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>> thank you, those of you who are here in the audience, those who have joined online on c-span, welcome. it will be a riveting conversation and i say that as a historian. just a couple minutes of comments before i turn it over to my colleague steve moore who will be running the show tonight and that is in 1994 i was president of my university of college republicans and it was more than a dream, the son of the reagan revolution that dick armey would soon be the majority leader, phil gramm's canonic expertise along with leader armey's for a narrow window in my american political history would be a descendent in this town and while we have to be careful as historians not to dwell on the past, we can as we are in the brink of a red wave, i mean that philosophically, this year,

that isn't merely about party registration, one party being in charge instead of another, it is about ideas that define us as a people, namely freedom flourishing, and this town and this government spending less money. it is a great privilege to have dick armey, dick armey, senator phil gramm who was thinking of running for a different office, he was in louisiana and i said this was before there was a red wave in louisiana, could you adopt this as our third senator, he said yes, keep doing what you are doing so here we are many years later, good to see you, welcome back to heritage. without further ado it is an equally great privilege to have steve moore to welcome the distinguished fellow and turn this program around.

[applause] >> thank you for the kind introduction and i am loving this new era at heritage. it is fantastic. we are going to have some fun today, tonight, and welcome to our c-span audience, dick armey is a legend, one of the few people who came to this town to make government smaller, not bigger. thank you to both of you. we have -- i got this note from newt gingrich who as you know, the speaker of the house who engineered the republican revolution in 1994. i would love to read the comment.

it is really sweet. dick armey was an energetic member when we were in the minority. and extraordinary force for good ideas and real reforms and a leader helped reelect the house gop majority for the first time in 68 years and develop or balanced budgets. pretty amazing, isn't it? his new book has wise insights into the legislative process. that is really nice tribute to dick armey. if you haven't gotten this book, it is a great read. i think this book should be read by every political science major in america should be reading this book called "leader". it is great discussion about how washington works and things get done and don't get done in

washington so we are going to have some fun telling our dick armey stories. there are 15 or 20 people who worked with him at one time or another. in addition to all the contributions you made directly to policies, one of your great contributions was the number of successful people you mentored including myself so my little story about dick armey as i worked for dick on the joint economic committee in 1993-1994 and i remember that when i was on the committee, decided in summer of 1994 that i was going to leave the committee, if you were working for a minority member in the house, democrats were so arrogant at that time,

it was like republicans weren't even there. i went to dick and said i love working with you but i can't do this anymore, pulling my hair out, not having much of an impact. i will never forget dick turned to me and said steve, you cannot leave now, you said don't leave now but we will take the house in november 1994. you were part of the revolution as well. whatever you are smoking i want some of it. it seems so incredible -- people how for per forget how improbable it seemed, we had to pick up 60 seats or something like that. it was a tidal wave election and in no small part because newt gingrich and dick armey and the contract with elections. when republicans stand for something they win. when they are just the lesser of two evils which is most of the time they lose.

that was an incredible period. what you did, the whole team from 1995 through 2000, only four balanced budgets, we did welfare reform, all of these incredible things and dick armey, for the younger people in this room, the first inspiration for the flat tax idea, one of the first inspirations for medical savings accounts, you are never with me on a term limits idea, that is so fantastic. i wanted to turn the podium over to senator phil gramm who i met in this building in 1984-85. he came up with this crazy idea

called the graham -- the gramm redmond bill which is automatic spending cuts if we didn't get the deficit down and all of washington had heart palpitations over this but it was one of the few times we cut spending under that bill and he has been a crusader for small government as well as hails from the great state of texas. give a warm welcome to phil gramm of texas. [applause] >> thank you, steve. nobody told me i was going to say anything. i will say a few things. president reagan once put his arm around me and said look me in the eye, he said cat

weinberger tells me that your gramm redmond is more dangerous than the soviet menace. will you assure me that is not the case? i said yes, mister president, i will assure you that is not the case. dick and i were destined to become friends because we were both from texas, both economists and we both came to washington because we wanted less government and more freedom. there is not a lot of people who come to government with the idea of having less of the very institution they come 4. the thing i found very interesting, i never lost my order far of it and that was that dick always had this view that he was a thigh in the side of the soviet union that had

