>> host: i want to thank my hosts at the free library of philadelphia. i want to thank the audience for being engaged, this is what it is to be in a democracy, the discourse, the resistance, the compensation for the liberation of the mind. thank you for being here. >> guest: appreciate you getting the book. >> if you are enjoying tv sign a proud newsletter using the qr code on the screen, to receive the schedule of upcoming programs, auto discussions and more. booktv every sunday on c-span2 or any time online, booktv.org, television for serious readers. >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast, every

saturday american history tv documents america's story and sunday booktv brings the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span 2 comes from these television companies and more including charter communications. >> broadband, a force for empowerment, that is why turner has invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. >> charter communications with these television companies supports c-span2 as a public service. [applause] >> thank you those in the audience, those who have joined online on c-span, welcome, this will be a riveting conversation and i say that as someone who is a historian. a couple minutes of comment before i turn it over to my friend and colleague steve

more, and president of my university, it is more as the son of the reagan revolution that dick armey would be the majority leader, phil gramm's economic expertise with leader dick armey's for a narrow window in american political history, to be ascendant in this town. we need to be careful not to dwell on the past, on the brink of a red wave, i mean that philosophically this year, know that that isn't merely about party relationship, one party being in charge instead of another, it is the ideas that define us as a people, namely freedom flourishing in this town, this government spending a lot less money than it does.

it is a great privilege to have dick armey, senator phil gramm, one of my political mentors who was thinking of running for a different office, he was in louisiana, this was before there was a red wave in louisiana, adopt us as our third senator, you just keep doing what you are doing. here we are many years later, good to see you, welcome back to heritage. without further ado, it is a great privilege to have steve more back at the heritage foundation, our distinct fellow, over to him. [applause] [laughter] >> i will say this. thank you for the kind introduction. i am loving this new era at heritage.

it is fantastic and leadership has been amazing. we will have some fun today, tonight, welcome to our c-span audience as well. dick armey is a legend, one of the few people in addition to phil gramm who came to this town to make government smaller, not bigger so thank you to both of you so we have -- just got this note from newt gingrich, speaker of the house who engineered the republican revolution in 1994. i would love to read this comment, it is really sweet. he says dick armey was invaluable as a creative, dynamic, energetic member when we were in the minority and as a cue card of the contract with america majority, an extraordinary force for good ideas, real reforms and leader who helped reelect the house

gop majority for the first time in 68 years and helped develop the only four balanced budgets in our lifetime. 's new book provides vivid insights to the legislative process with gratitude, newt gingrich, really nice tribute to dick armey. this is the book. if you haven't gotten this book it is a great read. this book should be read by every political science major in america should be reading this book called "leader". it is a great discussion of how washington works and how things get done and don't get done in washington. we are going to have some fun telling our dick armey stories, 15 or 20 people working for you one time or another and in addition to all the contributions you made to

policy, one of your great contributions was the number of successful people who you mentored including myself. my story about dick armey as i worked for dick armey on the joint economic committee in 1993-1994 and i remember when i was on the committee and the summer of 1994 that i was going to leave the committee. if you were working for a minority member in the house you might is all not have been there and they were so arrogant after 40 years of rule, like republicans weren't even there. i went to dick and said i love working for you but i can't do this anymore. we are not having much impact and i will never forget he said steve, you cannot leave now.

don't leave now because we are going to take the house in november 1994. you were part of that revolution as well. whatever you are smoking, i want some because it seemed so incredibly -- people forget how improbable it seems, how many seats you had to pick up, 60 seats or something like that, a tidal wave election in no small part because newt gingrich and dick armey, there is a lesson here. when republicans stand for something they win. when they are the lesser of two evils which is most of the time they lose. that was an incredible period and what you did, you and the whole team from 1995 through 2000, it is true, only four balanced budgets in the last 50 years, welfare reform, the capital gains tax cut, all these incredible things, dick

armey was for those of younger people in this room, the first inspiration for the flat tax idea. .. for medical savings accounts. you never were with me on the term limits idea. i don't think you like that too much. but anyway that it's just so fantastic to have you here, so i wanted to turn the podium over to senator phil graham who actually i first met in this building, you know back in 1984 85 when when back in 1984-85 win phil gramm came up with this crazy idea called, they called it the gramm-rudman bill, and the gramm-rudman bill was basically automatic spending cuts if we couldn't get that deficit down, and all of washington had palpitations over this but as one of the few times, senator, we actually cut spending under that gramm-rudman bill and has been a crusader as well and also hails from the great state of texas or give a warm welcome to

