The rise of the public speakership

Political Science Quarterly

Volumn 113, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 193-212

  Harris, Douglas B ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0039496541     PISSN: 00323195     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2657853     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. The term "public speaker" is from Barbara Sinclair, Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmaking: The U.S. House of Representatives in the Postreform Era (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), chap. 11.
2. Quoted in Howard Kurtz, "Television Has Trouble Bringing Congress's Revolution Into Focus," Washington Post, 24 January 1995.
3. Robert L. Peabody, Leadership in Congress: Stability, Succession, and Change (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976); Nelson W. Polsby, "Two Strategies of Influence: Choosing a Majority Leader, 1962" in Robert L. Peabody and Nelson W. Polsby, eds., New Perspectives on the House of Representatives, 4th ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 260-290.
4. Robert L. Peabody, Leadership in Congress: Stability, Succession, and Change (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976); Nelson W. Polsby, "Two Strategies of Influence: Choosing a Majority Leader, 1962" in Robert L. Peabody and Nelson W. Polsby, eds., New Perspectives on the House of Representatives, 4th ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 260-290.
5. On these trends in the presidency, see Samuel Kernell, Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 3rd ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1997).
6. For overviews on the office of the speakership as well as these particular Speakers, see Mary Parker Follett, The Speaker of the House of Representatives (New York: Longmans, Green, 1896); Chang Wei-Chiu, The Speaker of the House of Representatives Since 1896 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928); and Ronald M. Peters, Jr., The American Speakership (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
7. For overviews on the office of the speakership as well as these particular Speakers, see Mary Parker Follett, The Speaker of the House of Representatives (New York: Longmans, Green, 1896); Chang Wei-Chiu, The Speaker of the House of Representatives Since 1896 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928); and Ronald M. Peters, Jr., The American Speakership (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
8. For overviews on the office of the speakership as well as these particular Speakers, see Mary Parker Follett, The Speaker of the House of Representatives (New York: Longmans, Green, 1896); Chang Wei-Chiu, The Speaker of the House of Representatives Since 1896 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928); and Ronald M. Peters, Jr., The American Speakership (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
9. Joseph Cooper and David W. Brady, "Institutional Context and Leadership Style: The House from Cannon to Rayburn," American Political Science Review 75 (June 1981): 423.
10. D. B. Hardeman and Donald C. Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1987), 5.
11. H. G. Dulaney and Edward Hake Phillips, eds., Speak, Mister Speaker (Bonham, TX: Sam Rayburn Foundation, 1978), 459.
12. Quoted in David S. Cloud, "Speaker Wants His Platform to Rival the Presidency," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 4 February 1995.
13. Timothy E. Cook, Making Laws and Making News: Media Strategies in the U.S. House of Representatives (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1989), app. B, 192-8. 1969 was the first full year that Vanderbilt University monitored television newscasts.
14. Data from 1987-1994 were compiled by the author from the Vanderbilt Television News Abstracts and Indices.
15. Katharine Q. Seelye, "Clinton Edges Congress in Amount of Television Coverage, Study Says," New York Times, 4 April 1995.
16. The concept of "punctuated change" is a critique of evolutionary theory most associated with Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, "Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism" in T. M. J. Schopf, ed., Models in Paleobiology (San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper, 1972), 82-115. The concept has been used to explain change in American politics. See Walter Dean Burnham, "Critical Realignment: Dead or Alive?" in Byron E. Shafer, ed., The End of Realignment? Interpreting American Electoral Eras (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 101-39, esp. 109-12; and Sean Q. Kelly, "Punctuated Change and the Era of Divided Government" in Lawrence C. Dodd and Calvin Jillson, eds., New Perspectives on American Politics (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994), 162-90.
17. The concept of "punctuated change" is a critique of evolutionary theory most associated with Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, "Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism" in T. M. J. Schopf, ed., Models in Paleobiology (San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper, 1972), 82-115. The concept has been used to explain change in American politics. See Walter Dean Burnham, "Critical Realignment: Dead or Alive?" in Byron E. Shafer, ed., The End of Realignment? Interpreting American Electoral Eras (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 101-39, esp. 109-12; and Sean Q. Kelly, "Punctuated Change and the Era of Divided Government" in Lawrence C. Dodd and Calvin Jillson, eds., New Perspectives on American Politics (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994), 162-90.