become a leader of the central committee and was one of the people actually running the central committee so that when we got together it was sort of like i was there as his american handler and he was telling me what we were doing inside the belly of the beast and i never ceased to find that fascinating. i served in washington for 1/4 of a century and i dealt with a lot of people but i can say without any fear of contradiction that of all the people i ever served with, dick armey was less interested, dick armey was less interested in getting credit for things he did than anybody i have ever dealt with. as far as i could tell, his

aspiration other than saving america was owning afford -- a ford s one 50 king ranch version. [applause] >> and he got it. and dick's story is a story that reassures me about america. ..ght in. i don't have any idea where it is. um, i went to north dakota campaigning once and i had to plug in the car to the tires from freezing. but he came from candor, north dakota. and he became the first republican majority first republican majority leader in 40 years. and he was an indispensable leader in changing america. and implementing the final

and implementing the final stones on the reagan revolution. and then he retired and went back to being a citizen. to me that is a reassuring story about america. i once had a guy in china ask me where did you come from? you know, we try to look at leadership in america, and we just can't figure out where you came from. and i tried to explain to him that in america, the greatness of our country is that leaders just come from nowhere. so people are always saying where are the reagans? where are the [inaudible] now that we need them? well, i never despair because i know they are out there. they are waiting to be discovered. they're waiting for the right

moment, and the only thing that i -- well, let me just say, the contract with america,dick army wrote the contract with america. he gave it the name. we tried to copy it -- we won more than seven seats by the way. now, i'm not taking anything away from newt gingrich, he grabbed it, ran with it, made it famous. he deserves all the credits that he gets. dick army was the father of contract with america. [applause] i don't want to overstay my welcome. let me say a couple more things. from the beginning of the

republic, we had wasted money because of an inability to close government facilities, especially military bases. so what dick did in a new and totally original idea of his own creation was he came up with the idea of a commission and then a straight up-or-down vote in congress to approve the closing of military bases so that it allowed a congressman or a senator to go to the military base as the bulldozer was pulling up to knock down the gate and lie down on the ground telling his staff, just at the last moment, rush in and drag me out, and i will be begging to die, but pull me out. [laughter] and then it will be gone. that's exactly what happened. we closed a lot of military

bases that should have never been built to begin with and were being operated just draining the blood out of american defense. dick was very instrumental in welfare reform. the most successful reform of a government program in american history, why we don't take that reform program and apply it to every entitlement program in the federal government i don't understand. [applause] the average household in the bottom 20 percent of american income owners get over $45,000 a year in benefits from the federal government. is there any wonder that you can't get people to work? and we were able to implement a

program in an area that was the most difficult area, where you've got an unmarried woman with children, a situation where a senator would say it is impossible for her to work. well guess what? we informed the program. we set time limits. -- we reformed the program. we set time limits. and within four years, 50 percent of the people who had been on the program were working. it's amazing what incentives do. so i'm very happy to be here today to, one, give credit where not enough credit has been given, partly because he lacked the skill to blow his own horn. [laughter] and secondly, to just say to dick that it was a great privilege those years working with you. one of the highlights of my career was getting together with dick to get his fine reports, that he was actually running the

system he came to washington to dramatically reform. dick, congratulations. [applause] >> thank you, senator. those were terrific comments. one thing about the contract with america, i remember dick talking to you after the republicans, you know, won the congress, and i was kind of apologetic, i said, you know, dick, i didn't really pay all that much attention to the contract with america because i never thought you would win, and you said well, steve, if people thought we would win, they never would have signed the contract with america. [laughter] that was a great great period. incidentally, i think you all -- remember your first hundred hours -- what was it? the first hundred hours, you did -- i mean you passed more good legislation than probably in the previous 25 years in that

first hundred hours. it is an amazing revolution. i see a lot of new people coming in. all of you in this room, if at some point in your career worked for dick armey, could you please stand up? [applause] that's amazing. i will say it again, dick's legacy is the amazing people he's mentored over the years. so i wanted to call on kevin cramer, where are you, senator? we have the second most famous person from north dakota here kevin cramer is a senator from the state of north dakota. he's also -- what are the odds that two of the most famous people in washington would come from north dakota. senator, thank you very much for being here. >> thanks, steve. [applause]