phil gramm of texas. [applause] >> thank you, steve. well, nobody told me that i could say anything. i will say a few things. president reagan once put his arm around me and said, i want you to look me in the eye, and he said, half weinberger tells me that your gramm-rudman is more dangerous than soviet menace. [laughing] will you assure me that that's not the case? i said yes, mr. president, i'll assure you it's not the case. well, dick and i were destined to become friends because we were both from texas, where 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 last of the very institution they come to be part of. and the thing that i always found was very interesting, and i never lost my sort of all of it, and that was that dick always had this view that he was like a spy in the soviet union that had become a leader of the central committee and was one of the people actually running the soviet union. 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 actually doing inside the belly of the beast.

and and i never ceased to fint fascinating. i served in washington for a quarter 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 that i ever served with, dick armey was less interested, dick armey was less interested in giving credit for things he did than anybody i have ever dealt with in washington. as far as i could tell, is aspiration, other than saving america, was owning a ford s-150 king ranch version. [applause] and he got it. and dick's story is a story that

reassures be about america. dick was from kandi north dakota. that's right, is in a any idea where it is. i i went to north dakota campaigning once and i had to plug in the car to keep the tires from freezing. but he came from cando north dakota and he became the first republican, first republican majority leader in 40 years, and he was an indispensable leader in changing america. and implementing the final stones on the reagan revolution. and then he retired and went back to being just a plain citizen. to meet that is a reassuring story about america.

i once had a guy in china ask me where did you come from? you know, we tried to look at leadership in america and we just can't figure out where you came from. and i tried to explain to them that in america the greatness of our country is that leaders just come from nowhere. and so people are always saying we are the reagans and where are the dick armey's now that we need them? well, i never despair because i know they're out there. they're waiting to be discovered. they are waiting for the right moment. and the only thing that -- well, let me just say, the contract with america, dick armey wrote the contract with america. he gave it the name contract with america. i was the chairman of the republican senatorial committee.

we tried to copy it by having our seven more in 94. we won more than seven seats by the way. now, i'm not taking anything away from newt gingrich. he grabbed it. he ran with it. he made it famous. he deserves all the credit he gets, but dick armey was a a father of contract with america. [applause] i do want to overstay my welcome but let me just 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. and so what dick did, and i knew a 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 senator to go to the military base that the bulldozer was pulling up to knock down the gate and lie down on the ground telling his staff, not just at the last moment, rushed in and drag me out and i'll be begging to die, but pull me out. [laughing] and then it will be gone, and that's exactly what happened. we closed a lot of military bases that should've never been built to begin with and were being operated just drain the blood out 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% of american income earners gets 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 senator warren would say it's impossible for her to work. well, guess what? we reformed the program, we set

time limits, and within four years 50% of the people who had would been under program were working. it's amazing what incentive do. so i am very happy to be here today to, one, give credit where not enough credit has been given partly because he flat skill to blow his own horn. 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 spying report. that he was actually running the system that came to washington to dramatically reform. and so dick, congratulations. [applause]

>> thank you, senator. those were terrific comments. just one thing about the contract with america. i remember, dick, talking to you after the republicans won the congress, and account was apologetic. i said dick, i did would 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 an ever would've signed the contract of america. [laughing] there was a great, great, great mac and incidentally i think, remember first 100 hours what's what wasn't the first 100 hours? you did, i mean, you passed more good legislation than probably the previous 25 years in the first 100 hours so it's amazing revelation. either way, i see a lot of new people come in. what i'd love if any, all of you in this room who at some point in your career worked for dick armey, could you please stand up? that's amazing. [applause] thank you all for being here.

i'll say it again. dick, dick's legacy is really the amazing people he has mentored over the years. okay, so i wanted to call on kevin cramer. where are you, senator? that you are. we have another person, the second-most person come most famous person from north dakota here, kevin cramer is a a senr from the state of north dakota, and he is also, i believe you are also, you are also from cando? what are the odds that two of the most famous people in washington would come from cando, north dakota? said it, thanks much being here. [applause] >> all right. neither dick nor i are the most famous person from cando. however, peter davidson can attest that dave osborne one of dick's classmates all-pro running back for the vikings is from cando. he's from cando. he and dick are classmates.

