The beginning of the decline of the Republic was the day they air-conditioned the Capitol.


Senator Howard Baker was a moderate Republican from Tennessee who had a reputation for being able to work across the aisle with Democrats, often helping them advance their agenda. He was a member of the Church Commission and had the audacity to make public notice that Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli and Jimmy Hoffa all met violent ends before they could testify.

Baker was also on the Senate Watergate Committee. At the beginning he promised President Nixon that he would have his back and see that he was treated fairly. He did the job that was expected of him when he uttered the words that the media echoed around the country. “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

When John Dean made the plea deal and tilted the committee toward Nixon, the president's fate was sealed and the deep state eliminated another threat to Kennedy record exposure.

The Other Fellow May be Right: The Civility of Howard Baker
by Bill Haltom

In the current political and cultural environment, civility is going the way of the dinosaur. Our "leaders" now argue for the sake of argument, accuse for the sake of advantage, and seek to demonize those with opposing points of view. Consequently, public governance has become dysfunctional. But there was a time when civility and collegiality and teamwork were cherished American values. There was a time when leaders from opposing political parties were actually friends and tried without compromising their principles to work together in a bipartisan effort to promote the general welfare. One of the greatest exemplars of this civility was a United States Senator from Tennessee. For over forty years, he was a leader in the most contentious arenas in American life: courtrooms, political campaigns, the halls of Congress, and the White House. In all these venues, he practiced the art of strategic civility that brought adversaries together, finding agreement often to their surprise. The Senator was Howard H. Baker, Jr. of Tennessee, and to this day, he remains a role model of what strategic civility can accomplish. This book is the story of his civil life.