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[applause] thank you so much. those of you who are here in the audience, those who have joined online on c-span welcome. this is going to be a riveting conversation. i say that is someone who is a historian for a couple minutes of comments before i turn over to my friend steve moore who really will be running the show tonight. in 1994 i was president of my university college republicans. and it was more than a dream and the senator reagan revolution that dick army was soon be the majority leader. that will grant economic expertise along with leader armies for narrow window in american political history would be sent in this town. while we have to be careful as

historians not to dwell in the past, we can as we are on the brink of a red wave and i mean that philosophically not as partisan, thisis year, know that is not merely about party registration, about one party being in charge instead of another. it iss about the ideas that define us as a people. namely freedom. fleury shook inth this town andn this government spending a lot less money than it does. and so it is a great, great privilege to have it dick armey, senator phil gramm, one of myat political mentors who was thinking about running for a different office but he was and ibe said senator, this was befoe red wave in louisiana, would you adopt us as her third senator? he said yes son you just keep doing what you're doing. so here we art many years later, senator good to see it welcome back toit heritage. without further ado it's also a

great privilege to steve moore back here at the heritage foundation to welcome here is ourr distinguished fellow and a turn this over to him. [applause] [inaudible] [laughter] >> thank you kevin for the kind introduction. i am loving this new era at heritage. it is fantastic but his leadership has been amazing. we are going to have some fun today, tonight. welcome to our c-span audience as well. dick armey is a legend. he's one of the few people in addition to phil gramm who actually came into this town to actually makend government smalr not bigger. thank you, to both of you. [applause] i just got this note from newt gingrich who as you all know is the speaker of the house and was

the one with dick armey that engineered the republican revolution in 1994. if i may, dick i would love to read this comment it is really sweet. he says it dick armey was invaluableer as a creative, dynamic, energetic member when we were in the minority and as a key part of the contract of america extraordinary force for good ideas and real forms. and a leader to elect the gop majority for the first time in the 68 years and helped develop the only for balanced budgets in our lifetime. it's pretty amazing, isn't it? his new book provides visited and wide insights into the house as an institution with gratitude. that's really nice tribute to dick armey. this is the book if you've not gotten this book yet it is a great read. i think this book shouldd be red by every political science major

in america should be reading this book. it really is a great discussion of how washington really works and how things get done and don't get done in washington. we are going to kind of have some fun telling our dick armey stories. there's probably in this room at least 15 or 20 people who worked for you at one timen or another. and i 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 meant toward, including myself. 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 had just had it for a few were working for eight minority member in the house you might as well have not been there. democrats are so arrogant at that time after 40 years of rule. it was like republicans were not even there. i remember i went to dick and said i love it working for you, dick but i just can't do this anymore. it's pulling my hair out were not really having much of an impact here. and i will never forget dick turned to me and said steve, you cannot leave now, remember this? you said don't leave now because we are going to take the house in november of 1994. and dennis coming part of-, that revolution as well. i said dick, whatever you are smoking i want some of that. [laughter] it seem so incredibly. people forget how improbable it seems. how many seats as jeff to pick up like 60 seats or something like that? it was obviously a tidal wave election is in no small part because newt gingrich and the

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. that was an incredible. and what you all did you and newt and the whole team from 1995 through 2000, it's true only four balance budgets in the last 50 years rated welfare reform into the capitol games cup dick armey was also for the younger people this room, first inspiration t for the flat tax nsidea. youav are one of the first inspirations for medical savings accounts. you t are never with me on the term limits idea. you did not like that too much. 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. they called the grandma rodman bill. it was basically automatic spending cuts if we could not get the deficit down. all of washington had heart palpitations over this was when the few times senator we actually cut spending under that bill pretty is been a crusader as well but also hills and the great city of texas and give a nice warm welcome to phil gramm of texas. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> thank you steve. well, nobody told me was going to say anything. [laughter] i will say a few things. president reagan once he put his

arm around me and said i want you to look me in the eye he said, weinberger tells me that your grant rodman is more dangerous than the soviet. will you assure me that is not the case? and i said yes mr. president i will assure you it is not the case. well, dick and i were destined to become friends because we were both from texas. we are both economists. and we both came to washington because we wanted less government and more freedom. there's not a lot of people who come to government with the idea of having less of the very institution they come to be a part of. in this thing that i always found very interesting and i never lost my all of it, 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 will make got together it was sort of like i was there as his american handler. and he was telling me what people were actually doing inside the belly of the beast. and i never cease to find that fascinating. i was in washington for 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. he was less interested in getting credit for things he did

than anybody i have ever dealt with in washington. as far as i could tell, his aspiration other than saving america was owning a ford f150 king ranch version. [applause] and he got it. and dick's story is a story that reassures me about america. it was from candia, north dakota, that's right, isn't it? i don't have any idea where it is the coding campaigning once and i had to plug in the car keep the tires from freezing. but he came from candia, north dakota and he became the first

republican majority leader in 40 yearsas. and he was an indispensable leader in changing america. and implementing the final stones on the reagann revolutio. and then he retired and went back to being just a plain citizenn. to me, that is a reassuring story about america. i once had a guy in china asking me where did you come from? 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. andhe so people are always sayig where are the reagan's?