well, this is such an honor. steve, thanks for including the to be able to participate in something like this. my ten years in congress, this is a highlight, it is. it really is, dick. i mean it. and for the handful of you who read the whole book, susan and i know dick, i'm sure she proofread it many times, by to read the whole book. i might've been the first person in america to read the whole book. i mean, i was texting dick as a rating on the airplane going i'm laughing so hard that the people next to me are concerned. but just to you a little context if you didn't read the book. my daddy and dick armey lived across the alley from one another in cando. and in the book that tells a story about richard kramer the elder richard. there's a number of richards that are in the book he references, but was passed 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 the union shop and

work for co-op, you know. that was last time he did either of those things, but, but more important than that even, charlie armey dick's brother who along with phil gramm really are the two stars of the book i think. they get more ink than anybody else combined. and so charlie armey dick's older brother and my daddy were best man at each others weddings. they both married well. they both stayed married to the same person their entire lives. just to give you a little of that year my dad did teach dick. dick didn't put this part and a book. he put the part about the climb poles in the book picky didn't put this, my dad, dick tells nick and gave him his first, one of his first economics lessons. dick and dad after work one day dick said let's go down to i think was gorgeous bar downtown cando have a drink. maybe he didn't. [laughing] but richard kramer 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 sixpack. and my dad, retired, a lineman, dick, wrote the book on price theory. literally wrote the book on price three. the best book dick is ever written is literally his memoirs. i encourage anybody who's listening and watching to read it. and we celebrate that for sure. because not only st segment only is a great documentation of historical moment, it is a great documentation, significant historical moment here but it has countless lessons to all of us on how to govern, and better yet how to behave. really. and the two go hand in hand. i told you i laugh so hard at some points that people were concerned about me sitting on the plane but i'm going to get a couple of the lessons that i learned. first of all, one of the parts that are booted out the hardest is when the wise, 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 but something like that. something like that. that, in fact, no paid both the consumption as well as for their productivity. so of course he's doing all this wonky stuff but here's what it reminded me. it might be up shortly after dick went to congress his alma mater where he got his masters degree in the universe of north dakota at the time known as the fighting sioux until the ncaa said it was hostile and abusive, but which by the way because of scarcity after the happen dick called me at said can you went over to grand forks and get me a fighting sioux hockey jersey before they are all gone? they were smart enough to print all bunch of them. but anyway, but at that event when he received a coveted sioux

award the mc was the president of the alumni association, and the state republican majority leader of the state legislature. dick gets up and gives this wonderful speech starting out about how important university system is because of no one teaches our children but it teaches our children's children. that's pretty important. that's with a good is ended and he pivoted to the problem with the university system of course, faculty governance come right? so he gives this oration on faculty governance, how about that is about winning the university system and he gets all done and gives this wonderful ovation from all the wealthy donors at the university of north dakota and earl gets up and says, just one quick announcement. the dessert reception in honor of congressman armey is going to be hosted by the faculty has been canceled due to a recent lack of interest. [laughing] one of the thing about north dakota, dick's beloved home state is most of his family

still lives there. i was in cando about a week or two ago and saw some of them. but his preference for free markets, senator gramm, really supersedes the prairie populism of north dakota. he would have a hard time getting elected there, let's just say. although i think today he would have a much better chance but he did come and campaign for me in the '90s when i was young party chairman. he was a guy that, and give the link and a speech is when we had no celebrities from north dakota. we didn't have a living republican that it been in congress at that time, but we always had to get the charges that he would not talk about the farm bill or the farm programs and he would certainly not give his opinion about ethanol. intel, intel, intel he came to cut the ribbon on the ronald reagan republican senator in bismarck. it just so happened that same day john hope and the governor at the time now my colleagues in the senate was to give the keynote address at the north dakota petroleum council but he

got sick so they called, scrambling to morning and said could you get dick armey possibly to fill in? i said i think i can. and as we were in the parking lot of the radisson and i said this is your chance to say whatever you want about ethanol in north dakota. and he got up, i'll never forget he gets up in front of all these oilmen he said, kramer said i could say anything i want about ethanol. it was such a damn dumb idea that the russians didn't even try it. [laughing] and, and, true story and he got a standing ovation. he didn't have to say another word. i did one time -- yes. [applause] i did one time try to plead my case for the farm bill. in his office isa dick, you've got to admit free markets to work in every situation because agriculture is heavily subsidized by all of our competitors. we just trying to have a fair market or or at least level the

playing field a little bit to which he said without thinking about it, contemplating, worried about my feelings and he said i've never met an american who decided to become a farmer because somebody put a gun to their head. i said okay, we'll talk of something else. let's talk about glenda or ed. anyway, i know there's a 39 page index on dick's book. i bet i twice that many pages that i've written so i i've as been to go back to things that really matter. because dick took armey's actions and turned it into brilliant armey's parables. again historical as it is it covers a lot of things. dick, i agree with you. i think it should be required reading for every freshman for sure, for every fashion that comes to congress for sure. because one thing newt gingrich said to me the first time ever met him, and i told him that you and my dad grew up together, he said dick armey is the epitome of what they can do in congress if he has the will.

