DOCSLIB.ORG

Spokes, Pyramids, and Chiefs of Staff: Howard H. Baker, Jr. and the Reagan Presidency

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Spokes, Pyramids, and Chiefs of Staff: Howard H. Baker, Jr. and the Reagan Presidency University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2008 Spokes, Pyramids, and Chiefs of Staff: Howard H. Baker, Jr. and the Reagan Presidency Michael Lee Haynes University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the American Politics Commons Recommended Citation Haynes, Michael Lee, "Spokes, Pyramids, and Chiefs of Staff: Howard H. Baker, Jr. and the Reagan Presidency. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2008. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/384 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Michael Lee Haynes entitled "Spokes, Pyramids, and Chiefs of Staff: Howard H. Baker, Jr. and the Reagan Presidency." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. Michael R. Fitzgerald, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: John M. Scheb II, William Lyons, E. Grady Bogue Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Michael Lee Haynes entitled “Spokes, Pyramids, and Chiefs of Staff: Howard H. Baker, Jr. and the Reagan Presidency.” I have examined the final paper copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. ____________________________________ Michael R. Fitzgerald, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: __________________________ John M. Scheb, II __________________________ William Lyons __________________________ E. Grady Bogue Accepted for the Council: ____________________________________ Carolyn R. Hodges, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) SPOKES, PYRAMIDS, AND CHIEFS OF STAFF: HOWARD H. BAKER, JR. AND THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Michael Lee Haynes May 2008 Copyright © 2008 by Michael L. Haynes All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my family; my daughters Laura, Jessica, and Regan, and especially my wife, Mary, who I love with all my heart, for their love, support, and sacrifice throughout the process. Also, to my mother, Winnie who taught me to love books and the knowledge they provide. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation for the encouragement and support I received during this process. One cannot overstate the impact mentors have in the lives of their students, especially when those persons are willing to take their time, knowledge, and wisdom and selflessly pour it into the lives of others. First, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Cheryl Brown for the interest and support she provided in encouraging me to continue my graduate education. Thank you for helping to open my mind to the possibilities. Next, I would like to thank Alan Lowe, executive director of the Howard H. Barker Jr. Center for Public Policy, for his willingness to support the research with time and resources, and his staff who were more than supportive of the research. I would like to thank my dissertation committee; Dr. Michael R. Fitzgerald, chair; Dr. John M. Scheb, II; Dr. William Lyons; and Dr. E. Grady Bogue for their support during the process. I would like to thank Dr. John M. Scheb, II and the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee for providing the Durish grant which enabled research outside the walls of the university. Lastly and most importantly I wish to thank Dr. Michael R. Fitzgerald, not only for his support of the research but for his confidence in me as a person. Thank you for pouring your time, energy, and resources into me. Dr. Fitzgerald has been a true mentor in every phase of the journey. He not only showed me the path, but walked with me to the end. iv ABSTRACT One of the most compelling areas of research when considering the modern presidency is the role of the White House chief of staff (COS) and the direct impact it has on the presidency. The office of the president’s chief of staff is often referred to as the power behind the throne. Chiefs of staff exercise great authority and control within the White House Office (WHO) functioning as a filter or gatekeeper strictly controlling the access of information and people reaching the president. The COS is also one of the president’s closest advisers. James Baker, former chief of staff for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush has stated the White House chief of staff is the second most powerful job in government. However, the position has commanded relatively little attention from presidential scholars. Nevertheless, understanding this component of the modern White House is important if we are to better explain why some presidencies are more effective than others. This study focuses on the chief of staff and how the office functions within the organizational and managerial structure of the White House as a key to understanding the effective operation of the modern presidency. Specifically the study considers Howard H. Baker, Jr. and his tenure during the Ronald Reagan presidency. Relatively little research has been conducted exploring Baker’s tenure as COS, yet the Reagan presidency experienced a major transformation during this period – going from an administration in serious trouble to a stable presidency with high approval ratings. A closer study of the transformation process may provide a better understanding of the impact the COS has on the presidency. The study finds strong support for the thesis that the White House chief of staff is a critically important v component within the modern presidency and has a direct impact on the president and the potential effectiveness of his administration. Howard Baker’s tenure as COS clearly demonstrates the dramatic changes chiefs of staff can produce within a presidency. In Baker’s case the impact was both substantial and positive in the rescue and rehabilitation of the Reagan presidency. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. ...................