where are the dick armies now that we need them? well, i never despair because i know they are out there. they are waiting to be discovered. there waiting for the right moment. and the only thing that i -- let me just say dick armey wrote the contract of america. he gave it the name contract of america. i was the chairman of the republican senatorial committee, we tried to copy it by having our seven more and 94. we would more than seven seats by the way. now, i am 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 the father of contract with america.

[applause] i do not want to overstay my welcome but let me say couple of 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 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. it allowed a congressman or a senator to go to thes military pubase as the bulldozer was pulling up to knock down the gate and light out on the ground telling his staff at the last moment russian and drag me out i will be begging to die but pull

me out. [laughter] on then it will be gone. and that is exactly what happens. we closed a lot of military bases that should never have been built to begin with and were being operated just draining the blood out of america. 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 the federal government, i do not understand. [applause] the average household in the bottom 20% of american income earners get over $45000 a year

in benefits from the federal government. is there any wonder that you cannot get people to work? and we were able to implement a program in an area that was the most difficult area. you've got anan unmarried woman with children, a situation where it senator warren would say it is impossible to work. but guess what, we reform the program we set time limits and within four years, a 50% of the people had been on the program for' working. it is amazing what incentives do. so i am very happy to be here today to one, give credit were 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 great those years

working with you. one of the highlights of my career with getting together with dick to give his spy report. he was actually runningng the system that came to washington to dramatic reform. so dick, congratulations. [applause] [applause] >> thank you, senator, those are terrific comments. just one thing about the contract with america, i remember dick talking to after the republicans won congress. i was kind of apologetic price addict, i did not pay that much attention to the contract of america because i never thought you would win. you said well steve, iff people thought we would win they would never have signed the contract ofta america. that was a great, great. and incidentally, remember your

first 100 hours, what was the firstn 100 hours you pass to moe good legislations and probably my previous 25 years that first 100 hours but it's an amazing revolution. by the way i see a lot of new people com' in. if all of you in this room who at some point in your career worked for dick armey could you please standat up? that is amazing. thank you all for beingll here. i will say it again, dick's legacy is the amazing people years.ntored over the so i wanted to call and kevin cramer, worries p senator? we have the second most person most famous person from north dakota here kevin cramer is a senator from the state of north dakota. he is also i believe you are also from can do?

what are the odds of two of the most famous people in washington would come from candia, north dakota thank you for coming. >> thank you steve. [applause] either dick nor i are the most famous permissive candidate even though peter davidson it's dave osborne web dick's classmates all parading back for the vikings is from can do. he is from can do. he and dick are classmates. well, this is such an honor, thanksis for including me. to be able to participate might 10 years in congress this is a highlight, it really is. i mean it. for the handful of you t who red the whole book, susan and i did i'm sure she proofread it many times. i read the whole book pretty might have been the first person in america to read the whole book. i was testing dick as i was reading on the airplane i am laughing so hard.

but schedule contacts you did not read the book, my daddy and dick armey lived across the alley from one another and can do. and in the book, dick tells a story about richard the elder richard and there's another richard in the book he references. what's a pass with teaching the younger richard how to climb poles when dick jointly rural electric cooperative as a lineman for summer job. now, i love the fact dick had to go to union shop. i work for co-op. that is the last time he did either of those things. [laughter] but more important than thatt even, dick's brother who along with phil gramm really are the two stars of the book i would say. they get more ink than anybody else combined. and so charlie armey, dick's older brother and my daddy or best man a chose weddings for the both married well. they both stayed married to the same personn there entire life.

