"Powerful Speaker Persuasive O'Neill Spans Generation Gap had his eye on it since he came to By Richard L. Lyons Congress 24 years ago. He trained Washington Poet Staff Writer for it in Massachusetts as an all- On St. Patrick's Day, House powerful speaker of the state leg- Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill islature at , age 36. And now he

handed reporters lapel pins with . has it. Irish and American flags crossed When Rep. Sam Gibbsons In friendship. "The top of the Fla.) ran briefly. against O'Neill mornin' to ya," he said, opening for majority leader 4'1/2 years ago his daily press conference. and then withdrew for lack of The reporters laughed but said votes, he told the House Demo- nothing. "You can tell there's not cratic Caucus: "Tip O'Neill has no enemies in this House." an Irishman in the crowd," O'Neill . grumbled. "You're supposed to Rep. Richard Bolling (D-Mo.), day to say, And the rest of the urbane scholar of the House, said: you.' " "Tip can do things with people It was all in good-humored fun. that a lot of us can't. It must be something Irish, I guess." The laughter O'Neill drew thatp morning was not unusual. He's O'Neill succeeded John F. Ken- funny, outspoken man. He loves nedy in the House. Though his to tell stories and hers good at it, constituency includes Harvard and And, for the first time In years, the Massachusetts Institute of a speaker's press conference has Technology, this grandson of a become a place where reporters County Cork bricklayer went to can really find out what House Boston College, a Catholic school, Democrats are up to. and built an insurance business Tip O'Neill wears the speaker- before going to Congress. ship like a glove. He and the office See O'NEILL, A8, Col. 1 were meant for each other. He's speaker since Sam Rayburn in his O'NEILL,. From Al prime 20 years ago. • O'Neill stands 6 foot 3 under a He got a minus from many mem- shock of white hair and his weight bers for his support of Rep. Robert Slides up and down between 230 and L. F. Sikes (D-Fla.) who was stripped of a subcommittee chairmanship in 1313 pounds. It was 235 last week. He January after being reprimanded by boasts that he has lost 1.000 pounds the House last year for a conflict of Over the years. Until he became interest. O'Neill, who is not close to speaker in January, his wife Millie Sikes, called it double jeopardy and and their five children stayed in the said he would have voted to dump Mg old house in North Cambridge, Sikes last year had it been recom- Mass., in the neighborhood where he mended then. was born 64 years ago. They moved. Labor lost a big one in the House into a condominium apartment here defeat of the common site picketing last month. bill. O'Neill accepted that as a defeat For all those years, O'Neill shared for the House leadership because he a one-bedroom Washington apartment considers organized labor a part of with Rep. Edward P. Boland (D-Mass.) the Democratic Party. But it was not Who came to Congress with him. an administration bill, had a narrow- They never cooked a meal in the constituency and O'Neill had warned iilace, says Boland. They ate a - lot at labor they didn't have the votes. The downtown steakhouses. Their re- outcome was not considered a serious frigerator was filled with cigars and setback for O'Neill. Tip's diet soft drinks. But on the two big issues the O'Neill knows the raw power he House has dealt with this year—the wielded in Boston 25 years ago won't economy a nd ethics—O'Neill is work with today's Congress of edu- credited with highly skillful per- cated independent young people. He formances by ' his Democratic col- operates through forceful persuasion leagues. ' and commands respect as a shrewd President Carter's economic stim- politician with sensitive antennae for ulus package moved easily through reading the House. He is straight- the House. Increased here and there forward and candid: If he's upset, hea at the request of the Democratic lets you know and doesn't carry leadership. When the House Appro-' grudge. He is a very partisan Demo- priations Committee rejected an ex- Crat and a big earthy Irishman with a tra $1 billion for jobs that the House happy face. Budget Committee had approved. • It's still early. The toughest issue- O'Neill called In appropriations Com- energy—lies ahead. But in less than mittee elders and "gently nudged three months he has shown more of them," according to one who was the take-charge leadership expected present, into offering amendments to of the top man in the House than any both committees in line and made a add the $1 billion on the House floor. forceful floor speech just before the "We could have crammed it down overwhelming vote approving it. their throats," said Majority Leader O'Neill took the heat for the congres- Jim Wright (D-Tex.), "but it , was sional pay raise which members got better" for the Appropriations Com- without voting on it and he reminded mittee to do it. them the ethics code was the second O'Neill said the other day he has part of the deal. put "more money into the federal At least three Democrats on the budget without offering amendments" Rules Committee were threatening to than any other member in the last 20 years. balk at the limit on outside income

