get control. see, when people are free, when people are trying to divide, that's when they turn to government. >> "after words" is a weekly interview program with relevant guest hosts interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work. visit booktv.org/"after words" or search the author's name, vince ellison. >> and you've been watching booktv, every sunday on c-span2 the watch nonfiction authors discuss their books. television for serious readers. and watch them all online anytime at booktv.org. you could also find us on twitter two, facebook and youtube booktv. [applause] >> thank you so much, no those of you who are here in the audience, those of you who have joined online on c-span, welcome. this is going to be a riveting conversation, and i say that as

someone who is a a historian. so just a couple of minutes of comments before i ior turn it or to my friend and colleague, who really will be running the show tonight. . at least for a narrow window in american political history would be ascendant in this town. and while we have to be careful as historians not to dwell on the past, we can't as we are on the brink of a red wave, and a mean that philosophically, not as a partisan, this year, know that that isn't merely about party registration, about one party be in charge instead of another. it is about the ideas that the

fight us as a people, namely freedom, forcing. and this town and this government is spending a hell of a lot less money than it does. and so it is a great, great privilege to have dick armey, senator gillibrand, one of my political mentors who a couple of years later he was thinking aboutna running for different office. he was in louisiana and i said senator, thisa, is before those redwood in louisiana, would you adopt us as our third senator? he said yes, son, you just keep doing what you're doing. so he would are many years later, senator, digits you, welcome back to heritage but without further ado it's also an equally great privilege to have steve moore back at the heritage foundation to welcome him here as our distinguished fellow at the turn is program over him. [applause] [inaudible]

>> thank thank you, kevin, e kind introduction and i'm loving this new erast at heritage that it's fantastic as leadership. been amazing. we're going, going to have some fun today, tonight. and welcome to our c-span audience as well. dick armey is a legend. is one of the few people in addition to philly gramm who actually came to this down to actually make government smaller, not bigger, so thank you to both of you. [applause] so we have, i just got this note from newt gingrich who was as you'll note the speaker speaker of the house and was the one with dick armey the really interdict the republican revolution in 1994. so i just thought if i may, dick, i would love to read this comment from speaker gingrich,, and it's really sweet. he says dick armey was invaluable as a creative, dynamic, energetic member and we were in the minority, and as a

key part of the contract of america majority, an extraordinary force for good ideas and real reforms and a leader who helped reelect the house gop majority for the first time in 68 years and helped develop the only four balanced budgets for lifetime. pretty amazing, isn't? his new book provides a vivid and wise insights into the legislative process of the house as ann institution with him with gratitude, newt gingrich. so that's really nice tribute to dick armey. this this is the book. if you haven't gotten this book yet, it'sk a great read. i actually think this book should be read by all, every political science major in america should be reading thisdi book called "leader." it is a great discussion about washington really works and if things get done, and don't get done in washington. and so we're going to kind of have some fun telling our dick armey stories. there's probably in this room,

dick, least 1520 people who worked s for one time or anothe, and i would say say in addition to all of the great contributions you made directly to policy, one of your great contributions was the incredible number of successful people who you mentor, including myself. and so my little story about dick armey is that i worked for dick on the joint economic committee in 1993 and 1994, and i remember that when i was on the committee and i decided by the summer of 1994 that i was going to leave the committee because i just had had it, if you were a, if you're working for minority member of the house, you might as will have not been there. democrats are so arrogant at that time after what 40 years of rule, there was like republicans were not even there. i remember i went to dick and i said look, i i love working for you, dick, but i just can't do this. anymore.