>> neither dick nor i are the most famous person. however, peter davidson could attest that dave osbourne one of dick's classmates all pro runningback for the vikings is from north dakota. he and dick are classmates. this is such an honor. thanks for including me. in my 10 years in congress, this is the highlight. it is. it really is, dick. i mean it. for the handful of you who read the whole book, susan and i know did. i'm sure she proofread it many times. i might be the first person in america to read the whole book. i was testing dick as i was reading it on the airplane -- i was texting dick as i was reading it on the airplane, i'm laughing so hard that people are concerned. my dad and dick armey lived across the alley from one another. in the book dick tells a story about richard cramer, the elder

richard -- there are a number of richards in the book that he references, but was tasked with teaching the younger richard how to climb poles when dick joined the rural electric cooperative as a lineman for a summer job. now, i love the fact that dick had to go to union shop and work for a co-op. you know, that was the last time he did either of those things, but more important than that even, charlie armey, dick's brother who along with phil graham are the two stars of the book, i would say. they get more ink than anybody else combined, and so dick's older brother and my dad were best men at each other's wedding. they both married well and stay married to the same person their entire life. just to give you a little of that. my dad did teach dick -- dick didn't put this part in the book. he put the part about climbing

the poles in the book. my dad dick tells me gave me one of his first economic lessons. dick and dad after work one day -- dick said let's go to the bar in downtown and have a drink -- no, maybe he didn't. [laughter] but richard cramer said dick, you know that for the price of a drink at the bar downtown, we could go to the liquor store and get a six pack. and my dad retired a lineman, and dick wrote the book on price theory, literally wrote the book on price theory, but the best book dick has ever written is clearly his memoirs. they are spectacular. i encourage everybody who is listening and watching to read it. we celebrate that for sure. not only is it a great documentation of a historical moment. it is a great documentation of a significant historical moment here, but it has countless lessons to all of us how to govern and better yet how to

behave, really. the two go hand in hand. i told you people were concerned about me sitting on the plane, but i'm going to give you a couple of the lessons i learned. first of all, one of the parts where i really laughed the hardest is when the faculty wives accosted you, dick, because he as a professor had written this piece that the newspaper picked up that proved that stay-at-home wives were overpaid. well, maybe not exactly -- well, something like that. something like that. that in fact they were paid both for their consumption as well as for their productivity. and so of course he's doing all this wonky stuff. it reminded me of shortly after dick wept to congress, his alma mater -- dick went to congress, his alma mater where he got his master's university of north dakota, at the time was fighting

sioux, by the way because of scarcity after that happened, dick called me and said can you get me a fighting sioux hockey jersey before they are all gone? they were smart enough at und to print a whole bunch of them. anyway, at that event, where he received the coveted sioux award, the emcee was the president of the alumni association, and the state republican majority leader of the state legislature, north dakota, and dick gets up and gives this wonderful speech starting out about how important the university system is because it not only teaches our children but teaches our children's children; right? that's pretty important. that's where the good news ended, and he pivoted to the problem with the university system, of course, is faculty governance; right? i'm sorry, but he gives -- faculty governments how bad that is and why it is ruining the university system. he gets all done and get a wonderful ovation of all the wealthy donors of the university

of north dakota, and earl gets up and says just one quick announcement the dessert reception in honor of congressman armey that was going to be hosted by the faculty has been cancelled due to a recent lack of interest. [laughter] one other thing about north dakota, dick's beloved home state, most of his family still lives there. i was just there about a week or two ago and saw some of them. his preference for free markets really supersedes the popularism of north dakota. he would have a hard time getting elected there, let's just face it. he did come and campaign for me in the 90s when i was a young party chairman, he was the guy who would come and give the lincoln day speeches when we had no celebrities from north dakota. we didn't even have a living republican that had been in congress at that time. but we always had to get ashurpss that he would not -- we always had to get assurances that he would not talk about the farm bill or the farm program

and not give his opinion about ethanol until, until, until he came to cut the ribbon on the ronald reagan republican center in bismarck. it just so happened that that same day, the governor at the time, now my colleague in the senate was to give the keynote address at the north dakota petroleum council but he got sick. they scrambled and said could you get dick armey to fill in? i said i think i can. i said this is your chance to say whatever you want about ethanol in north dakota. [laughter] i will never forget it. he gets up in front of all these oilmen, and he said cramer said i could say anything i wanted about ethanol. it was such a dumb idea the russians didn't even try it. [laughter] true story, and he got a standing ovation. he didn't have to say another word. [applause]

