Tip O'Neill

Thomas P. "Tio" O'Neill, Jr." (1912-1994 ) was the leader of the liberal Democrats in Congress in the days of Ronald Reagan. He served as Congressman from Cambridge and the Boston suburbs, 1953-86.

After a long career in the state legislature, O'Neill was elected to replace John F. Kennedy in Congress when Kennedy moved to the Senate in 1952. O'Neill was an astute backstage politician who was famous for negotiating deals in general, with little interest in any specific programs. He moved up the ladder rapidly, with appointmewnt to the Rules Committee, election to the #3 position among House Democrats as Majority Whip (1971-73), and was elected Majority Leader (the #2 position), 1973-77. With the retirement of Carl Albert he became Speaker (the #1 job) in 1977, serving ten years until he retired in 1986.

He is best known for his confrontations with fellow Irishman Ronald Reagan. Although O'Neill had a nominal majority, Reagan kept his Republicans in line and added enough Democrats to defeat O'Neill and pass most of Reagan's programs, especially the tax cuts of 1981.

O'Neill broke with President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 on the issue of the Vietnam War,, which was highly unpopular at Harvard and MIT, two schools in his district.

Further reading

• Farrell, John A. Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century. (2001), a scholarly biography
• O'Neill, Thomas P. with William Novak. Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill. (1987).