was pulling my hair out and were not had much of an impact here and i'll never forget, dick, turned to be in said steve, you cannot leave now. remember this? and you said don't leave now because we are going to take the house in november of 1994. dennis, you are part of that revolution as well. i said dick, whatever you are smoking, i want some of it. because it seems so incredibly, and people forget how improbable it seemedck -- how many seats dejected pickup, like 60 states or something like that. it was obviously a tidal wave election and it was in no small part because newt gingrich and dick armey in the context of american, republicans, there's a lesson here. when republicans stand for something, they win. when they are just the lesser of two evils, which is most of the time, they lose. so thatl was an incredible period, and what you all did, you and newt and the whole team from 1995 through 2000, it's

true, only four four balant in the last 50 years. we did welfare reform, we did the campaign tax cuts. dick armey for the underprivileged finger the first inspiration for the flat tax idea. you were one of the first inspiration for medical savings accounts. you never were witha. me on the term limits idea, i don't think it like that so much, but anyway, it's so fantastic to have you here. i wanted to turn the podium over to senator phil gramm who actually i first met in this building back in 1984-85 when phil gramm came up with this crazy idea called, he called it the gramm-rudman bill, and the gramm-rudman bill was basically automatic spending cuts if we couldn't get the 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 so give a warm welcome to phil gramm of texas. [applause] >> thank you, steve. well, nobody told me that i was going to 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, cap 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.de well, dick and i were destined to become friends because we were both from texas, we were both economists, and we both came to washington because weee 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 to be part of. and the thing that i always found was very interesting, and i never lost my sort of awe 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 actualla doing inside the belly of the beast. and i never ceased to find that 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 getting credit for things he did than anybody i have everth dealt with in washington. as far as i could tell, his 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 me about america. dick was from cando, north dakota. that's right, isn't it i don't have any idea where it is. i went to north dakota campaigning once and i had to plug in the car to keep the f 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 wenthe back to being just a plain

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 tried to look ato leadership in america and we just can't figure out where your 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 sayings where 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 contractri 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 thehe father of contract with america. [applause] i don't 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 downy vote in congress to approve the closing of military bases. so that it allowed a congressman or senator to go to the militarr base as the bulldozer was pulling up to knock down the j gate and lie down on the ground telling his staff, now just at the last moment, rush 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 draining 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 incomean 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 aw 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 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 i kind of was apologetic. i said dick, i didn't pay allll 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. by the way, i see a lot of new people come in.

what i'd love if any, all of yom in this room who at some point in your career worked for dick armey, could you please stand up? s 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? there you are.. we have another person, the second-most person most famous person from north dakota here, kevin cramer is a senator 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? senator, 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 off 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 the 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 did, i'm sure she proofreae 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 reading it 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 dick 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.op now, i love the fact that dick had to go to the union shop and work for co-op, you know.r 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 them same person their entire lives. just to give you a little of that, my dad did teach dick.ok 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

dick 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 pricee theory. literally wrote the book on price three. the best book dick has 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 as steve says is a great documentation of historical moment, it is a great documentation, significant historical moment here but ittt 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 laughed so hard at some points that people were concerned about me sitting on the plane but i'm going to give a couple of the lessons that i learned. first of all, one of the parts that i laughed out the hardest is when the wives, 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.ff 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 that happened dick called me at said can you run over to grand forks and get me a fighting sioux hockey jersey before they are all gone? they were smart enough to print a whole 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 it not only 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 onn 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 that was going to be hosted by the faculty has been canceled due to a recent lack of interest. [laughing]th one other 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 the guy that, and give the link and a speech is when we had no celebrities from north dakota.pu we didn't have a living republican that it been in congress at that time, but we always had to get assurances that he would not talk about that he would not talk about the farm bill or the farm programs

and he would certainly not give was to giveth the keynote addres at the council but he got sick. so the cold conscript in the morning and said could you get dick armey to fill in? i said i think i can. as were in the parking lot at the radisson and i said this is your chance to say whatever you want about ethanol in north dakota. anti-god, never forget he gets up in front of all these oilmen and he said kramer said i i cd say anything what about ethanol. it was such a damn dumb idea that the russians didn't even try it. [laughing] 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 tried to plead my case for the farm bill. in his office i said to dick, you've got to admit free markets

don't work in every situation because agriculture is heavily subsidized by all of ourur competitors. we just arere trying to have a fair market or at least level the playing field a little bit, to which he said without thinking about it, contemplating, worried about my feelings, he said i've never met an american who decided to become farm because somebody put a gun to their head. ile said okay, okay, we'll talk about something else. let's talk about glenda or dvd. anyway, i know there's a 39 page indexce on dick's book. i bet i have twice that many pages that i've written of notes here, so i will always be able to go back to things that really matter. because dickd t 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 freshman that comes to congress for sure.