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Analytical Framework .................................................................................................... 9 PRESIDENTIAL POWER THEORY ...................................................................... 10 The individual ....................................................................................................... 11 The institution ....................................................................................................... 12 THE WHITE HOUSE ORGANIZATION ............................................................... 15 Competitive Theory .............................................................................................. 16 Collegial Theory (Spokes-of-a-Wheel)................................................................. 16 Formalistic Theory (Hierarchical - Pyramid) ....................................................... 17 DATA AND METHODS ......................................................................................... 18 HOWARD BAKER AND THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY .................................... 22 Outline of Chapters....................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 2. .................................................................................................................... 26 THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESIDENCY ................................................................ 26 The President ................................................................................................................ 33 The Presidency.............................................................................................................. 41 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER 3. .................................................................................................................... 53 THE WHITE HOUSE ORGANIZATION ....................................................................... 53 Three Approaches to White House Organization ......................................................... 54 THE COMPETITIVE APPROACH......................................................................... 55 THE COLLEGIAL APPROACH............................................................................. 57 THE FORMALISTIC APPROACH......................................................................... 59 The Presidents and their
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES King V
    SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES King v. Burwell: The Facts and Implications Senate Hart Office Building, Room 902 Friday, June 5, 2015 ROBERT J. BLENDON is professor of health policy and political analysis and senior associate dean of policy translation and leadership development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a faculty member of Harvard Kennedy School. He directs the Harvard Opinion Research Program, which focuses on the better understanding of public knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about health and other major domestic public policy issues, and was the 2008 recipient of the Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research. Prior to his Harvard appointment, he was senior vice-president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, he has served as a senior consultant for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Governors Association, and the House Committee on Ways and Means. MICHAEL F. CANNON is the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies. He has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, and NPR. His articles have been featured in numerous news publications. Previously, he served as a domestic policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, where he advised the Senate leadership on health, education, labor, welfare, and the Second Amendment. He holds a B.A. in American government from the University of Virginia, and an M.A. in economics and a J.M. in law and economics from George Mason University. DAN CRIPPEN is executive director of the National Governors Association (NGA). He works with governors to identify and prioritize pressing issues facing states, and he oversees NGA’s day-to-day operations.
    [Show full text]
  • David Hume Kennerly Archive Creation Project
    DAVID HUME KENNERLY ARCHIVE CREATION PROJECT 50 YEARS BEHIND THE SCENES OF HISTORY The David Hume Kennerly Archive is an extraordinary collection of images, objects and recollections created and collected by a great American photographer, journalist, artist and historian documenting 50 years of United States and world history. The goal of the DAVID HUME KENNERLY ARCHIVE CREATION PROJECT is to protect, organize and share its rare and historic objects – and to transform its half-century of images into a cutting-edge digital educational tool that is fully searchable and available to the public for research and artistic appreciation. 2 DAVID HUME KENNERLY Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly has spent his career documenting the people and events that have defined the world. The last photographer hired by Life Magazine, he has also worked for Time, People, Newsweek, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, Politico, ABC, NBC, CNN and served as Chief White House Photographer for President Gerald R. Ford. Kennerly’s images convey a deep understanding of the forces shaping history and are a peerless repository of exclusive primary source records that will help educate future generations. His collection comprises a sweeping record of a half-century of history and culture – as if Margaret Bourke-White had continued her work through the present day. 3 HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE The David Hume Kennerly collection of photography, historic artifacts, letters and objects might be one of the largest and most historically significant private collections ever produced and collected by a single individual. Its 50-year span of images and objects tells the complete story of the baby boom generation.