i did try one time try to plead my case for the farm bill. in his office, i said dick, you have to admit free markets don't work in every situation because agriculture is heavily subsidized by all our competitors. we just are trying to have, you know, a fair market or at least level the playing field a little bit, to which he said without thinking about it, contemplating, worrying about my feelings, he said i have never met an american excited to become a farmer because somebody put a gun to their head. -- i have never met an american decided to become a farmer because somebody put a gun to their head. i said okay, let's talk about something else. [laughter] i know there's a 39 page index on dick's book. i probably have twice that many pages on notes. historical as it is, it taught us a lot of things. dick, i agree with -- i think it

should be required reading for every freshman, for sure, for every freshman that comes to congress for sure because one thing that newt gingrich said to me, the first time i ever met him and i told him you and my dad grew up together he said dick armey is the epitome of what one man can do in congress if he has the will. when he passed [inaudible], he was a junior member of the minority party. that should be an encouragement for everybody that aspires to do big things. the lessons of your tenure as leader proved that regular order works. i have been in congress in 10 years. i have never seen regular order. your book proves it that regular order works when you respect every member, when you empower every committee, and you honor the chairman. i would like to see that return. i think we would get back to a lot of those principles if in fact we just took care of those. perhaps the greatest economics lesson that you taught us, dick, and that you teach us in your book is that god's grace is in

high demand and high supply, and it's still free. [applause] one of the most important lessons i take from dick's book is that going home on weekends makes you a better member of congress than going on a [inaudible]. but it's true. you inspired me to be a senator as well. you know that. you know that. and the reason -- and the way he did it -- don't worry, it won't be as blunt as you put it. i asked him in 1993, senator graham if such a celebrity from texas as he is would ever run for the open seat vacated by lloyd benson, to which he said i'm not a big enough, you know, to be a senator, but you have the potential. [laughter] really phil graham and you have always had, you know, great

aspirations for me. dick armey and my father learned a really valuable lesson together climbing poles. if you work long hours, you get time and a half. and then professor armey became congressman armey and leader armey, and he and his entire team many of whom you have seen tonight and there are many others proved that if you work long hours at their job, you don't make an extra penny, but just like my dad who earned time and a half benefitted his family, dick and his team and their hard work have benefitted all of our families. you can live with that assurance, dick. you are a man to quote your own book not about you, but i am going to quote it back to you, you are a man of great stature as well as a man of great status. there are two men in my life, dick, without whom i would never be a united states senator. they are both named richard.

they are both from north dakota, and i love you both. [applause] >> thank you so much. that was fabulous. i apologize i forgot to mention the most important person in this room, susan armey, thank you for everything you have done. [applause] >> i asked a few people, would you like to say something about your husband? >> [inaudible]. >> all right. [laughter] >> i can't wait to hear what you have to say. ladies and gentlemen, susan armey. [applause] >> i wasn't sure if i was supposed to come up or not, but here i am. let me think about this. my husband and i have been married for almost 42 years.

[applause] i've got to say it's never been boring. [laughter] i remember when he first came to me, we'd only been married about two and a half years, and he said, you know, honey, i have been thinking about -- i really think i could do a lot of good and do some good work and run for congress. i'm like what? i'm cooking dinner. we have children here, what are you talking -- anyway, i just -- very quickly, i had read a few articles on political families and how tough their lives were, and i said, if you do this, honey, i will have to think seriously about a divorce. [laughter] and so i laughed, and he said really? i said well, i don't know, let's talk about it, so we did. and he had -- he really had -- he had a plan, and he knew he was. he was an economist, and he'd been watching c-span, and he would talk to me about this, and

he would say, you know, there's so many good things that we could do, and so i just really didn't want him to do it, but he did, and i encouraged him to do what he wanted, what his dream was, and he ran, and against all odds, he won. and then he said, you know, i will never be in leadership. those guys, they have to work all the time. i'm just going to be a regular member, just do my work. i said oh good that's great because we can get back to our normal lives. before i know it, he's running for leadership, and he wins. of course, he was right, he wasn't home for eight years, but i look back now that we're out of it, it is so much better, i can look back, and he did so much. i mean, he and his team, they did so much. he had the best team in d.c., and they did wonderful work together. and i look back, you know, what,

