Howard Baker

For other people named Howard Baker, see Howard Baker (disambiguation).

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 January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1981
Deputy	Ted Stevens
Preceded by	Hugh Scott
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
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, U.S.
Died	Huntsville, Tennessee, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Joy Dirksen (died 1993) Nancy Kassebaum (1996–2014)
Alma mater	Tulane University (B.A.) University of Tennessee (J.D.)
Religion	Presbyterianism
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1943–1946
Battles/wars	World War II

Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, Senate Majority Leader, White House Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan, and a United States Ambassador to Japan. He worked as a lobbyist and adviser at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.

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. Baker was a moderate conservative who was also respected enormously by most of his Democratic colleagues.

Early life

Baker was born in Huntsville, Tennessee, to Dora Ann (née Ladd) and Howard Baker Sr. Howard Jr.'s father served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1951 until 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. 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. The same year, he was admitted to the Tennessee bar and began his law practice.

The rotunda at the University of Tennessee College of Law is now named for Baker. While he was delivering a commencement speech during his grandson's graduation at East Tennessee State University (Johnson City) on May 5, 2007, Baker was awarded an honorary doctorate degree. Baker was an alumnus of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

Senate

Baker in 1984

Baker began his political career in 1964, when he lost to the liberal Democrat Ross Bass in a U.S. Senate election to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Estes Kefauver. In the 1966 U.S. Senate election for Tennessee, Bass lost the Democratic primary to former Governor Frank G. Clement, and Baker handily won his Republican primary race over Kenneth Roberts, 112,617 (75.7 percent) to 36,043 (24.2 percent). Baker won the general election, capitalizing on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base, including specifically organized labor. He won by a somewhat larger-than-expected margin of 55.7 percent to Clement's 44.2 percent. 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 U.S. District Court justice and then U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Justice, served as Baker's campaign chair and closest confidant.

Baker was re-elected in 1972 and again in 1978, serving altogether 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 19–24 by Hugh Scott. At the beginning of the following Congress in 1971, Baker ran again, losing to Scott this time 20–24.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon asked Baker to fill one of the two empty seats on the U.S. Supreme Court. When Baker took too long to decide whether he wanted the appointment, Nixon changed his mind and nominated William Rehnquist instead.

In 1973 and 1974, Baker was also the influential ranking minority member of the Senate committee, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin, that investigated the Watergate scandal. Baker is famous for having asked aloud, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" The question is sometimes attributed to being given to him by his counsel and former campaign manager, future U.S. Senator Fred Thompson.

When Hugh Scott retired, Baker was elected senate minority leader in 1977 by his Republican colleagues, defeating Robert Griffin 19-18. Baker served two terms as Senate Minority Leader (1977–1981) and two terms as Senate Majority Leader (1981–1985).

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 and according to many sources, he was a frontrunner for this post. Ford, however, in a surprising move, chose Kansas Senator Bob Dole.

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 eighteen percent behind Reagan at 41 percent, as late as November 1979.

Baker's support of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaties was overwhelmingly unpopular, especially among Republicans, and it cost him politically when he ran for president two years later. It was a factor in Reagan's choosing George H.W. Bush instead of Baker as his running mate.

Further activities

Baker did not seek re-election in 1984, though he did receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom that year. 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 this as a move by Reagan to mend relations with the Senate, which had deteriorated somewhat under the previous chief of staff, Donald Regan. (Baker had complained that Regan had become a too-powerful "Prime Minister" inside an increasingly complex imperial presidency.)

In accepting this appointment, Baker chose to skip another bid for the White House in 1988.

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, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor assisted in the facility's dedication.

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.

In his later years, Baker served as Senior Counsel to the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. He was also 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. Baker also held a seat on the board of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a nonprofit that provides international election support.

Honors

• In 1981, Baker received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by the Jefferson Awards
• Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1984
• Order of the Paulownia Flowers, 2008 (Japan)

Personal life

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

Baker was married to the daughters of two prominent Republicans. Baker's first wife, Joy, who died of cancer, was the daughter of former Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen. In 1996, he married former U.S. Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, daughter of the late Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon, who was the Republican nominee for President in 1936.

Baker died on June 26, 2014, at the age of 88 from complications of a stroke he suffered the week prior. He died in his native Huntsville, Tennessee, with his wife, Nancy, by his side. Baker was a Presbyterian.

See also

• Snail darter controversy

Further reading

• 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

• Howard Baker at the 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 at the Internet Movie Database

• Appearances on C-SPAN

Party political offices
Preceded by Bradley Frazier	Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Tennessee (Class 2) 1964, 1966, 1972, 1978	Succeeded by Victor Ashe
Preceded by Hugh Scott	Leader of the Republican Party in the United States Senate 1977–1985	Succeeded by Bob Dole
United States Senate
Preceded by Ross Bass	U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Tennessee 1967–1985 Served alongside: Albert Gore, Sr., Bill Brock, Jim Sasser	Succeeded by Al Gore
Political offices
Preceded by Hugh Scott	Minority Leader of the United States Senate 1977–1981	Succeeded by Robert Byrd
Preceded by Robert Byrd	Majority Leader of the United States Senate 1981–1985	Succeeded by Bob Dole
Preceded by Donald Regan	White House Chief of Staff 1987–1988	Succeeded by Kenneth Duberstein
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Tom Foley	United States Ambassador to Japan 2001–2005	Succeeded by Tom Schieffer