just to give you a little of that. my dad did teach dick predicted up at this in the book he put the part about climbing poles in the book. my dad, dick tells me it gave him of his first economics lessons . dick and dad after work when they said let's go down to gordy's bar downtown and have a drink. no maybe didn't. [laughter] but richard kramer said dick, yount know 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 lineman and dick wrote the book on price theory. literally wrote the book on price there. the best book dick is ever written his memoirs are spectacular encourageo everyone listening or watching to read it. we will sell but for short. because not only is a great documentation of historical

moment, i meet is a great documentation of a significant historical moment here. it has countless lessons to all of us on how to govern and better yet how to behave, really. the two go hand in hand. i told you i laughed so hard at some points people were concerned about me sitting on the plane. fii'm going to give you couple lessons i learned. first of all, one of the parts they really laugh the hardest is when the faculty wives accosted you, dick. because he as a professor had written this piece the newspaper picked up that proved stay-at-home wives were overpaid. well, maybe not exactly but something like that. something like that. in fact they are paid for the consumption as well as for the productivity. he's doing all this stuff. it remindedde me of shortly aftr

dick went to congress his alma mater where he got his masters through the university of north dakota the time known as the fighting sioux until the ncaa sitters hostile andti abusive. which, by the way because of scarcity after that happened dick called me and said can you run over and get me a fighting hockey jersey before they're all gone? they were smart enough to print a whole bunch of them. but at that event where he awarded the coveted sue the mc was impressive the alumni association and the state legislature. dick gets up and gives us a wonderful speech starting out about how important the university system is because not only teaches her children but it teaches her t children's childr, that's pretty important. that's of the goodness ended he pivoted the prophet the universities of course phil is faculty governance, right?

he gives an oration on faculty governance how bad that is has routing the university system and he gets all done gets is a wonderful elevation from all the wealthy donors the university oa north dakota and earl gets up and says just one quick announcement the dessert reception in honor of congressman armen swan be hosted by the faculty has been canceled due to recent lack of interest lack. [laughter] one other thing about north dakota dick's beloved home state most of family still lives there and is visiting there about a week or two ago and saw some of them. has a preference for free markets, etm. cetera graham reay supersede theer populism of norh dakota heat have a hard time getting elected there let's just say. although i think today he may have a much better chance for he did come in campaign from the '90s. nose young party chairman he's a guy w there, and give the lincon day speech as we had no celebrities. we did not even have a living

republican who had been in congress at that time. but we had to get assurances he would not talk about the farm bill or the farm programs. and he certainly would not give his opinion about ethanol. until he came to cut the ribbon on the ronald reagan republican center in bismarck it just so happened that g same day john hoeven, the governor at the time now my colic of the senate was to give the keynote address of the petroleum council but he got sick. so they called, scrambled of the morning sick and you get dick armey possibly to fill in? i said i think i can. as her in the parking lot of the radisson in i said this is your chance to say whatever you want about ethanol in north dakota. [laughter] i will never forget paris gets and for all these oilmen he says kramer seneca is a thing i want about ethanol bites as such it dan dumb idea the russians didn't even try it.

[laughter] [laughter] true story. and he got a standing ovation. [laughter] [applause] i did one time try to plead my case for the farm bill. in his office i said dick, you've got to admit free markets don't work in every situation because agriculture was heavily subsidized by all of our competitors y. we are just trying to have a fair market or at least level the playing field a little bit to which she said without about it, contemplating, worried about my feelings, he said i've never met an american who decided to become a farmer because some of you put a gun to their head to exit okay will back it was someone else let's talk about glenda or eating. [laughter] anyway i know there's a 39 page index index book. i bet i've twice that many pages. i will always be able to go back to the things that really mattered.

becausee dick took armey's actions into armies and parables. again as historical as it is it taught us a lot of things. i agree you should be required reading for every freshman for sure. for every freshman who comes to congress for short. one thing 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 a will. ladies and gentlemen, when he passed brekke was a a junior member of the minority party. that should be encouragement for everyone who aspires to do big things for the lessons of your 10ve years proved a regular ordr works, regular order works for admitting congress i've never seen regular order. your book proves that regular order works we respect every member, when you power every committee and you honor the chairman. i would like to see that return.