20 years since he's been out of congress, and i'm amazed -- as i've gotten older, i'm amazed at what my husband and his team did, so it was worth it. it was worth it. the kids say -- [applause] >> before we hear from dick armey, there's one person in this room who really played a huge huge role in dick armey becoming a member of congress but also majority leader was with dick for many many years, really literally from the very start, and that's carrie. where are you? can you come up and say a few words about the first campaign -- i mean the stories about that campaign and how dick rolled the dice and put everything on the line. it was amazing. thank you for everything you did to make dick armey the success that he was. [applause]

>> i will try. we're still trying to figure out if susan actually voted for dick. [laughter] >> well, i mean, we've heard tonight from senators and others about how much of a difference he made. it's true. it is a phenomenal difference he made during his career. but i've tried to figure out what made him different. so i thought of a few things, one is he is truly fearless. he chose to run for congress when everybody said you would be a fool to try. everyone thought there's no way you are going to win for the guy who was incumbent, mayor of arlington for years and had millions of dollars, but he did it anyway. he said i'm going to win my own way. he knocked on 10,000 doors. he made thousands of phone calls. he, you know, scratched his way. he got it done. he was honest with me. when he interviewed me -- he and susan interviewed me to be his campaign manager, he said i need

you to know two things, i don't have any money, and i don't know anybody who does. [laughter] he was correct on that. [laughter] he took on all the fights once he got up to d.c. you know, the base-closing bill, he was literally a junior member in his second term, not on the armed services committee, and i remember one time, senator graham, he came back -- i think he had shared the idea with you, and you said that can't be done. that's impossible. i tried it one time, and dick goes that makes you want to try it that much more. with brian gunderson and others on the team, after, you know, three or four good years of getting it done, it got through, and it continued for many many rounds and saved billions and billions of dollars. but there are a lot of other issues. he took on school choice back when even the first bush administration was opposed to it. i think our first goal was to get majority republicans to vote for it. now it is party orthodox and it wasn't for a long time.

public housing reform with jack kent and all the others in those days. ago subsidies which -- ag subsidies which you heard about that people thought never could touch.tecting homeschoolers. he had remarkable success across a variety of issues. i was trying to think of other house members or senators that left a legacy, who left behind such a big body of work. i think of maybe ted kennedy on the other side. maybe phil graham, but there aren't many. it is a very very short list. you can be proud of what you left behind. he truly didn't give a hoot about what anybody thought. that gave him remarkable freedom. he did what he thought was right and what his conscience told him to do. he couldn't be bent. lobbyists couldn't bend him. his donors and his district couldn't bend him, and he lost several of them because they tried, and he refused.

he told constituents what he believed, and in one famous encounter at a town hall meeting, a guy just kept badgering him over something over and over again and dick finally said i have had enough of you, meet me outside after this and i will kick your butt. he may not have said butt. [laughter] but that's who he was. he's a thinker. that's another thing i think that sets him apart is he really does spend time actually thinking. i think thought time today is pretty rare commodity. my kids i try to get them to -- if you have empty time, think, don't just go over to your phone and look at something. dick would be in a shower, out fishing, or go for a run, he would just think. a lot of times on monday mornings, he would call me in his office and goes hey i have been thinking and i knew something was up at that point. he would have some idea, like, even back in the university, he came up with his invisible foot

of government corollary to the invisible hand of the market. you know, look it up. it is really well done. but he would come up with an idea in congress that we would analyze for days, turn it into some project, and many of them would change america. he would take the time to think. today we are just reacting to stuff that we see on the news or people are pushing. you actually take time and think about it. he was on a power pole in north dakota thinking about whether he should go back to college, or thinking about flat tax, or thinking about some other economic concept. he also analyzed people. he could unlock people because he would study them and understand them, and to this day, newt gingrich is a great guy, love the guy, spent thousands of hours in meetings with him and the rest of the leadership, i think dick probably analyzed newt better than anybody else who has written or talked about newt. i will let you read the book to see his analysis of newt, but i

think it is spot on. he read widely, and he remembered what he read from all the classic economists, george gilder was a great friend of his, thomas sole, milton friedman, he read them and studied them and remembered them and learned how to apply them in different situations. he could articulate the concepts whether it was a leadership meeting or town hall meeting or a tv interview, he could explain it better than anybody else i think i know. many leadership meetings, there would be a big battle about something, and dick would then just launch into this -- bringing in several famous, you know, economists of the past and just shut the whole thing down. they would go i can't argue with that. and later when he became a believer in christ years into his career, he learned to live out his faith in everything he did, and that gave him tremendous peace, particularly toward the end when he was just

unfairly maligned by a lot of people that should have been his friends, but he had to go through a lot and get quite a few slings and arrows, and he did it with a peaceful heart. not many of us could have walked through it the way he did, i think. he also developed true friendships with people that you wouldn't expect. those have been around a while, remember ron [inaudible]? he and dick were great buddies. they didn't agree on hardly anything, but they were great friends. jim wright, they became friends. joe mokely. rosa [inaudible] they became friends during the [inaudible]. jack brooks, dick is the only guy who could joke with him and get away with it. even barney frank, they were actually friends. people don't believe that, but they were. his good nature allowed him to say things that most people couldn't get away with.

one of my favorite stories in the book is he was showing up at one of the office buildings, and as he was going through, maxine waters happened to show up. those of you who know her might appreciate this. he goes oh maxine i'm so glad to see you. she goes why, dick? he goes well now we can call off the witch hunt. [laughter] and she just laughed. her colleague said maxine you can't take that. she said oh come on, that was pretty funny. [laughter] she had a good sense of humor about it too. [laughter] he often said he was good at being upset, but didn't always like it. [laughter] i've recently gone back to the hill after a 20-year absence, and as i look at the hill today, it is a very very different place. but today's political entrepreneurs as opposed to

policy entrepreneurs, today what typically passes as a campaign is to make an incendiary comment or perhaps tweet something that's outrageous, go on their favorite tv network, yell at somebody on the floor, make a spectacle, and then go send out millions of e-mails and texts and try to raise money on it, then go back and do the same thing the next day. that's pretty much what a large part of our movement has turned into, which is unfortunate. we desperately need people who approach their job like dick did. i mean, it is hard to find an entrepreneurial congressman. partly because they have shut the rules down and members don't have an opportunity to be effective on their committee or offer amendments on the floor like he did for so long. but i hope if republicans win, they take the majority, that they will reopen this and let members show that they can be a legislator and not just a [inaudible]. we need that substance. we need, you know, the political changes that can be made. for anyone who wants to understand the way congress

worked during armey and graham's era, read his book. i really think it is a classic book that people can learn from, and i agree, members, send a copy to all freshman when they come in. i think it would be well worth their time to read it. they need to learn what he did. they need to replicate it because we need more leaders who can change america the way he did. he did come to d.c., riding around in a pickup truck back in that 84 campaign, he said i want to go to washington to save america. well, he did. you did, dick. we need people to do it every generation. so we need a whole new crop, i think, that can do what you did, dick. i'm terribly proud to have known you, proud to have worked with you, and to get to know susan over the years and all the other members of our team that are here tonight, it was a wonderful group and incredible era. thank you for letting me a part of it. [applause]

>> going to tell one other quick dick armey story, the book is leader by richard k. armey and it is a wonderful read. one fun story that i was reminded of. i see that andy is here in the front row and worked, you know, diligently in helping put together the flat tax idea, the armey flat tax, and you may remember this story, andy, but we had called in a bunch of really prominent economists to, you know, to have a conversation with dick about that plan, and so we brought in art laffer, and i think it was steve forbes, and i think jack kemp was there or someone. the three of them were huddled on this couch in armey's office. we err ooh kind of sitting -- we are kind of sitting across from him. dick armey's first statement is he said gentlemen, there has not

been as much brain power on that couch since i slept there alone. [laughter] classic dick armey. now we're going to hear from dick armey, the great -- one of the greatest majority leaders in the history of the house of representatives. dick armey. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, all. i just really want to make two points. the first is about the house of representatives, i came to know and understand that this is the most unique institution in the representative of democracy in the history of the world, and i was so privileged to be a part of it. i learned to love it, the institution.

