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Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill

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MAN OF THE HOUSE reads more like a conversation with a favourite grandparent than the memoirs of someone with fifty years of experience in politics and the book is the better for it. The book is vaguely set up in chronological order starting from his childhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts and ending with his retirement from his position as Speaker of the House. But Tip (one feels to be on a first-name basis after the familiar tone of the book) sprinkles many anecdotes and jokes throughout the text, giving it a conversational flavour instead of reading like a straight history.

O'Neill does not try to hide the fact that he is a Democrat and an extremely partisan one at that. However, he does not let his philosophies blind him to what people really are. He remembers the flaws that were present in some of his Democratic colleagues and speaks about the good qualities in the Republicans in Congress. Partisanship never gets in the way of friendship and he recalls many stories of socializing with members of both parties after a day spent fighting legislative battles.

It's fascinating to read about (what is now) history through the eyes of someone who was witnessing first-hand so much of it. An entire chapter is dedicated to the Watergate scandal of the Nixon years and we can see it unfolding as he saw it. Nixon can be seen through the eyes of someone who was not a part of his close inner-circle, but who was closer than the general public. He offers his thoughts on the pardon given by President Ford and his mixed feelings on the subject.

All the Presidents that he worked with are given a chapter of their own where O'Neill offers praise, criticism and a few humourous anecdotes. As expected, fellow Bostonian Jack Kennedy receives the most attention, having one chapter dedicated to him and another to his family. O'Neill describes a man who surrounded himself by a team of people that were the best in the business when it came to getting someone elected, but who really did not have the first clue in how to deal with legislators.

O'Neill describes many of the battles he had with Kennedy's successor, President Johnson, on the subject of Vietnam. O'Neill broke from the President's position and was quite vocal in his condemnation of the war. The deep division in the Congress and the conversations he had with the President are given a lot of attention. O'Neill details how, while agreeing with the sentiments of the protestors, he felt that they were distracting from the message. Every time someone would smash a window in anger during a gathering, instead of reports of general unrest, the story in the press would be that this was another action supported by Tip.

The last two presidents that Tip served with were the two in office during his tenure as Speaker of the House. President Carter, the Democrat, and President Reagan, the Republican, are seen to Tip as being almost complete opposites. Where every conversation O'Neill had with Carter demonstrated the President's obvious knowledge in on a given subject, virtually all Reagan had to talk about were old movies and baseball. The main difference in their leadership styles, and what Tip found so frustrating, was the difference in which the two men viewed the Congress. Carter took a much more passive role, not really understanding the way that Washington worked. In contrast, Reagan would be constantly on the phone to the members of Congress, sweet-talking them into supporting his bills.

This was a very interesting read and I highly recommend it. O'Neill himself comes across as a very warm and friendly person who, in all his years in government, never forgot where he came from. His fights over various pieces of legislation down the years always came down to a simple desire to help the little guy.

The man who coined this phrase, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, one of the most influential congressmen in history, never forgot his roots. Always looking out for "the little guys" who elected him, but always making them feel like "big guys," Tip O'Neill never lost an election following his elevation to the Massachusetts House in 1936 at age twenty-two. Sixteen years later, he received a private tip from John F. Kennedy, a year ahead of time, that JFK would be giving up his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952, and O'Neill prepared early and ran for and won that seat, soon becoming as savvy a backroom politician as old Joe Kennedy ever was, and considerably more honest. As Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987, O'Neill enjoyed his role as a power broker, while improving the lives of ordinary citizens instead of feathering his own nest.

With William Novak acting as writer/recorder, O'Neill reminisces like the consummate "Irish politician" that he was, telling lively stories about the country's most powerful leaders, often telling "tales out of school" in the interest of "honesty." Every reader will know exactly how O'Neill felt about each of the Presidents and politicians with whom he worked. He helped JFK try to buy off Edward McCormack (unsuccessfully) when McCormack was running for Senate against Teddy, but he disliked Bobby, considering him a "self-important upstart and a know-it-all." Though he disagreed with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing LBJ to "take all necessary measures" in Vietnam, he voted for it, then publicly changed his mind, a move that infuriated LBJ, who needed all the support he could muster.

