Thomas S. Foley, who as speaker of the House sought to still the chamber’s rising tide of partisan combat for five years before it swept the Democratic majority, and Mr. Foley himself, out of office in 1994, died on Friday in Washington. He was 84.
[h=6]Paul Hosefros/The New York Times[/h]Speaker Thomas S. Foley, right, and the Senate majority leader, George J. Mitchell, in Washington in 1991.
Jeffrey R. Biggs, Mr. Foley’s former press secretary, confirmed the death. Mr. Foley’s wife, Heather, told The Associated Press that the cause was complications of a stroke he suffered last December. She said he was hospitalized with pneumonia in May and had been under hospice care at his home virtually since then.
When he became speaker on June 6, 1989, Mr. Foley, from Washington State, appealed to “our friends on the Republican side to come together and put away bitterness and division and hostility.” He promised to treat “each and every member” fairly, regardless of party, and by most estimations he lived up to that promise to a degree unmatched by his successors.
He became speaker after a bitter, successful fight led by Representative Newt Gingrich, a Republican from Georgia, to oust Speaker Jim Wright, a Democrat from Texas, over allegations of ethics violations; one was that he had improperly accepted gifts from a Fort Worth developer. Mr. Wright’s own partisanship had riled Republicans, and his widely perceived highhandedness had bothered Democrats. Mr. Wright resigned before an ethics inquiry was completed.
Mr. Foley, well-read, fastidiously dressed and courtly, succeeded for a time in making the House a more civil place, winning praise from many Republicans for his fairness. But by 1994 Republicans had hardened, painting the Democratic-controlled House as out of touch and corrupt.
Their strategy worked. That year, Republicans won their first majority in the House in 40 years, and Mr. Foley became the first speaker since the Civil War to be defeated for re-election in his own district. (Speaker Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania lost his seat in 1862.)
Mr. Foley had gotten a taste of that partisanship a few days before becoming speaker. The Republican National Committee and an aide to Mr. Gingrich had sought to portray him as homosexual, an accusation Mr. Foley and gay members of the House denied. The R.N.C. put out a memo labeled “Tom Foley: Out of the Liberal Closet,” equating his voting record with that of Barney Frank, an openly gay representative from Massachusetts. The Gingrich aide urged reporters to investigate Mr. Foley’s sexuality.
President George H. W. Bush said he was “disgusted at the memo,” but he also said he believed the R.N.C. chairman, Lee Atwater, who had been Mr. Bush’s presidential campaign strategist, when Mr. Atwater said he did not know where the memo had originated. Because of Mr. Atwater’s own reputation for attack-dog politics, the president’s belief was not widely shared.
Mr. Foley’s five and half years as speaker were marked by a successful effort to force President Bush to accept tax increases as part of a 1990 deficit-reduction deal, and by unsuccessful opposition to his plans to invade Iraq in 1991.
When Mr. Bush was succeeded by Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Mr. Foley played a central role in winning passage of Mr. Clinton’s 1993 budget plan, which also included tax increases. The measure passed the House, 218 to 216, without a single Republican vote.
And despite a long history of opposing any gun control measures, Mr. Foley helped win House passage of a 1994 ban on assault weapons, which played a major role in the Republican victory that fall. He also bucked a majority of House Democrats in supporting Mr. Clinton’s successful effort to win ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
But he did not cite any of those measures when asked to reflect on his record in his last news conference, on Nov. 19, 1994. “If I had one compelling concern in the time that I have been speaker, but previous to that as well,” he said, “it is that we not idly tamper with the Constitution of the United States.”
He had been a fierce opponent of proposed Constitutional amendments that would have required a balanced federal budget, term limits for members of Congress and a ban on flag burning, all championed by Republicans. Of the flag-burning measure, he said, “If it is not conservative to protect the Bill of Rights, then I don’t know what conservatism is today.”
[h=6]Paul Hosefros/The New York Times[/h]Speaker Thomas S. Foley, right, and the Senate majority leader, George J. Mitchell, in Washington in 1991.
Jeffrey R. Biggs, Mr. Foley’s former press secretary, confirmed the death. Mr. Foley’s wife, Heather, told The Associated Press that the cause was complications of a stroke he suffered last December. She said he was hospitalized with pneumonia in May and had been under hospice care at his home virtually since then.
When he became speaker on June 6, 1989, Mr. Foley, from Washington State, appealed to “our friends on the Republican side to come together and put away bitterness and division and hostility.” He promised to treat “each and every member” fairly, regardless of party, and by most estimations he lived up to that promise to a degree unmatched by his successors.
He became speaker after a bitter, successful fight led by Representative Newt Gingrich, a Republican from Georgia, to oust Speaker Jim Wright, a Democrat from Texas, over allegations of ethics violations; one was that he had improperly accepted gifts from a Fort Worth developer. Mr. Wright’s own partisanship had riled Republicans, and his widely perceived highhandedness had bothered Democrats. Mr. Wright resigned before an ethics inquiry was completed.
Mr. Foley, well-read, fastidiously dressed and courtly, succeeded for a time in making the House a more civil place, winning praise from many Republicans for his fairness. But by 1994 Republicans had hardened, painting the Democratic-controlled House as out of touch and corrupt.
Their strategy worked. That year, Republicans won their first majority in the House in 40 years, and Mr. Foley became the first speaker since the Civil War to be defeated for re-election in his own district. (Speaker Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania lost his seat in 1862.)
Mr. Foley had gotten a taste of that partisanship a few days before becoming speaker. The Republican National Committee and an aide to Mr. Gingrich had sought to portray him as homosexual, an accusation Mr. Foley and gay members of the House denied. The R.N.C. put out a memo labeled “Tom Foley: Out of the Liberal Closet,” equating his voting record with that of Barney Frank, an openly gay representative from Massachusetts. The Gingrich aide urged reporters to investigate Mr. Foley’s sexuality.
President George H. W. Bush said he was “disgusted at the memo,” but he also said he believed the R.N.C. chairman, Lee Atwater, who had been Mr. Bush’s presidential campaign strategist, when Mr. Atwater said he did not know where the memo had originated. Because of Mr. Atwater’s own reputation for attack-dog politics, the president’s belief was not widely shared.
Mr. Foley’s five and half years as speaker were marked by a successful effort to force President Bush to accept tax increases as part of a 1990 deficit-reduction deal, and by unsuccessful opposition to his plans to invade Iraq in 1991.
When Mr. Bush was succeeded by Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Mr. Foley played a central role in winning passage of Mr. Clinton’s 1993 budget plan, which also included tax increases. The measure passed the House, 218 to 216, without a single Republican vote.
And despite a long history of opposing any gun control measures, Mr. Foley helped win House passage of a 1994 ban on assault weapons, which played a major role in the Republican victory that fall. He also bucked a majority of House Democrats in supporting Mr. Clinton’s successful effort to win ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
But he did not cite any of those measures when asked to reflect on his record in his last news conference, on Nov. 19, 1994. “If I had one compelling concern in the time that I have been speaker, but previous to that as well,” he said, “it is that we not idly tamper with the Constitution of the United States.”
He had been a fierce opponent of proposed Constitutional amendments that would have required a balanced federal budget, term limits for members of Congress and a ban on flag burning, all championed by Republicans. Of the flag-burning measure, he said, “If it is not conservative to protect the Bill of Rights, then I don’t know what conservatism is today.”