because one thing newt gingrich said toto meet the first time er met him and i told him that you and my dad grew up together, he is the epitome of what man can do in congress if he has the will. ladies and gentlemen, when j 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 had been in congress in ten years and i'd never seen regular order but youror book proves tht regular order works when you respect every member and you empower every committee and you all of the chevy. i'd like to see that return. i think we'll get back to a lot of those principles if, in fact, we just took care of those. perhaps the greatest economics lesson you taught us, dick, that you teach in your book is god grace isit in high demand and hh 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. i knew that was going to hurt some people. but it's true. you inspired me to be a senator as well and you know that. you knowth 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 graham, if such a slippery a slippery from texas aca's would ever run for the open seat vacated by lloyd bentsen, to which he said i'm not a big enough, you know, to be a senator that you have the potential. [laughing] really, , phil gramm and you hae always had great aspirations for me. dick armey andnd my father leard of the loop valuable lesson

together climbing poles, that 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've seen tonight and there are many others, rude and if you work long hours at their job, you don't make an extra penny. but just like my dad who earned time andti a half benefited his family, dick and his team and their hard work have benefited all of our families. you can live with that assurance, dick. you are a man to coach her own 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 syndicate. both named richard. they are both from can do, and i love you both. [applause]

>> thank you so much. fabulous. 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 say 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 if i 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 how tough their life is, and i said if you do this, honey, i'll have to think seriously about divorce. and he so i i laughed and he , really? and and i said well, i don't . let's talk about it. so we did. w he had, 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, they're 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 history was. and he ran and against all odds he r won. and then he said, you know, i'll never be in g leadership. those guys, they have to work all the time. i'll just come to be a regular member to do my work. good, that's great because we can get backfo 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 can look back now that we're out of it, it's so much better, i can look back and he did so much. i mean, he and his team picky 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'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 it was good. [applause] >> before we hear from dick armey, there is one person in this room who really played a huge, huge role in dick armey becoming a member of a congress, but also majority leader, who was with dick for many, many years, really literally from the very start, and that's kevin knott. where are you? can you come up and say a few words about the first campaign, the stories of the campaign and how dick really, you know, rolled the dicein and put everything on the line, was amazing. so thank you for everything you did to make dick armey the success that he was. [applause] >> i will try. we are still trying to figure out if susan actually voted for dick.

[laughing] well, i mean, we for tonight from senator gramm andrs others about how much of a difference you made. it's true. the phenomenal difference he made during his career, but i try to forget what made in different, , so i thought abouta few things. one is he too is fearless. and he chose to run for congress when e everybody said you're a fool to try. everybody thought there's no way you're going to win against a guy who wasin the incumbent who would been mayor of arlington for 26 years, who who had 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 he was honest with me when he interviewed me, he and susan interviewed me, to be his campaign manager. he goes i need to know two things. i don't have any money at ant don't know anybody who does. [laughing] and he was correct on that.

[laughing] you took on all the fights once he got up to d.c., and the base closing bill he was literally a junior member in his second term not on the armed service committee. i remember one time senator gramm came back, i think he had shared the idea with you and you said, that can be done, that's impossible because i tried one time. dick said that just makes me want to try 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 it continued for many, many rounds and saved billions and billions of dollars. but there are lots of other issues. he took on school choice back when even the first bush admits it was opposed to. i think a first goal was to get a majority off republicans to an out party orthodoxy but it was a long time. public housing reform jack kemp, walter fauntleroy and all the others in those days. act subsidies which people