ladies and gentlemen, when he passed brac he was a junior member of the minority party. that should be encouragement for everybody that aspires to do big things. the lessons of your ten years later proved regular order works. regular order works. i've been in congress tenures and i've never seen regular order. your book proves when you respect and remember, , when you empower every committee and you honor the chairman. i'd like to see that returned. i think we get back to a lot of those principles and, in fact, we just to clear a trip just the care of those. perhaps the grids economics lesson you taught us that you teaches in your book is god's grace is in high demand and high supply, and it's still free. 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 then going on a codel.

that what is going to hurt some people. but it's true. you inspired me to be a senator as well and 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, was because i asked him in 1993, senator gramm, if such a celebrity from texas as he is with everyone for the open seat vacated by lloyd bentsen, to which he said i'm not a big enough, you know, to be a senator, but you have the potential. [laughing] [applause] really phil gramm and i have always come phil gramm and you have always had great aspirations for me. dick armey and my father learned a really valuable lesson together climbing poles, that if you work long hours you get time in half. and then professor armey became

congressman armey and leader armey, and he and his entire team many of whom you've 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 earn time and a half benefit of his family, dick and his team in their hard work have benefited all of our families. and you can live with that assurance, dick. you are a man to culture of book, not about you, but i'm going to court back to you, 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. both named richard, they are both from cando, and i love you both. [applause]

>> thank you so much. that was sightless. by the way i apologize i forgot to mention the most important person in this room, susan armey. susan, thank you for everything you have done. [applause] >> so i asked a few people, would you like to see something about your husband? all right. [laughing] i can't wait to hear what you have to say. ladies and gentlemen, susan armey. [applause] >> i wasn't sure if i 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] and i've got to say it has never been boring. [laughing] i remember when he first came to me, we'd only been married about two and half years, and he said, you know honey, i've been thinking about, i really think i

could do a lot of good and do some good work effort ran for congress. and i said, what? i'm cooking dinner. you know, we have children here. what are you talking? so anyway, i just very quickly i'd read a few articles on political families and out of the life's work, and i said if you do this, honey, i'll have to think seriously about divorce. and so i laughed and he said really? and i said well, i don't know. let's talk about it. so we did. and he had come he really had deep felt feelings. he had a plan and he knew who he was. he was an economist, and even 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, nd, and i encouraged him to do what he wanted, what history was. and he ran and against all odds he won. and then he said, you know, i'll

never be in leadership. those guys, they have to work all the time. i'm just come to be a regular member to do my work. good, that's great because we can get back to a normal life. before i know what he's running for leadership. and he wins. and, of course, he was right. he wasn't home for eight years. but i look back now that we are out of it, it's 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, it's been what, 20 years since he out of congress, and i'm amazed as i've gotten older, i'm amazed at my husband and what his team did. so it was worth it. it was worth it. the kids say it was good. [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 kerry not. where are you? can you come up and say a few words about the first campaign, the stories of the campaign and had dick really, , you know, rolled the dice and put everything on the line can was amazing. so thank you for everything you did to make dick armey the success that he was. [applause] >> i will try. will try to figure out if susan actually voted for dick in the first election. [laughing] well, i mean, we've heard tonight from senator gramm and others about how much of a difference you made, and history. the phenomenal difference he made during his career, but i

could figure out what made in different and so i thought of a few things. one is he truly is fearless. and he chose to run for congress when everybody said you're a fool to try. i thought there's no way he's going to win against a guy who was incompetent who would been mayor of arlington for 26 years, with millions of dollars, but he did it anyway, and he said i'm going to win my own way. he knocked on 10,000 doors. he made thousands of phone calls. he scratched his way. he got it done but is he's ht with me when he interviewed me, susan interviewed me to be his campaign manager. he goes i need to know two things. i don't have any money at a don't know anybody who does. [laughing] and he was correct on that. [laughing] you took on all the fights once you cut up to d.c. and the base closing bell he was literally a