we'll get back to a lot of those principles if in fact we just took care of those. perhaps the greatest economic lesson that you taught us, dick and you teach us in your book is god's grace is in high demand and high supply and it is still free. [applause] one of the most important lessons i take from dick's book, is that going home on weekends make you better member of congress. that's going to hurt some people but it is true. you inspired me too be a senator as well and you know that. you know that. the way he did it, don't worry it will not be as blunt as you put it, was because 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 benton to which he said i am not a big enough you

know to be a senator but you have the potential. [laughter] [cheering] really, phil gramm and you have always had great aspirations for me. [laughter] dick armey and my father learned a really valuable lesson together. if you work long hours you get time and a half. and then professor armey became a congressman armey in leader armey and he and his entire team many of whom you've seen tonight and there are many others, proof that if you work long hours at their job you don't make an extra penny. but just like my dad who earned time in half and 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 quote your ownwn book, not about you but i'm going to court back to you, areat a man of gret

stature as well as a man of great status. there are two men in my life, dick,it without whom i would ner be a united states senator. they're both named richard they are both from can-do, and i love you both. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> sega so much center that was fabulous. by the way i apologize i forgot to mentionon most important pern in this room, susan armey, susan thank you for coming. [cheering] [applause] so i asked a few people would you like to say something about your husband? [laughter] all right, i can't wait to hear what you have to say. ladies and gentlemen susan armey.

[applause] because i wasn't sure if i supposed to come up or not, but here i am. let me think aboutri this. my husband and i have been married for almost 42 years. [applause] and i have got to say it has never been boring. [laughter] i member 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 iran for congress. and i said what? i am cooking dinner, we have children here, what are you talking about? anyway i just very quickly and read a a few articles on politil families and how tough their lives were. i said if you do this, honey, i'll have to think seriously about her divorce. and so i laughed and he said really? i said i don't know let's talk

about it. so we did. he really had deep felt feelings. he had a plant and he knew who he was but he was an economist. and he had been watching c-span pretty talked about this and say you know, they are so many good things that we could do. and so i really did not want him to do it, he did and i encouraged him to do what he wanted, what his dream was and he ran it against all odds he won. and then he said you know, i will never be in leadership, those guys have to work all the time i'm going to be a regular member, just do my work a great because we can get back to normal life. before i know it 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 and we are out of it so much better that i can look back. and he did so much.

i mean he and his team they did so much but he had the best team in d.c. they did wonderful work together. and i look back 20 years since he's been out of congress and i am amazed as i've gotten older i am amazed what my husband and his team did so it was worth it. it was worth it. [applause] >> before we hear from dick armey, there is one person in this room her 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 literally from the very start carry, or are you? can you come up and say a few wordsha about the first campaig? the stories of that campaign and how dick really rolled the dice

and put everything on the line was amazing. thank youth for of thing you did to make dick armey the success that he was. ti[applause] >> i will try but we are still trying to figure out if susan voted for dick. [laughter] well, we have heard tonight from others about how much of a difference he made. it is true it is a phenomenal difference he made during his' career. but ing tried to figure out what made him different from the thought of a few things. one is he truly is fearless. he chose to run for congress when everybody said you would be a fool toht try. everybody thought there is no way he's going to win against the guy who is an incumbent who have been mayor of arlington for 26 years would millions of dollars but he did it anyway. and he said i'm going to win my

own way pretty knocked on 10,000 doors, made thousands of phone calls, scratched his way. he got itrv done but he was hont with me when he interviewed me hehe and susan interviewed me to be his campaign manager he needed to know two things, i don't have any money and i don't know anybody does. [laughter] and he was correct on that. [laughter] you took on all the fights when she got up to y d.c. the base closing bill he is literally a junior member's second term not on the armed services committee. i member at one time senator graham came back i think each share of the idea with you you said that can't be done, that's impossible because i tried it one time. in dick said that makes me want to try that much more. with brian 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 save billions and billions of dollars. but there are lots of others he took on school choice in the

first bush of ministration was opposed to it. first goal was to get a majority of republicans to vote for. now it's a party orthodox it wasn't for a long time. public housing reform with jack kent, and all the others in those days. egg subsidies which you heard about people thought you could never touch. protecting homeschoolers which i think to this day probably shut down congress more than any other project i have ever seen. but we had remarkable success across a variety of i issues. i was trying to think of other house members or senators who left a legacy, who left behind such a big body of work. i think it may be ted kennedy on the other side. maybe phil gramm but there aren't many it's a very, short list. i think you can be proud of what you left behind. another difference is he truly did not give a hoot what anybody thought about him. that gave him remarkable freedom.

