Howard Baker

Howard Baker
26th United States Ambassador to Japan
In office July 5, 2001 – February 17, 2005
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Tom Foley
Succeeded by	Tom Schieffer
12th White House Chief of Staff
In office February 27, 1987 – July 3, 1988
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Donald Regan
Succeeded by	Kenneth Duberstein
Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1985
Deputy	Ted Stevens
Preceded by	Robert Byrd
Succeeded by	Bob Dole
Senate Minority Leader
In office March 5, 1980 – January 3, 1981
Deputy	Ted Stevens
Preceded by	Ted Stevens (Acting)
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
In office January 3, 1977 – November 1, 1979
Deputy	Ted Stevens
Preceded by	Hugh Scott
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens (Acting)
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1985
Preceded by	Ross Bass
Succeeded by	Al Gore
Personal details
Born	Howard Henry Baker Jr. (1925-11-15)November 15, 1925 Huntsville, Tennessee, United States
Died	June 26, 2014(2014-06-26) (aged 88) Huntsville, Tennessee, United States
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Joy Dirksen (died 1993) Nancy Landon (1996–2014)
Education	Tulane University University of the South (BA) University of Tennessee, Knoxville (LLB)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1943–1946
Battles/wars	World War II

Watergate scandal
Watergate complex
Events
List Presidency of Richard Nixon Timeline Nixon White House tapes Operation Sandwedge Operation Gemstone 1972 U.S. presidential election "Saturday Night Massacre" "White House horrors" United States v. Nixon Resignation speech Inauguration of Gerald Ford
People
Watergate burglars Bernard Barker Virgilio Gonzalez Eugenio Martínez James W. McCord Jr. Frank Sturgis
Groups Master list of Nixon's political opponents Nixon's Enemies List Watergate Babies Watergate Seven White House Plumbers
CRP Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP) Fred LaRue Jeb Stuart Magruder Robert Mardian John N. Mitchell Kenneth Parkinson Hugh W. Sloan Jr. Maurice Stans
White House President Richard Nixon Alexander Butterfield Charles Colson John Dean John Ehrlichman Gerald Ford H. R. Haldeman E. Howard Hunt Egil Krogh G. Gordon Liddy Gordon C. Strachan Rose Mary Woods
Judiciary Archibald Cox Leon Jaworski John Sirica
Journalists Carl Bernstein Bob Woodward Ben Bradlee Howard Simons Lesley Stahl The Washington Post
Intelligence community Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") L. Patrick Gray Richard Helms James R. Schlesinger
Congress Howard Baker Sam Ervin Peter W. Rodino U.S. Senate Watergate Committee Impeachment process
Related Frank Wills (security guard) James F. Neal (prosecutor) All the President's Men (book, film) The Final Days (book, film) Dick (film)
v t e

Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was an American politician and diplomat who served as a Republican US Senator from Tennessee, Senate Minority Leader, and then Senate Majority Leader.

Known in Washington, D.C., as the "Great Conciliator," Baker was often regarded as one of the most successful senators in terms of brokering compromises, enacting legislation, and maintaining civility. A moderate conservative, he was also respected by his Democratic colleagues.^[1]

Baker sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 but dropped out after the first set of primaries. From 1987 to 1988, he served as White House Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan. From 2001 to 2005, he was the United States Ambassador to Japan.

Early life[edit]

Baker was born in Huntsville, Tennessee, to Dora Ann née Ladd and Howard Baker Sr.^[2]

His father served as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from 1951 to 1964, representing a traditionally-Republican district in East Tennessee. Baker attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, and after graduating, he attended Tulane University in New Orleans. Baker was an alumnus of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. During World War II, he trained at a U.S. Navy facility on the campus of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, in the V-12 Navy College Training Program. He served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1949. That year, he was admitted to the Tennessee bar and began his law practice.^[3]

Senate career[edit]

Howard Baker in 1984
Painting by Herbert E. Abrams

Baker began his political career in 1964, when he lost to the liberal Democrat Ross Bass in a US Senate election to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Estes Kefauver.

In the 1966 US Senate election for Tennessee, Bass lost the Democratic primary to a former governor of Tennessee, Frank G. Clement, and Baker handily won his Republican primary race against Kenneth Roberts, 112,617 (75.7 percent) to 36,043 (24.2 percent).^[4] Baker won the general election, capitalizing on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base, especially organized labor. He won by a somewhat larger-than-expected margin of 55.7 percent to Clement's 44.2 percent.^[5] Baker thus became the first Republican senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction and the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee. Harry W. Wellford, then a private attorney but later a US District Court justice and then US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Justice, served as Baker's campaign chair and closest confidant.^{[citation needed]}

Baker was re-elected in 1972 and again in 1978 and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1985. In 1969, he was already a candidate for the Minority Leadership position that opened up with the death of his father-in-law, Everett Dirksen, but Baker was defeated 24–19 by Hugh Scott.^[6] At the beginning of the next Congress, in 1971, Baker ran again, losing again to Scott, 24–20.^[7]

When Scott retired, Baker was elected Senate Minority Leader in 1977 by his Republican colleagues, defeating Robert Griffin, 19–18.^[8] Baker served two terms as Senate Minority Leader (1977–1981) and two terms as Senate Majority Leader (1981–1985).

Baker did not seek further re-election but conclufed his Senate career in 1985. He was succeeded by Democratic Representative and future Vice President Al Gore.