    [Show full text]
  • New Report ID
    Number 21 April 2004 BAKER INSTITUTE REPORT NOTES FROM THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY OF RICE UNIVERSITY BAKER INSTITUTE CELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY Vice President Dick Cheney was man you only encounter a few the keynote speaker at the Baker times in life—what I call a ‘hun- See our special Institute’s 10th anniversary gala, dred-percenter’—a person of which drew nearly 800 guests to ability, judgment, and absolute gala feature with color a black-tie dinner October 17, integrity,” Cheney said in refer- 2003, that raised more than ence to Baker. photos on page 20. $3.2 million for the institute’s “This is a man who was chief programs. Cynthia Allshouse and of staff on day one of the Reagan Rice trustee J. D. Bucky Allshouse years and chief of staff 12 years ing a period of truly momentous co-chaired the anniversary cel- later on the last day of former change,” Cheney added, citing ebration. President Bush’s administra- the fall of the Soviet Union, the Cheney paid tribute to the tion,” Cheney said. “In between, Persian Gulf War, and a crisis in institute’s honorary chair, James he led the treasury department, Panama during Baker’s years at A. Baker, III, and then discussed oversaw two landslide victories in the Department of State. the war on terrorism. presidential politics, and served “There is a certain kind of as the 61st secretary of state dur- continued on page 24 NIGERIAN PRESIDENT REFLECTS ON CHALLENGES FACING HIS NATION President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Republic of Nigeria observed that Africa, as a whole, has been “unstable for too long” during a November 5, 2003, presentation at the Baker Institute.
    [Show full text]
  • Undergraduate Commencement Exercises Program, August 6, 1954
    iryuut QTnllrgr of iUllint6a i\~m iut6tratinn Nittety-first }.ttttual Q!nmmettcrmeut August fif 1954 10 n'rlnrk ]ieteratt6' :!Irmnrial i\uikitoriltUt 'ronilltl1tt, fRQnb t lJslal1ll <1Drber of iE~erttae6 PRE IDING H ENRY L. JACOBS, M.S. in B.A.; D .Ed.; LL.D.; Litt.D.; D.Se. President of B ryant College ~ NIUSICA L PRELUDE Selections fr<>m Friml) Herbe'rt) Rombe 'rg~ Strattss) Lehar A CADE1HIC PROCESSION "Pomp and Circumstance", E lgar and "Triumphal March" Fucik THE NATIONAL AN THEM (T he audience will remain tanding for the Invocation) INVOCATION REVEREND CHARLES H. :McKENNA, D.P. Chaplain) Providence College GREETINGS OF THE STATE THE HONOURABLE DENNIS J. ROBERTS GoveTnor of R hode Island and Providence Plantations GREETINGS OF THE CITY THE HONOURABLE WALTER H. R EYNOLDS M ayor of Providence " USEFUL CITIZENSHIP A m PERSONAL SATISFACTION" DR. HAROLD C. CASE P1"esidenl of Boston University PEACE-OUR FRONTIER GOAL" DR. HENRY L. J ACOBS President of Bryant College ~ CONFERRIN OF HONOR AR Y DEGREE ~ PRESENTATION OF CANDIDATES FOR BACHELOR S DEGREES AND DIPLOMA AWAR DING OF DEGREES AND DIPLOMAS PRESIDENT JACOBS PRESENTATI ON OF TEACHERS' ELIGIBILITY STATEMENTS D R. MICHAEL F . W ALSH Commissioner of Education of the State of R hode Island ~ BENEDICTION REVEREND EDGAR CARPENTER RECKARD, J R., A.B .. D.D. Chaplain) B rown Unive'rsity RECESSIONA L MUSIC (The audience is asked to withhold applause (except in the ca e Of honorary degrees) until the last person in each group has left the platform. Following the Benediction, the audience is requested to remain standing until the procession has left.) fi;nnnrary ilrgrees ~ DOCTOR OF LAWS (LL.D.) THE HONOURABLE SHERMAN ADAMS T he Assistant to the President of the United Stat s Bor n in East Dover, Vermont, Governor Adams is descended on his father's side from Henry Adams who established the Quincy, Massachusetts, branch in the early colonial period.
    [Show full text]
  • Caspar Weinberger and the Reagan Defense Buildup
    The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2013 Direct Responsibility: Caspar Weinberger and the Reagan Defense Buildup Robert Howard Wieland University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the American Studies Commons, Military History Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Wieland, Robert Howard, "Direct Responsibility: Caspar Weinberger and the Reagan Defense Buildup" (2013). Dissertations. 218. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/218 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi DIRECT RESPONSIBILITY: CASPAR WEINBERGER AND THE REAGAN DEFENSE BUILDUP by Robert Howard Wieland Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School Of The University of Southern Mississippi In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2013 ABSTRACT DIRECT RESPONSIBILITY: CASPAR WEINBERGER AND THE REAGAN DEFENSE BUILDUP by Robert Howard Wieland December 2013 This dissertation explores the life of Caspar Weinberger and explains why President Reagan chose him for Secretary of Defense. Weinberger, not a defense technocrat, managed a massive defense buildup of 1.5 trillion dollars over a four year period. A biographical approach to Weinberger illuminates Reagan’s selection, for in many ways Weinberger harkens back to an earlier type of defense manager more akin to Elihu Root than Robert McNamara; more a man of letters than technocrat.
    [Show full text]
  • Howard H. Baker, Jr
    Howard H. Baker, Jr. Howard H. Baker, Jr. served three terms as a United States Senator from Tennessee (1967-1985) and was Tennessee's first popularly elected Republican Senator. He rose to national prominence during the Watergate Hearings of 1973-1974 as Vice Chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, the highest ranking Republican on the Committee. He served as Minority Leader of the Senate from 1977-1981 and as Majority Leader from 1981 until he retired from the Senate at the end of this third term in January, 1985. He was a candidate for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination and served as President Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff in 1987-1988. For the next thirteen years he worked in several Tennessee law firms. In 2001 President George W. Bush appointed him as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. Howard Henry Baker, Jr. was born to Howard Henry Baker and Dora Ladd Baker on November 15, 1925 in Huntsville, Tennessee. His mother died when he was eight years old and his maternal grandmother, Lillie Ladd Mauser, helped raise him and his younger sister. When Howard Baker Jr. was eleven, his father married Irene Bailey. Howard Jr. attended primary and secondary public school in Huntsville before going to the McCallie School, a military preparatory school in Chattanooga, in 1941. He graduated from there in 1943 and immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy. As a candidate in the Navy's V-12 officer training program, Baker studied electrical engineering at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and at Tulane University.
    [Show full text]
  • Presidents Worksheet 43 Secretaries of State (#1-24)
    PRESIDENTS WORKSHEET 43 NAME SOLUTION KEY SECRETARIES OF STATE (#1-24) Write the number of each president who matches each Secretary of State on the left. Some entries in each column will match more than one in the other column. Each president will be matched at least once. 9,10,13 Daniel Webster 1 George Washington 2 John Adams 14 William Marcy 3 Thomas Jefferson 18 Hamilton Fish 4 James Madison 5 James Monroe 5 John Quincy Adams 6 John Quincy Adams 12,13 John Clayton 7 Andrew Jackson 8 Martin Van Buren 7 Martin Van Buren 9 William Henry Harrison 21 Frederick Frelinghuysen 10 John Tyler 11 James Polk 6 Henry Clay (pictured) 12 Zachary Taylor 15 Lewis Cass 13 Millard Fillmore 14 Franklin Pierce 1 John Jay 15 James Buchanan 19 William Evarts 16 Abraham Lincoln 17 Andrew Johnson 7, 8 John Forsyth 18 Ulysses S. Grant 11 James Buchanan 19 Rutherford B. Hayes 20 James Garfield 3 James Madison 21 Chester Arthur 22/24 Grover Cleveland 20,21,23James Blaine 23 Benjamin Harrison 10 John Calhoun 18 Elihu Washburne 1 Thomas Jefferson 22/24 Thomas Bayard 4 James Monroe 23 John Foster 2 John Marshall 16,17 William Seward PRESIDENTS WORKSHEET 44 NAME SOLUTION KEY SECRETARIES OF STATE (#25-43) Write the number of each president who matches each Secretary of State on the left. Some entries in each column will match more than one in the other column. Each president will be matched at least once. 32 Cordell Hull 25 William McKinley 28 William Jennings Bryan 26 Theodore Roosevelt 40 Alexander Haig 27 William Howard Taft 30 Frank Kellogg 28 Woodrow Wilson 29 Warren Harding 34 John Foster Dulles 30 Calvin Coolidge 42 Madeleine Albright 31 Herbert Hoover 25 John Sherman 32 Franklin D.
