."(Woodlief 4) He was a rampant self-aggrandizing who "would usually vote yes on any billthat helped people (he one time voted to put money into an appropriations bill tostudy knock knees)." (Gelzinas 6) When Reagan came into office in 1980 biggovernment began to feel the pinch and ONeills big hearted liberalism was onthe way out. In 1980, ONeill was a target of a clever Republican ad campaignthat pictured him in a limo as a symbol of a bloated out of contr ol congress.The advertisement backfired and it sent ONeill into family line hero status. Tip even"made an appearance on "Cheers" as an effect of the advertisement." (Time 18)     Tip said that he "only made one vote that he regretted." (ONeill 218)It was a yes vote on the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin colonization that gave Lyndon Johnsonfull control over all military intervention in Vietnam. He did this because itwas a time when Congress did what leadership asked, in feature there was not onedescending vote in the house on this issue (414-0). Right away he hadspeculation that the fair House might use this as a device to founder up full