18. The concept of "punctuated change" is a critique of evolutionary theory most associated with Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, "Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism" in T. M. J. Schopf, ed., Models in Paleobiology (San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper, 1972), 82-115. The concept has been used to explain change in American politics. See Walter Dean Burnham, "Critical Realignment: Dead or Alive?" in Byron E. Shafer, ed., The End of Realignment? Interpreting American Electoral Eras (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 101-39, esp. 109-12; and Sean Q. Kelly, "Punctuated Change and the Era of Divided Government" in Lawrence C. Dodd and Calvin Jillson, eds., New Perspectives on American Politics (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994), 162-90.
19. Kelly, "Punctuated Change and the Era of Divided Government," 166-7.
20. Ibid., 166.
21. Sam Rayburn letter to Lawrence E. Spivak, 4 May 1957, in Dulaney and Phillips, eds., Speak, Mister Speaker, 325.
22. Tip O'Neill with William Novak, Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill (New York: Random House, 1987), 227.
23. John M. Barry, The Ambition and the Power (New York: Penguin, 1990), 348-9.
24. Sinclair, Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmaking, 291.
25. Data compiled by author from guest rosters of Meet the Press. The author wishes to thank Betty Cole Dukert, senior producer of Meet the Press, for supplying this information.
26. For a thorough discussion of this topic, see Joe S. Foote, Television Access and Political Power: The Networks, the Presidency, and the 'Loyal Opposition' (New York: Praeger, 1990).
27. Ibid., 115-8.
28. Joe S. Foote, "The Speaker and the Media" in Ronald M. Peters, Jr., ed., The Speaker: Leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994), 138.
29. See David Broder's testimony, Hearings Before the Commission on Administrative Review, U.S. House of Representatives, 94th Congress, 2nd sess., 30 November 1976, 69.
30. "Tip Talk," National Journal, 2 September 1978, 1405.
31. Alan Ehrenhalt, Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 22 March 1985, 691.
32. Richard Lyons, "A Powerful Speaker," Washington Post, 3 April 1977.
33. Quoted in Mary Jacoby, "Gingrich Briefings to Be Scaled Back," Roll Call, 4 May 1995.
34. See "Hillsource: A Service of the House Republican Conference" (http://hillsource.house.gov/ atc/mission.html), November 1996.
35. Gabriel Kahn, "Bonior Overhauls His Whip Operation," Roll Call, 16 January 1995.
36. For a more extensive treatment of both the causes and consequences of the public speakership, see Douglas B. Harris, "The Public Speakership: The Media and Party Leadership in the House of Representatives, 1950-1996" (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, 1998).
37. Kernell, Going Public, 20-37.
38. Cooper and Brady, "Institutional Context and Leadership Style."
39. See Roger H. Davidson, "Subcommittee Government: New Channels for Policy Making" in Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, eds., The New Congress (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1981). 99-133: Lerov N. Rieselbach. Congressional Reform: The Changing Modern Congress (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994). For how House reforms affected leadership, see David W. Rohde, Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 17-39.
40. See Roger H. Davidson, "Subcommittee Government: New Channels for Policy Making" in Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, eds., The New Congress (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1981). 99-133: Lerov N. Rieselbach. Congressional Reform: The Changing Modern Congress (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994). For how House reforms affected leadership, see David W. Rohde, Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 17-39.
41. See Roger H. Davidson, "Subcommittee Government: New Channels for Policy Making" in Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, eds., The New Congress (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1981). 99-133: Lerov N. Rieselbach. Congressional Reform: The Changing Modern Congress (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1994). For how House reforms affected leadership, see David W. Rohde, Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 17-39.
42. See Burdett Loomis, The New American Politician: Ambition, Entrepreneurship, and the Changing Face of Political Life (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 87; Michael J. Robinson, "Three Faces of Congressional Media" in Mann and Ornstein, eds., The New Congress, 63; and Cook, Making Laws and Making News.
43. See Burdett Loomis, The New American Politician: Ambition, Entrepreneurship, and the Changing Face of Political Life (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 87; Michael J. Robinson, "Three Faces of Congressional Media" in Mann and Ornstein, eds., The New Congress, 63; and Cook, Making Laws and Making News.
44. See Burdett Loomis, The New American Politician: Ambition, Entrepreneurship, and the Changing Face of Political Life (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 87; Michael J. Robinson, "Three Faces of Congressional Media" in Mann and Ornstein, eds., The New Congress, 63; and Cook, Making Laws and Making News.