    [Show full text]
  • Illegal Actions in the Construction of the Airfield at Fort Lee, VA-17Th
    Union Calendar No, 781 87th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - House Report No. 1858 ILLEGAL ACTIONS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE AIRFIELD AT FORT LEE, VA. SEVENTEENTH REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS JUNE 20, 1962.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 72006 WASHINGTON : 1962 COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS WILLIdM L. DAWSON, Illinois, Chairman OHET HOLIFIELD, California CLARE E. HOFFMAN, Michigan JACK BROOKS, Texss R. WALTER RIEHLMAN, New York L. H. FOUNTAIN, North Carollna GEORGE MEADER, Michigan PORTER HARDY, JR., Virginia CLARENCE J. BROWN, Ohio JOHN A. BLATNIK, Minnesota FLORENCE P. DWYER, New Jersey ROBERT E. JONES, Alabamn ROBERT P. GRIFFIN, Michigan EDWARD A. QARMATZ, Maryland GEORGE M. WALLHAUSER, New Jersey JOHN E. MOSS, California ODIN LANGEN, Minnesota JOE M. KILGORE, Texas JOHN B. ANDERSON, Illinois DANTE B. FASCELL, Florida RICHARD S. SCHWEIKER, Pennsylvania HENRY S. REUSS, Wisconsin F. BRADFORD MORSE, Massachusetts ELIZABETH PEE, West Virginia KATHRYN E. GRANAHAN, Pennsylvania JOHN S. MONAGAN, Connecticut NEAL SMITH, Iowa RICHARD E. LANKFORD, Maryland % ROSS BASS, Tennessee LUCIEN N. NEDZI, Michigan CHRISTINERAYDAVIS. Slaf Dtreelor JAMESA. LANIGAN,Ue~eral CoumeZ MILES Q. ROMNEY,Associate &nerd Counsel HELENM. BOYER,Minority Professional Raff J. P. CARLSON,Minority Coz~nseZ WILLIAM L. DAWSON, Clinois, Chairman DANTE B. FASCELL, Florida CLARENCE J. BROWN, Ollio KATHRYN E. GRANAHAN, Pennsylvania JOHN B. ANDERSON, Illinois NEAL SMITH, Iowa CLARE E. HOFFMAN, Michigan, Ex Oficio ELMER W. HENDERSON,COlln8el ARTHURPERLMAN, I"~e~fk7of07 DANIELKAVANAUGH, In~eslioatcr VEROATCAB. JOHNSON,Clerk IRENED. MANNINO.Clerk LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL HOUSEOF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1962.
    [Show full text]
  • Granum, Deputy Press Secretary
    Exit Interview with Rex Granum, Deputy Press Secretary Interviewer: Dr. Thomas Soapes of the Presidential Papers Staff December 10, 1980, in Rex Granum’s office in the White House Transcriber: Lyn Kirkland and Winnie Hoover Soapes: Let's start with a little bit of your background. Could you give me where you were born and your formal education? Granum: Born in Dayton, Ohio. My father was in Civil Service, so we did live in a number of Southern towns - Mobile, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee. Grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia, from the third grade on went to public schools there. The University of Georgia --- journalism degree. I went--when I graduated from the University of Georgia, I went to the Atlanta Constitution, the morning paper in Atlanta, and eventually began to be a political writer there and came over and covered state government, covering Governor Jimmy Carter, his Press Secretary, Jody Powell, and his Executive Secretary, Hamilton Jordan, and then Frank Moore succeeded Hamilton when Hamilton went to--came to Washington during that change. So, that was the main point at which I became acquainted with the political beat. Soapes: How long were you on the political beat? Granum: Uh, I guess two years--two and a half years, something like that. Soapes: So the last--you say the last couple of years were--. Granum: --Yes. I covered the last six months of his time in the Governor's Office. And from March of '74--so it was longer than six months --I went over to the State Capitol in March of '74 and stayed there until early January of '76 and, of course, the President--or the Governor's term--Governor at that time, his term ended in January of '75.
    [Show full text]
  • The University of Missouri Agriculture During the Reagan Years A
    The University of Missouri Agriculture During the Reagan Years A Dissertation Submitted to The Faculty of the Department of History In Candidacy For The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Jay Ward Columbia, Missouri May 2015 Copyright 2015 by Jay Woodward Ward All rights reserved. The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled Agriculture During the Reagan Years Presented by Jay Woodward Ward In Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. ______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Robert Collins ______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Mark Carroll ______________________________________________________________________ Dr. John Frymire _______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Catherine Rymph _______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Patrick Westhoff Dedication To Rose, Kelly, Brian, Janelle, Mickey, Lauren, Payton, Addison, Evelynne, and Gibson— the center of my world. Acknowledgements I owe undying gratitude to my advisor, Professor Robert M. Collins, who is a renowned scholar and an award-winning teacher, and without whose patient guidance I could not have completed this remarkable journey. I also want to thank my committee, Professor Mark Carroll, Professor John Frymire, Professor Catherine Rymph, and Professor Patrick Westhoff, all of whom lent me their considerable expertise and wisdom, but more importantly to me, they treated this very non-traditional student with extraordinary kindness. And my gratitude to my sister, Deborah Haseltine, my computer expert, who always was able to lead me out of the morasses into which I stumbled almost every time I sat down at the computer. ii Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Tables iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1. The Second Agricultural Revolution 20 Chapter 2.
    [Show full text]
  • JAMES A. BAKER, III the Case for Pragmatic Idealism Is Based on an Optimis- Tic View of Man, Tempered by Our Knowledge of Human Imperfection
    Extract from Raising the Bar: The Crucial Role of the Lawyer in Society, by Talmage Boston. © State Bar of Texas 2012. Available to order at texasbarbooks.net. TWO MOST IMPORTANT LAWYERS OF THE LAST FIFTY YEARS 67 concluded his Watergate memoirs, The Right and the Power, with these words that summarize his ultimate triumph in “raising the bar”: From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known: our Constitution works. And during the Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one—absolutely no one—is above the law.29 JAMES A. BAKER, III The case for pragmatic idealism is based on an optimis- tic view of man, tempered by our knowledge of human imperfection. It promises no easy answers or quick fixes. But I am convinced that it offers our surest guide and best hope for navigating our great country safely through this precarious period of opportunity and risk in world affairs.30 In their historic careers, Leon Jaworski and James A. Baker, III, ended up in the same place—the highest level of achievement in their respective fields as lawyers—though they didn’t start from the same place. Leonidas Jaworski entered the world in 1905 as the son of Joseph Jaworski, a German-speaking Polish immigrant, who went through Ellis Island two years before Leon’s birth and made a modest living as an evangelical pastor leading small churches in Central Texas towns. James A. Baker, III, entered the world in 1930 as the son, grand- son, and great-grandson of distinguished lawyers all named James A.
    [Show full text]
  • Virtues and Vices in Presidential Leadership
    Constitutional Character: Virtues and Vices in Presidential Leadership The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Thompson, Dennis F. 2010. Constitutional character: virtues and vices in presidential leadership. Presidential Studies Quarterly 40(1): 23-37. Published Version doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2009.03752.x Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9464205 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#OAP Constitutional Character: Virtues and Vices in Presidential Leadership Dennis F. Thompson Harvard University July 2009 Consider two candidates for president. Candidate A while in office has engaged in questionable financial dealings and consorted with criminal types, but is an exemplary family man. Candidate B has had several extra marital affairs, but his financial record is above reproach. Whom should voters choose? Recent candidates may come to mind, but the question actually refers to the 1884 presidential election—the contest between Grover Cleveland and James Blaine. Blaine had corruptly profited from public office but lived an impeccable private life. Cleveland had a reputation for public integrity, but had been forced to acknowledge fathering an illegitimate child. Here is what one of Cleveland’s supporters said in the campaign: I gather that Mr. Cleveland has shown high character and great capacity in public office, but that in private life his conduct has been open to question, while, on the other hand, Mr.
    [Show full text]