junior member in a second term not on the armed services committee, and i remember one senator gramm came back, i think he had shared the idea with you, he said that can't be done, that's impossible. i tried wait either dick said that just makes you want to try it that much more. with brian gunderson and others on the team after three or four good years of getting it done, it got through and the continued for many, many rounds and save millions and millions of dollars. but there are lots of other issues. he took on school choice back when even the first bush of administration was opposed to it. i think our first goal is to get a majority of republicans to vote for it and now it's party orthodoxy but it wasn't for a long time. public housing reform with jack kemp, walter fauntleroy, all the others in those days, act subsidies which art about which people thought you could never touch. protecting the homeschoolers which i think to this day probably shut down congress more than any other project i've ever seen. but he just had remarkable success across a variety of

issues and australia think of other house members were senators who left a legacy, who left behind such a big body of work i think maybe ted kennedy on the other side, may be senator gramm but there are not many. it's a very partial list. i think you can be proud of what you left behind. another difference is he truly didn't give a hoot what anybody thought. that gave him remarkable freedom. he did what he thought was right and what is conscious told them to do, and he couldn't be bent. lobbyists couldn't bend him. his donors in 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 or something over and over again, and dick finally said i've had enough of you. meet me outside after this and i'll kick your butt. [laughing] he may not have said but.

but that was kind of who he was. but he's not just a fighter. he's a thinker and that's another thing i think that set them apart is he really does spend time actually thinking. thought time today is a really rare commodity. my kids i could get them to like, you've got plenty time, think, don't just go to fund a look at something. dick would be in a shout or at fishing or he would go for a run or whatever and he would just think. so and a lot of times on monday mornings he was called in his office and goes, i've been thinking, and he knew something was up at that point and he would have some idea, like even back in the university came up with his invisible foot of government corollary to have smith's invisible hand of the market. you know, it's tasha look it up, it's really well done. but he would come up with an idea and congress that we would analyze for days, turn it into some project and many of them would change america, and just

he would take the time to think. today we are just reacting to stuff that we see on the news or people are pushing that you actually take time to think about it. whether it was on a powerful and north dakota thinking that what he should go back to college or thinking about the flat tax or think that some of the economic concept. he also analyzed people, and 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 an and the rest of the leadership. i think probably analyze new head of the anybody else who is written or talked about newt. i'll 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 economist, adam smith. george gilder was a great friend of his, thomas hall, milton friedman, some of the classics, he read them and study them and remember them and learn how to

apply them in different situations and he could articulate the concepts, whether it's a leadership meeting for at a town hall meeting or on a tv interview. he could explain it better than anybody else i think i know, and many leadership meeting would be a big battle about something and dick would then just launch into this soliloquy bring in several famous economists of the past and just shut the whole thing down, there were two 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 bid his friend but he had to go through a lot and took quite a few slings with arrows and did it with a peaceful heart and not many of us could have walked through the weekend i think. but he also developed true friendships with people that you

wouldn't expect. those of you been around a while remember ron dellums? he and dick were great buddies. didn't agree on hardly anything but they were great friends. jim wright, they became great friends. joe moakley. rosa delauro which really surprised me, they became friends when they were doing the homeland security committee. chuck schumer, we attacked farm subsidies with chuck schumer in the day. jack brooks who was at the crusty sky in the world but dick is you only guy who could joke with them 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 it when my favorite stories in the book is he was showing at the one of the office buildings, as he was going through maxine waters happened to show up and she was with some of our colleagues. those of you who know maxine waters might appreciate this. dick said maxine, i'm so glad to see you. why?

will, because now we can call off the witch hunt. [laughing] and she just laughed. our colleagues said maxine, you can't take that. she said come on, that was pretty funny. she had a good sense of humor about it, too. he often said he was good at being pithy but people didn't always like it when he pithed on them. [laughing] ivories and come back to the thm after 20 or absence and as i look at the hill today it's 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, on their favorite tv network, yell at somebody on the floor, make a spectacle and then go send out millions of e-mails to try to raise money on it is in the back to 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 to approach the job like dick. i mean it's hard to find an entrepreneur congressman helped partly because it shut the rules down and members don't have an opportunity to be effective on the committee or offer amendments on the floor like he did for so long. but but i hope if republicansn they take the majority, that they will reopen that and let members know they can be legislator and not just a performer going for. we need that substance. we need the political changes that can be made. for anyone who wants to understand the way congress worked during dick armey and grams era, read his book. i really think it's a classic book that people can learn from. and i agree, members may be heritage can send a copy to all the freshman when they come. i think it would be well worth their time to read it. they need to learn, they need to