45. See Anthony King, "The Vulnerable American Politician," British Journal of Political Science 27 (January 1997): 1-22; Thomas E. Mann, Unsafe at Any Margin: Interpreting Congressional Elections (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1978), 91. Indeed, the subjective perception of vulnerability rather than "objective" vulnerability has been found to lead followers in state legislatures to put "an emphasis on [the] external activities" of their leaders. See Thomas H. Little, "Understanding Legislative Leadership Beyond the Chamber: The Members' Perspective," Legislative Studies Quarterly 20 (May 1995): 269-89, 282.
46. See Anthony King, "The Vulnerable American Politician," British Journal of Political Science 27 (January 1997): 1-22; Thomas E. Mann, Unsafe at Any Margin: Interpreting Congressional Elections (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1978), 91. Indeed, the subjective perception of vulnerability rather than "objective" vulnerability has been found to lead followers in state legislatures to put "an emphasis on [the] external activities" of their leaders. See Thomas H. Little, "Understanding Legislative Leadership Beyond the Chamber: The Members' Perspective," Legislative Studies Quarterly 20 (May 1995): 269-89, 282.
47. See Anthony King, "The Vulnerable American Politician," British Journal of Political Science 27 (January 1997): 1-22; Thomas E. Mann, Unsafe at Any Margin: Interpreting Congressional Elections (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1978), 91. Indeed, the subjective perception of vulnerability rather than "objective" vulnerability has been found to lead followers in state legislatures to put "an emphasis on [the] external activities" of their leaders. See Thomas H. Little, "Understanding Legislative Leadership Beyond the Chamber: The Members' Perspective," Legislative Studies Quarterly 20 (May 1995): 269-89, 282.
48. Rohde, Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House.
49. Lynne P. Brown and Robert L. Peabody, "Patterns of Succession in House Democratic Leadership: Foley, Gephardt, and Gray, 1989" in Peabody and Polsby, eds., New Perspectives on the House of Representatives, 319-72, 360.
50. Sinclair, Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmaking, 263.
51. Quoted in "Equal Time for Congress: Congressional Hearings," Communications Subcommittee, Senate Commerce Committee in Robert O. Blanchard, ed., Congress and the News Media (New York: Hastings, 1974), 105.
52. See Cooper and Brady, "Institutional Context and Leadership Style."
53. Indeed, Kernell, Going Public, 3-4, argues that going public "violates" and is incompatible with bargaining.
54. Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein, Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival (Boston: Little, Brown, 1996), 199.
55. Barry, The Ambition and the Power, 200.
56. Ibid., 201.
57. Quoted in Alan Ehrenhalt, "Media, Power Shifts Dominate O'Neill's House," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 13 September 1986, 2134.
58. Jackie Koszczuk, "With Humor and Firm Hand, Armey Rules the House," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 2 March 1996, 523.
59. See Benjamin I. Page, Who Deliberates? Mass Media in Modern Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
60. On the deliberative capacity of Congress and the institutional fostering of deliberation within Congress, see Joseph M. Bessette, The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy & American National Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), esp. 146-8; and Joseph Cooper, "Assessing Legislative Performance: A Reply to the Critics of Congress," Congress and the Presidency 13 (Spring 1986): 21-40.
61. On the deliberative capacity of Congress and the institutional fostering of deliberation within Congress, see Joseph M. Bessette, The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy & American National Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), esp. 146-8; and Joseph Cooper, "Assessing Legislative Performance: A Reply to the Critics of Congress," Congress and the Presidency 13 (Spring 1986): 21-40.
62. Bessette, The Mild Voice of Reason, 221.
63. Quoted in David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf, "Tell Newt to Shut Up" (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1996), 142.
64. Kevin Merida, "Gingrich Says He Won't Run for President," Washington Post, 14 February 1995.
65. Quoted in Donna Cassata, "Gingrich to End News Briefings," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 6 May 1995, 1224. The Speaker objected more to the format than to contacts with the press more generally; on this point, see Maraniss and Weisskopf, "Tell Newt to Shut Up," 205.
66. Quoted in Donna Cassata, "Gingrich to End News Briefings," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 6 May 1995, 1224. The Speaker objected more to the format than to contacts with the press more generally; on this point, see Maraniss and Weisskopf, "Tell Newt to Shut Up," 205.
67. Gingrich appeared 222 times in 1995; O'Neill appeared 80 times in 1983; and O'Neill and Wright appeared 72 times each in 1985 and 1987 respectively. See Appendix A.