thought about you couldn't 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 right of issues, and i think of other house members were senators who left a legacy, who left behind such a big body of work, i think of maybe ted kennedy on the sea, maybe may be so grandpas are not many. it's a favor short list. i think you w can be proud of wt you left behind. another difference is he truly didn't give a hoot what anybody thought about. and that gave him remarkable freedom. he did what he thought was right and what is conscious told him ton' do, and he couldn't be ben. i mean, lobbyists couldn't bend him. his donors in this district couldn't bend him, and he lost several of them because they tried any reviews. he told constituents what he believed, and in one famous encounter and a s town hall meeting a guy just kept

badgering him over something over and over again in dickinson 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 washo kind of who he w. but is not justified or he's a thinker. that's another thing i think sets them apart is he really does spend time actually thinking. thought time today is a pretty rare commodity. my kids, i try get them to like you got into time, think, don't just go to phone a look at something. it would been a shout out fishing he would go for one or whatever and he would just think. and a lot of times on monday mornings he would go, calm in his office and goes, yeah, i've been to thinking. andd they knew something was up at that point back and he would have some idea, like even back in theme university, came up wih this invisible foot of government corollary to admit smith's invisible hand of the market. you know,e, it's, look it up, is

really well done. but he would come up with an ideaea in congress that we would analyze for days, turn it into some project and many of them would change america, and just he a would take the time to thi. and today we're just reacting to stuff that we see on the news or people are pushing. whetherr it's on a power pole in north dakota, thinking about whether he t should go back to college, or thinking of the flat tax or thinking 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, i love the guy, spend thousands of hours in meetings with him and the rest of the leadership. i dick probably analyze newt better than anybody else who is written or talked about nude. i'll let you read the book to see his analysis but i think it is spot on. he read widely and he remembered what he read from all the

classic economists have smith. he read george gilder, a great friend of his, he read them and he studied in an remembered them, and learn how to apply them in different situations and he could articulate the concepts whether it was a leadership meeting or aa townhall meeting n a tv interview. he could explain it better than anybody else i think i know, and many leadership meetings that would be a big battle about something. dick within launchh into this soliloquy bring in several famous, you know, economists of the past and just shut the whole thing down because i can't argue with that. and later when you became a believer in christ years into his career, he learned to live out his faith in everything he did, , and that gave him a tremendous piece, particularly toward the end when he was just unfairly maligned by a lot of people that should've been his friend. he had to go through a lot and took quite a few slings and

arrows and he did it with a peaceful heart, not many of us could've walked through it the wayhe he did i think. but he also developed true friendships with people that you wouldn't expect. those have been around a while, remember ron dellums? he and dick were great buddies. didn't agree onwr anything but they were great friends. jim wright, they became great friends. joe moakley. rosa delauro which really surprised me, they became friends when you're doing the homeland security committee. chuck schumer, we attacked farm subsidies, worked with chuck schumer in the day. jack o brooks who was the crusty sky in the work but dick is the only guy who could joke with him and get away with it. even barney frank, there were actually friends. people don't believe that butow they were. his good nature allowed him to say things that most people couldn't get awayy with. one my favorite stories in the book is he was showing up to one of the office buildings. as he was going through maxine

waters happened to show up and she was with some of our colleagues. as you know maxine waters might appreciate this. that goes all, maxine, i'm so glad to see. she goes why? he said because now we can call off the witch hunt. [laughing] and she just laughed. and our colleagues said maxine you can't take that. she said oh, 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 flat but i've recently come back to hell after twenty-year absence and as i looked at the hill today it'sto 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 and send your comment , or perhapg that's outrageous, go on their

favorite tv network, now let somebody on the floor, make a spectacle and then go send out millions of females and try to raise money on it and they go back and do the exact something the nextt day. that's very much with a large part of her movement has turned into, which is unfortunate. we desperately need people who approach their job like addicted. it' mean, it's hard to find an entrepreneurial congressmen are partly because thatun shut the rules to the members of have an opportunity to be effective on the committee offer amendments on the floor like we did for so long. but i hope if republicans win to take the majority that they will reopen this and let members show that they can be a legislative and not just a performer going forward. we need that substance. we need the political changes that can be made. for anyone who wants to understand the way congress work during armey and send her grandpa. read the book. i think it's a classic book the