replicated because we need more leaders that can change america the way he did. i i think you did come to d.c.,e used to write about in the pickup truck back in ba4 campaign and he said i want to go to washington. he did. you did, , dick. but we need people to do it every generation. so we need a whole new crop i think that can do what you did. i'm terribly proud to have known you, proud to have worked with you and get to know susan over the years and all the other members of our team that here tonight. it was wonderful movement and thank you for letting me be part of it. [applause] >> going to tell one of the quick dick armey story and then i will, by the way, the book is leader by richard armey and it's a wonderful read. just one fun story that kerry

reminded me of. i see in the front row you worked diligently at helping put together a flat tax idea that the armey flat tax, and you may remember this story, we had called in a bunch of really prominent economists to have a conversation with dick about that plan, and so we brought in art laffer and i think it was steve forbes, and to think jack kemp was ever someone. so the three of them were huddled on this couch in armey's office and were kind of sitting across from them and dick armey sir statement and he said gentlemen, said, there has not been as much brainpower on that couch since i slept there alone. [laughing] classic dick armey. all right. now we're going to hear from dick armey, the great, maybe one of the greatest majority leaders in 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 cause of liberty and representative democracy in the history of the world. and i was so privileged to be part of it. i learned to love it, the institution. i learned to love the people who love the institution. one of the people whose president recurs in my book and one of the few people with whom i served whose approval i coveted was senator byrd from west virginia. people think that's a strange

choice, but i loved senator byrd for the way he loved the institution here and i wanted him to remember me as a person that 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. but they ran a good ship. and as a young entrepreneur only minded member of congress, i could innovate legislation because i knew what the rules were, thanks largely to david hobbs who taught me the rules which 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. now, 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 in every one of those grumpy old men had served this nation in 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 deserved 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 this 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 the right to participate. and then they would come to the floor with a product that had not been seen or worked on i members at large, and try to bully it into passage. and it was a heartbreaking thing to watch. i believe that if the state of this country preserved their integrity as granted in the constitution to administer their elections, and if the elections are administered fairly and honestly, the republicans will regain majority of the house.

i believe they do an extraordinarily good job of administering honest elections. the republicans will join, , wil gain a majority in the senate. and i have a wish and a prayer for these new majority. run the organization in compliance with its rules and is protocols and its wonderful traditions. allow each member to be honored and appreciated and active, and doing what it is they do so well on every committee. you have people that devoted lifetimes career who have expertise and historical knowledge that should be respected. and if you do that, mr. new speaker, he will retain your speakership because you will have an honest, happy, productive institution, and it will be to your credit. that will mean you have to stand

up to an administration that wants to go to the drawing room together just a few of us and we will work it out and bring it back. 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 admire 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. and thank you, newt, for the 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 capp was being dissed because he could throw a perfect spiral. his response was i am a starting quarterback in 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. now, let me just take a personal moment. i wrote this book. people think it's about me. it's not about me. especially those years in congress. it's about us. we did it together. i was never able to talk about my staff. i couldn't see them. we were a team. we were together. we stuck up for each other that

we stuck by each other, at about it one day by composing at the typewriter. i find 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 a sense of loyalty and loving affection through a system that i called respectful division of labor, that we became known as army guys. and i loved that. i thought it was sitting. you could've called them kerry knott guys. you could've called them lsp is, if you like good whiskey. but we were armey guys and michelle davis was a first to enlighten us guys, that the term armey guys is a gender-neutral

term. [laughing] we are all armey guys and we discovered, did we not, for we all broke up, there were people that were not of our staff, not in our shop, there were other members of congress. they were even a handful of particularly and lightning senators who have called themselves armey guys. so if you're an armey guy is because you love one another, from what you loved together, a safe and prosperous and happy america. that's why we work. this is the prize for which we are taught. so may i ask you, if you are an armey guy, will you stand and give yourself a hand? thank you. [applause]

>> well, dick armey, it is fantastic to have you back in washington. i think this is your first, one of your first trips back since you left out and so it's amazing that you able to come here. it's a great book. it's called later. truly this is a great, great book. it's a great read about how washington works and what doesn't work. senator phil gramm thanks so much come from texas. it was fantastic avenue and will have drinks afterwards and 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] >> if you are enjoying booktv then sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive a