Tip O'Neill

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(Redirected from Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill)

This article is about Tip O'Neill the politician. For Tip O'Neill the 19^th century baseball player, see Tip O'Neill (baseball player)

Image:T O'Neill.jpg 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.

1 Early life
2 Representative O'Neill
3 After Congress
4 Reference
- 4.1 Primary sources

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Early life

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, Mr. 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.

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Representative O'Neill

O'Neill was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952. The seat was vacated by Senator-elect John F. Kennedy. 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. 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 defense. However, O'Neill became more popular in part due to his stance on the Vietnam 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 1971 O'Neill was appointed Assistant Majority Leader in the House and later became the House Majority Leader in 1973. As the majority leader, O'Neill was the most prominent Democrat in the House to call for an investigation and impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Nixon later resigned from office in 1974 due to the impending impeachment hearings and legal matters.

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 Democrat Jimmy Carter became President.

Republicans made O'Neill a target of their 1980 campaign, portraying a washed-up old politician with liberal ideas. The National Republican Congressional Committee produced a television commercial that had an actor who resembled the Speaker 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 became a leading opponent of the Reagan administration's domestic and defense policies. O'Neill believed Mr. Reagan to be appallingly ignorant of the intricacies of government; calling him the most ignorant man who had ever occupied the White House. O'Neill also said that Mr. Reagan was "Herbert Hoover with a smile" and "a cheerleader for selfishness."

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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. 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.

In 1994, at the age of 81, Tip O'Neill passed away, 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", and continued "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. Mr. O'Neill is also survived by his wife, Millie, and eight grandchildren.

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