His observations of Nixon suggest that Nixon, a master manipulator, completely lost touch with reality regarding Watergate, joking about issues that were not even slightly funny. He regarded Jimmy Carter as naïve and completely unable to get anything done, in part because he surrounded himself with people O'Neill considered arrogant, especially "Hannible Jerkin." And he never understood how Ronald Reagan could have managed two terms as President when his grasp of issues was so limited, citing an example in which Reagan confused President Grover Cleveland with the ballplayer Grover Cleveland Alexander. Reagan, he says, was often speechless at State Dinners, until the topic turned to movies and Hollywood.

Though Tip O'Neill's most memorable legacy may be that he brought The Big Dig to Boston and changed the face of the city, he never failed to sponsor legislation which would benefit poor "little guys." In this fascinating, sometimes gritty depiction of backroom political maneuvering, O'Neill elevates power broking to an art form with politicians as the artists, creating an unforgettable tale of old-time politics the likes of which we will probably never see again. n Mary Whipple

All Politics Is Local: And Other Rules of the Game
Memorial Addresses and Tributes in Honor Ofthomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr
Tip O' Neill and the Democratic Century: A Biography

I recently received this book as a gift from an older, wiser cousin after I asked for something to help me learn a bit more about the politics of our nation. It was superb. I found it difficult to put down and it has inspired me to seek out more political memoirs and learn more about the infamous politicans that have made their mark on Washington. Tip O'Neill is a magnificent story teller and his honest opinions make the book that much more true to life. I highly recommend it to anyone, young or old, looking for a good book with a lot of class.

When you are reading this book, you feel like you are in the room as the events are taking place. The insight to the behind the scenes are amazing. Makes you love politics and the good great leaders who truly love this country can acommplish.
Tip, you were a Great Man and are truly missed.

This is an entertaining, anecdotal biography of former Massachusetts Congressman Thomas "Tip" O'Neill. Before his retirement, O'Neill parleyed his popularity and seniority into several terms as Speaker of the US House of Representatives. He was a faithful follower of the Kennedys. He became a minor celebrity of sorts appearing as himself in television commercials and on an episode of the sitcom "Cheers."

His nickname was derivative: the original Tip O'Neill was a professional baseball player who would have been long forgotten but for the fact his sobriquet was recycled on Capitol Hill. The Speaker engages in some interesting reminiscing as he recalls unemployed Bostonians who lined up to accept Depression Era jobs shoveling snow from sidewalks for a daily wage in return for peddling their votes to the Democratic ward politicians, of the now distant time when Republican Brahmins dominated Massachusetts politics and of the roguish James M. Curley, the twice imprisoned Boston Mayor, hustling up campaign contributions for a split of the overall take.

O'Neill was an unrepentant New Deal liberal, who refused to acknowledge that the times had changed. He seemed to personally embittered by the fact that Ronald W. Reagan (the son of a nonpracticing Irish Catholic father and a Scotch Protestant mother) abandoned the Democratic Party of his youth and became the leader of the Republicans. Despite lacking a Republican majority in the House, Reagan frequently was able to peel off enough Southern Democrats to beat O'Neill on crucial votes. O'Neill seemed to like Reagan at a personal level while detesting his political policies. He did grudgingly admit that Reagan was a good golfer (O'Neill was an enthusiastic duffer).

His astute observation that "[a]ll politics is local" remains as true today as the day that he first said it. Whether or not you would have like to have had the opportunity to vote for O'Neill, the truth is you would probably would have wanted to share a few glasses of beer with him and listen to his stories. This light book is amusing, which is more than can be said for many political memoirs.

Other than being Irish Catholic and from Boston, I have nothing in common with Tip O'Neill. I think he stood for all that was wrong with Washington, all that was wrong with petty ethnic politics, big, ineffective and wasteful government, the politics of favors and graft, and standing up for "Irish" but often selling "Catholic" short.

And I love Man of the House.