"He's an Irish politician. No table pounder. He puts an arm around your shoulder and says he needs you . . . When he's going somewhere, he's like a tank, a kind tank."

because of their lucrative law prac- As an example of how he operates, O'Neill said that when he heard a tices and speaking fees. On Ash Wed- nesday, O'Neill held a breakfast in few years ago that the Appropriations one of his Capitol hideaways for the Committee was about to cut back 11 Rules Committee Democrats and cancer research, he called in half a when the vote came they were with dozen cancer specialists, sat. them him unanimously. down with committee members and a There was no strong-arm stuff, said $160 million cut was averted. those who were present. O'Neill said O'Neill has drawn widest admira- he needed their suppo rt, that the tion for holding together and pushing code was important to the party, that through the House the "toughest" his reputation was at stake. He re- ethics code for members which was his minded them they were his hand- earliest pledge after the Wayne Hays picked people. The only committee sex-payroll scandal of last year. assignments made by the speaker are The code was in potential trouble the Democrats on Rules, to assure in the House Administration and their faithful performance as an arm Rules committees, which had juris- of the leadership. diction over parts of it. O'Neill kept "He's an Irish politician," says Boll- O'Neill can act like a fellow with one foot still in the good old boy club ing, a senior Rules Committee mern. supporting Sikes ("loyalty," said an ber. "No table pounder. He puts an aide), and at the same time lead the arm around your shoulder and says charge for reform and be the only he needs you . . . When he's going member of the party leadership vot- ing against U.S. involvement in the somewhere, he's like a tank, a kind of Vietnam war. tank." Rep. Phillip Burton (D.Calif.), _a O'Neill got on the leadership ladder tough activist who fell one vote short by accident six years ago after John of becoming O'Neill's majority leader W. McCormack, whose Boston district —to O'Neill's relief—said O'Neill is adjoined O'Neills, retired as speaker. "making tough decisions and putting Carl Albert moved up to speaker and the prestige of his office into getting Hale Boggs to majority leader, and things done, which is what a speaker the position of majority whip was is supposed to do." open. Boggs wanted Rep, Dan Rostenkow- The speaker doesn't .preside when ski (D-I11.) as his whip, but Albert ex- the House sits as a committee of the ercised his veto because the Illinois whole to debate bills. But O'Neill delegation had not turned in cards spends a lot of time on the floor, pledging support for Albert's election available to members. "You can go as speaker as other states had done— over and talk with him," said Rep. at O'Neill's suggestion. Boggs then Bob Carr (D-Mich.), a second-termer, picked O'Neill, who moved up to ma- "and that means a lot." Two years jority leader when Boggs was lost in ago, Carr was telling Albert he wasn't a plane in Alaska two years later and a leader and should step down. Re- then to speaker when Albert retired cently he sent O'Neill a note of in January. He is presiding officer of thanks for putting through the the House and leader of the major- ethics code. "A decided improve- ity party, a position usually consid- ment," said Carr. ered the second most powerful in the A staff person who wished to 're- federal government. main unidentified expressed admira- McCormack and Albert were "more tion for what O'Neill has - accom- coordinators and schedulers" than plished but expressed reservations strong leaders, said Rep. Morris K. about his style. He said procedural Udall (D-Ariz.), who has run for ma- change has given the speaker more jority leader, speaker and President. power than any has had since the re- "But Tip came out of the Massachu- volt again "Czar" Joseph Cannon 63 setts legislature with -a tradition of years ago and that O'Neill, with his strong speakers. He is a perfect bridge background, might try to restore one- between the young and the old, com- man rule or cut deals and "to get one fortable with both." thing, give away the store."