i learned to love the people who loved the institution. one of the people who recurs in my book and one of the few people with whom i served whose approval i coveted was senator bird from west virginia. people think that's a strange choice. but i loved senator bird for the way he loved the institution. and i wanted him to remember me as a person who did honor to the institution. i like to believe i succeeded. when i came there, the institution was run by regular order. the democrats were evil. we knew that. [laughter] but they ran a good ship. and as a young entrepreneurially-minded member of congress, i could innovate legislation because i knew what

the rules were, thanks largely to david hobbs who taught me the ropes, but if you know the institutional structure and the procedures and the protocols, and if you dare to believe they will be counted on, you can exceed in your individual initiative. you can't in a world that doesn't have that structure. i look at the congress today, and i feel bad. i remember the people that i served -- i remember the democrats who were in charge of everything, but each and every one of those grumpy old men had served this nation and the service of its defense. they knew the sacrifice of that service. they understood the cause of liberty that they had paid for, and they treated liberty with a

very very gentle and loving touch. and they deserve to be respected. and they were. but now i've watched the house fall into a different direction. i've seen republican speakers who have fallen by the wayside, and i can say i believe it is for one simple reason only, they left the structure behind. they got ahead of the body. they failed to respect each and every member and their right to participate, and then they would come to the floor with a product that had not been seen or worked on by members at large and try to bully it into passage, and it was a heart breaking thing to watch. i believe that if the states of

this country preserve their integrity as granted in the constitution to administer their elections, and if the elections ared a men stered -- and if the elections are administered fairly an honestly, the republicans will gain the majority of the house. if they do a good job of administering honest elections, the republicans will gain a majority in the senate. i have a wish and a prayer for these new majority, run the organization in compliance with its rules and its protocols and its wonderful tradition. allow each member to be honored and appreciated and active in doing what it is they do so well, on every committee. you have people who have devoted a lifetime's career, who have expertise and historical

knowledge that should be respected. if you do that, mr. new speaker, you will retain your speakership because you will have an honest, happy, and productive institution, and it will be to your credit. that will mean you will have to stand up to an administration that wants to go to the drawing room together, just a few of us, and we'll work it out and bring it back and you guys can pass it. you will have to say no, we don't do things like that in our body. we do things in an all inclusive and respectful fashion, together. we are an institution. and by the way, of all the things i admired about newt gingrich, the one thing i admired the most, he understood congress was a separate and equal body of this government, and its prerogatives and its

obligations needed to be protected, and they needed to be administered. i thank you, newt, for that great lesson. that's what we do. we come here to serve the nation, to do so together, in an inclusive fashion that is respectful of all our members, all our members, even those nitwits on the other side of the aisle should be respected. i remember joe cap was being dissed because he couldn't throw a perfect spiral, and his response was i'm a starting quarterback in the nfl, i apologize to no one. i was elected by my citizen friends back home, and i apologize to no one, and on their behalf, i demand to be respected. let me just take a --

[inaudible]. i wrote this book. people think it is about me. it is not about me, especially those years in congress. it is about us. we did it together. i was never able to talk about my staff. we were a team. we were together. we stuck up for each other. we stuck by each other. i wrote it one day. i found myself typing these words we loved each other for what we loved together, a safe and a prosperous and a happy america. we did that, and we did it so well with such success of loyalty and loving affection through a system that i called respectful division of labor that we became known as armey guys, and i loved that. i thought it was fitting.

you could have called them gillespies if you like good whiskey. [laughter] but we were armey guys, and michelle davis was the first to enlighten us, guys, that the term army guys is a gender neutral term. we are all armey guys, and we discovered, did we not, before we all broke up, there were people that were not of our staff, not in our shop, there were other members of congress, there were even a handful of particularly enlightened senators who called themselves armey guys. so if you're an armey guy, it is because you love one another for what you love together, a safe and prosperous and happy america. that's why we work. this is the prize for which we

toiled. for may i ask if you are an armey guy, will you stand and give yourself a hand. [applause] >> dick armey it is fantastic to have you back in washington. i think this is one of your first trips back since you left town. it is amazing you were able to come here. it is a great book. it is called "leader". i mean this is a great great book. it is a great read about how washington works and what doesn't work. senator phil graham, thank you very much for coming from texas. it was fantastic having you. we will have drinks afterwards. all of the armey guys and gals are going to be having dinner afterwards, so dick armey, thank you for all you did for our

country. you are a great great patriot. [applause] >> sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to see the schedule, book festivals, author discussions and more. book tv every sunday on c-span 2 or any time online at booktv.org, television for serious readers. well, hello, everyone, welcome. i'm liz nealy. i'm absolutely delighted to be moderating today's session. this is under water, climate change. if you are not interested in hearing about oceans and coral reefs, first, i'm sorry for you, and also you may [inaudible] out of the room. we are going to be diving into