people can learn from, and i agree, members may be heritage can send a copy to all the freshman when they come in. i think would be well worth their time toha read it. they need too learn what it is they need to replicate it because when you board leaders they can change america the way he did. d he did come to d.c., we used to write about in a pickup truck in 1984 campaign. 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 work with you and get to know susan over the years and all the other members of our team that are here tonight. it is a wonderful group and a credible error. thank you for letting me be part of it. [applause] i'm going to t tell one other quick dick armey store and then i will, by the way, the book is

"leader" by richard k. armey and it is a wonderful read. just one fun story that kerry reminded me of an ac andy perry are is here in the front row and worked diligently and helping put together the flat tax idea that the army flat tax, and you may remember this story, but 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 like jack kemp was it or someone. three of them were hobbled on this couch in armey's office,, and we were kind of sitting across from them and dick he saidfirst statement, gentlemen, said, there has not been as much brainpower on the couch since i slept there alone.

[laughing] classic dick armey. all right. now we're going hear fromro dick armey, the great -- maybe one of the greatest majority leaders in the history of the house of representatives, dick armey. [applause] >> thank you. thank you all. i just wouldn't want to make two points. the firstou is about the house f 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 off 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 from a book and

one of the few people with whom approval iose 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. 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 entrepreneurial reminded member of congress, i could innovate legislation because ion knew what the rules were, thankss 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 into individual initiative. you can't in the world that doesn't have that structure. now, i look at the congress today and i feel bad. i remember the people that i serve. i remember the democrats who are in charge of everything. but each and 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 deserve to be respected.

and they were. but now i've watched the house fall into ' different direction. i've seen republican speakers who have fallen by the wayside, and i can say i believe this is for one simple reason only. they left the structure behind. they got ahead of the body. they failed too 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 by members at large, and tried to bully it into passage. and it was a heartbreaking 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 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. a the republicans will join, will gain a majority in the senate. and i have a wish and a prayer for these new majorities. run the organization and compliance with its rules and its protocols and its wonderful traditions. allow each member to be honored and appreciated an active, and doing what it is they do so well on every committee. uf people have devoted a lifetimes career, who have expertise and historical knowledge that should be respected. and 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 have to stand up to and administration that wants to go to the drawing room together just a few of us and we will work d it back and come ba. you have to say no, we don't do things like that in our body. we do things and all inclusive and respectful fashion together. we are an institution. and by the way, of all the things that i admired about newt gingrich, the one thing i admired the most, he understood, congress was a 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 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. alle. our members, even those nitwits on the other side of the aisle should be respected. i remember joe kapp was being dissed because he could throw a perfect spiral. i am a starting quarterback in the nfl, , i apologize to no on. 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 will 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 a team, we were together. we stuck up for each other that we stuck by each other at the right one day, i can post it at the typewriter. i found myself typing these words, we lovedac each other for what we loved together, i say and a prosperous and happy america. we did that. and we did it so well with such success of loyalty and loving affection through throut i called respectful division c f labor, that weec became known as army guys. and i loved that. i thought it was feeding. you could've called them kevin knott guys. you could've called them the less piece, if you like good

whiskey, but we were armey guys and michelle davis was the 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, before we all broke up, there were people that were not of our staff, not in our shop. there w were other members of congress. there were even a handful of particularlyto enlighten senatos who have called themselves armey guys. so if you are an armey guy it's because you love one another for what you loved together, , a sae and prosperous and happy america. that's why we worked. the prize for which we toil. 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 thiss is your first, one of your first trip specs into left-hand and so it's amazing that you're able to come here. it's a great book. it's called "leader." truly, honey, this is great, great book. it's a great read about how washington works and doesn't work. senator phil gramm, thank you so much, from texas. it was really fantastic avenue, and we 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. [applause]

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