BOOK REVIEW: ‘Leader’

Commentary

By Phil Gramm - Tuesday, May 17, 2022

OPINION:

I guess Dick Armey and I were destined to become friends and political allies. We were both former economics professors, we both represented Texas, and most importantly we both believed that America needed less government and more freedom. We also came to Washington to change the American government and we left Washington convinced we had changed Washington more than it changed us.

Not only did Mr. Armey always view himself as a Washington outsider, in a sense he was always amazed that while he had come to change the government, suddenly he was part of running the government he came to change. He was like an American spy in the Kremlin who had become a member of the Politburo. It was a perspective that he never abandoned and one that I found fascinating.

Mr. Armey was unusual in other ways. Of all the members of Congress I served with in almost a quarter of a century, he like President Ronald Reagan cared more about achieving the mission than getting credit for it. The intellectual father of the “Contract with America” was Mr. Armey. He developed the ideas and named it the “Contract with America.” I was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee at the time and worked with Mr. Armey on our version of the contract we in the Senate called “Seven More in ’94.” But so effective was Newt Gingrich in spearheading and selling the “Contract with America” that he received the lion’s share of the credit. He deserved that credit, but the “Contract with America” was still Mr. Armey’s idea.

His new book, “Leader,” is important for a lot of reasons. It is important historically because it provides insight into the structuring and running of the first Republican House Majority in 42 years. Since Mr. Armey was the intellectual leader of that effort, no one is in a better position to tell us what really happened.

Mr. Armey is a gifted writer and does a nice job of presenting the story of how a boy from a hardscrabble family from Cando, North Dakota, became one of the most powerful people in the U.S. Congress. His story is yet another example of how American leaders come from nowhere, do great things and then go back to being ordinary citizens. There was nothing elitist about Mr. Armey. He found wisdom in the language of the corniest country songs and dreamed of nothing bigger than owning a King Ranch version of the Ford 150 pickup, a goal he achieved in his later civilian life.

If anything, Mr. Armey’s account doesn’t claim enough credit for his extraordinary leadership in establishing the base-closing commissions, a piece of legislation that embodied a powerful idea that allowed the nation to make rational decisions in an area that had been dominated by politics since the beginning of the Republic. Mr. Armey understates the role he played in welfare reform, the most successful reform of a government program in the history of America. And it goes without saying that Mr. Armey was the majority leader when we cut taxes and generated economic growth rates that have been unequaled since, and thereby balanced the federal budget.

I must note that Mr. Armey does overstate his importance once in the book. He claims he was Milton Friedman’s favorite politician. I had to accept the fact that my wife was Reagan’s favorite economist because he put it in writing, but until Mr. Armey can show some proof, I will continue to dispute his claim.