An endearing, often honest, and occassionally witty memoir, Tips tells of his life in the political institutions he loved so much. This book is worth reading repeatedly since you uncover more gems upon further read and reflection. His aspirations, hopes and intents, while sometimes poorly envisioned, were rarely not borne of the finest virtues.
This was a man who the knew the game and knew it well and, unlike now, was in an age in Washington where politicians of opposing views drank and played cards together. In some measure, that is a legacy to be sorely missed.

Tip O'Neill was a great politician and you can feel this though his writing. This book covers Kennedy, LBJ, Vietnam, Watergate, the Carter White House, and The Regan White House in one book. He is an amazing writer. He was a true peoples Democrat. I belive that the Democrats will never win congress back until they look back on his philosophy that "All politics is locale."

Tip O'Neill was an old-fashioned politician. He came up he traditional route, kissing babies, handing out jobs and favors and calling them back in when the time came. He is often credited with coming up with the quip that all politics is local.

O'Neill spent fifty years in politics, 34 of them in the House of Representatives, ten of those as Speaker. He was, in my opinion, a living argument for term limits and harsh punishment for those "public servants" and elected officials who violate the public trust.

Co-authored with William Novak, who may have carried most of the writing load, this is a breezy, enjoyable memoir of the things O'Neill could talk about without fear of going to jail.

O'Neill came into the House in early 1953, just before Eisenhower assumed office. He recounts his experiences with Presidents, beginning with a chance meeting with FDR, then Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. O'Neill was a partisan, though not as shrill as those currently in power.

It is probably obvious that I am not a fan of O'Neill or his politics. However, that didn't stop me from enjoying his recounting of his far too many years in the House. O'Neill isn't shy about recounting the political maneuvering he engaged in that was on the right side of the law. Some of the stories are fascinating, like the one about he played messenger boy between then Speaker Sam Rayburn and Democratic Presidential nominee John F. Kennedy to put Lyndon Johnson on the ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. Backroom politics at its best.

On the other hand, it strains credulity when O'Neill pretends thsat the dirty politics engaged in by Nixon and his cronies was different than what his party did.

One of the best howlers in the book is Tip O'Neill saying " "[c]ontrary to the popular view, politics today may be one of the cleanest professions rather than the dirtiest". He was speaking of the period when he appointed Charlie Wilson - who was managing a quasi-private and very secret war in Afghanistan - to the House Ethics Committee to keep unindicted ABSCAM conspirator John Murtha from any kind of disciplinary sanctions.

Not much has changed. Politicians still tell us how pristine and pure they are, while keeping their hands out for "contributions" and returning the favor with taxpayer money. O'Neill was one of the best of that breed and his biography is worth reading, especially if you are able to read between the lines.

Jerry

In these highly entertaining memoirs, House speaker Thomas P. ¨Tip¨ O'Neill describes his half-century in public office, politics, deal-making, and 34 years in Congress (1952-1986) including the last ten as speaker. O'Neill describes his political life in chronological order, beginning with his first race for City Council (his only loss) while a student at Boston College. From there we learn about the Massachusetts Legislature (he was speaker there too), and his 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. O'Neill shares his basic philosophy of Jobs, helping the poor, loyalty to your roots, disagreeing without being disagreeable, and remembering that all politics are local. From these pages we see the value of friends in politics, and the intellectual and political skills of competent elected officials. Readers also learn how the House of Representatives works, and get a view of characters like James Curley, Sam Rayburn, John McCormack, etc. We also get Tip's view on each President from Kennedy thru Reagan. In short, this gregarious man weaves a host of entertaining anecdotes into a combined and valuable autobiography-memoir-political primer.

I'd have liked more on the workings of the House of Representatives, and editors shouldn't list congressman Marty Russo (D-IL) as Mary Russo. Also, some readers may not like O'Neill's Democratic partisanship, or his view of Jimmy Carter as brilliant but personally deficient, nor his correct indictment of Reagan as a charming but ill-informed rich jerk who disdained the poor. Still, this book was a bestseller shortly after O'Neill retired, and remains an informative and fun read.

I really enjoyed this book---it made me appreciate the late, great Tip O'Neill even more. The book is well written (and reads like the author speaks) and provides good, easy-to-understand information on political life in Boston and Washington. In particular, the info. on the Kennedys is first rate. Do yourself a favor: get this asap.