Nixon administration[edit]

President Richard Nixon asked Baker in 1971 to fill one of the two empty seats on the US Supreme Court.^[9] When Baker took too long to decide whether he wanted the appointment, Nixon changed his mind and nominated William Rehnquist instead.^[10]

Watergate investigation[edit]

In 1973 to 1974, Baker was the influential ranking minority member of the Senate Watergate Committee, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin, which investigated the Watergate scandal. Baker famously asked aloud, "What did the President know and when did he know it?"^[11] The question is sometimes attributed to being given to him by his counsel and former campaign manager, future US Senator Fred Thompson.^[12]

John Dean, former counsel to Nixon, revealed to Senate Watergate chief counsel Samuel Dash in executive session that Baker had "secret dealings with the White House" during the congressional investigation. Though Baker, as a US senator, would be a juror in any future impeachment trial, Baker was recorded, on February 22, 1973, promising Nixon, "I'm your friend. I'm going to see that your interests are protected."^[11]

Watergate reporter Bob Woodward wrote that then "both the majority Democrats and minority Republicans agreed to share all information." Ultimately, one such document shared by Nixon lawyer Fred Buzhardt inadvertently suggested the presence of Nixon's secret taping system.^[13]

Presidential campaign[edit]

Baker was frequently mentioned by insiders as a possible nominee for Vice President of the United States on a ticket headed by incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976. According to many sources, Baker was a frontrunner until he disclosed that his wife, Joy, was a recovered alcoholic.^[14] Ford, evidently concluding that one alcoholic spouse in the campaign, his wife, Betty, was sufficient, chose Kansas Senator Bob Dole.^[15]

Baker ran for U.S. President in 1980, dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination after losing the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush and the New Hampshire primary to Ronald Reagan even though a Gallup poll had him in second place in the presidential race at 18%, behind Reagan at 41% as late as November 1979.^[16] Baker's support of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaties was overwhelmingly unpopular, especially among Republicans,^[1][17] and it was a factor in Reagan's choosing Bush instead as his running mate.^[1] Ted Stevens served as Acting Minority Leader during Baker's primary campaign.^[18]

Reagan administration[edit]

In 1984, Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[19]

As a testament to Baker's skill as a negotiator and an honest and amiable broker, Reagan tapped him to serve as Chief of Staff during part of Reagan's second term (1987–1988). Many saw that as a move by Reagan to mend relations with the Senate, which had deteriorated somewhat under the previous chief of staff, Donald Regan.^[20] In accepting the appointment, Baker chose to skip another bid for the White House in 1988.^[21]

Later life[edit]

Baker with President George W. Bush in 2001

In 2003, the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy was set up at the University of Tennessee to honor him. Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech at the 2005 ground-breaking ceremony for the center's new building. Upon the building's completion in 2008, US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor assisted in the facility's dedication.^[17]

In 2007, Baker joined fellow former Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole, Tom Daschle, and George Mitchell to found the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit think tank that works to develop policies suitable for bipartisan support.^[22] He was an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. From 2005 to 2011, Baker was a member of the board of directors of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a nonprofit that provides international election support.^[23]

From 2005 to his death, Baker served as Senior Counsel to the law firm of his father and his grandfather, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.^[24]

Baker was an accomplished lifelong photographer. His photographs have often been exhibited and were published in National Geographic, Life, and in the books Howard Baker's Washington (1982), Big South Fork Country (1993), and Scott's Gulf: The Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness (2000). In 1993, he received the International Award of the American Society of Photographers, and in 1994, he was elected into the Hall of Fame of the Photo Marketing Association.^[25]

Death[edit]

Baker died at the age of 88 from complications of a stroke that he had suffered a week earlier. He was in his native Huntsville, Tennessee, with his wife, Nancy, by his side.^[26]

Honors[edit]

• He received the US Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official in 1981, given out annually by the Jefferson Awards^[27]
• He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.
• The rotunda at the University of Tennessee College of Law was renamed after for Baker.
• While he was delivering a commencement speech during his grandson's graduation at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, on May 5, 2007, Baker was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.^[28]
• He received the Order of the Paulownia Flowers, 2008 (Japan)^[29]

Personal life[edit]

Howard Baker with Bill Frist, Bob Corker, and Lamar Alexander in 2007.

Baker, a Presbyterian, was married to the daughters of two prominent Republicans. He had two daughters with his first wife, Joy, who died of cancer, was the daughter of former Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen. In 1996, he married former US Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, the daughter of the late Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon,^[30] who was the Republican nominee for President in 1936, running unsuccessfully against Democrat Franklin Roosevelt.

See also[edit]

• Snail darter controversy

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Annis, James. (1995). Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crises. Lanham, MD: Madison Books. ISBN 1-56833-032-4; ISBN 978-1-56833-032-7.
• Dean, John Wesley. (2001). Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2979-7; ISBN 978-0-7432-2979-1.
• U.S. Congress. Senate. Tributes to the Honorable Howard Baker, Jr., of Tennessee in the United States Senate, Upon the Occasion of His Retirement from the Senate. 98th Cong., 2d sess., 1984. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1984.

External links[edit]

• United States Congress. "Howard Baker (id: B000063)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 
• Biography from the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee
• Citigroup biography
• Howard H. Baker Papers, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
• Howard Baker on IMDb
• Appearances on C-SPAN