he do what he thought was right and was conscious told him to do pretty could not be benched. lobbyist could not bend him. his donors in his district could not bend r it meant he lost several of them because they tried and he refused. he told constituents what he believed. in one famous encountered a town hall meeting a guy kept badgering him over something to class had enough of you, meet me outside after this and i'll kick your butt. [laughter] he may not have said but. but that's who he was. he's nothi justified or he is a thinker. that's another thing that sets him apart, he really does spend time actually thinking. thought time today is a pretty rare commodity, my kids you've got empty time, think don't discard your phone a look at something. dick would be in the shower, he'd be out fishing, go run or whatever and he would just think. a lot of times on monday morning

he'll call me in his office and say i've been thinking. and i knew something was up at that point. he would have some idea even back at the university he came up with this invisible foot of government invisible hand of the market. look it up, it's really well done but he would come up with an idea in congress we would analyze for days, turn into some project and many of them would change america. need to take theth time to thin. today we're just reacting to stuff that we see on the news or people are pushing. he would actually take time and think about it. whether powerful and north dakota think about whether to go back to college or think out the flat tax or think 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 i great guy, love the guy. spent thousands of hours in

meetings with him of the rest of leadership. i think dick probably analyze new better than anybody else probably read the book to see his analysis of newton but i think it is spot on. he read widely and he remembered what he read from all of the classic economist adam smith, george gilder was a great friend of hymns, domicile, milt freedman, the classics he read them and studied them and rememberedd them. i learned how to apply them in different situations. articulate the concepts whether it was a leadership meeting or town hall meeting, or on a tv interview he could explain it better than anybodyy else i think i know. many leadership meetings to be a big battle about something and dick would then launch into this soliloquy bringing in several famous economists of the past and shut the whole thing down. while i can't argue with that.

and later when he became a believer ofe christ years in his career he learned to live out his faith in everything he did. that gave him tremendous peace. particular toward the end when head was unfairly maligned by a lot of people should've been his idfriends. he had to go through a lot get quite a few slings and arrows and did it with a peaceful heart. not many of us could have walked through way he did i think. he also developed true friendshipss with people that yu would not expect. those of you have been around for a while, remember ron dellums? he and dick were great buddies for the did not agree on hardly anything but were great friends. jim writes, they became great friends, joe oakley, rosa delauro which really surprised me, they became friends in there during homeland security committee. chuck schumer, we attacked farm subsidies worked with chuck schumer in the day. jack brooks was a crusty sky in the world but dick is the only

guy who could joke with him and get away with it. even party frank they're actually friends people don't believe it but they were brisket nature letter to say things most people cannot get away with. when my favorite stories in the book he was showing up for the office buildings. as he is going through maxine waters happened to show up. she was with some of her colleagues, those who know maxine waters might appreciatehi this. ditto so maxine i'm so glad to see you. she goes wide dick cosmic now we can call if the witchhunt. [laughter] and she just laughed. and her colleagues at maxine you can't take that she said oh come on, those pretty funny. [laughter] she had a good sense of humor about ithe too. you often said is good at being his seat but people do not always like it when he pissed on them. [laughter] i've recently gone back to the hill after a 20 year absence and

as a look at the hill today it's a very, very different place. today's political entrepreneurs aso opposed to policy entrepreneurs, today it typically passes as a campaign is to make an incendiary commenter prep tweet something that is outrageous because a favorite tv network, yell at somebody on the floor, make a spectacle then go set up millions of e-mails and text and try to raise money on and go back to the samege thing. that is a pretty much what a large part of our movement has turned into which is unfortunate. we desperately need people to approach their job like dick did. it is hard to find an entrepreneurial congressman, partly because it shut the rules out members have an opportunity to be effective on their committees or offer a minutes on the floor like he did for so long for it when they take the

majority they will reopen this and let members show they can be a legislator. we need that substance. we need the political change in the community. for anyone who wants to understand the weight congress works during armey and grahams eric, read his book. i really think it is a classic abook that people can learn fr. and i agree, maybe a copy to all new freshmen when they come in. think of it well worth your time to read it. theyey need to learn and replice it because we need more leaders who can change america the wayid he did but he did come to d.c. back in 1984 campaign. i want to go to washington. and he did. but we need people to do it every, generation. we need a whole new crop. i am terribly proud to have knownr you. proud to have worked with you

and to get to know susan and all the other members of our team who are here tonight. this wonderful group and incredible eric, thank you from the entire department. [applause] [applause] >> one of their quick dick armey story. by the way the book is leader by richard k armey. it's a wonderful read. just one fun story that kerri reminded me of it. i see and he is who in the front row. workt diligently in helping put together the flat tax id of the armey flat tax. you may remember this story but we had called in a bunch of really prominent economists brought an art laugher steve

forbes i think jack kemp was there. this three of them were huddled on the couch or sitting across from them and dick armey's first statement was gentlemen, the stop as much brainpower on that couch as i slept there alone. classic dick armey. now are hear from dick armeyhe e great dick armey. [applause] >> thank you all purchase which make two points versus what the house of representatives i came to know and understand this is the most unique institution and

the causal of liberty and democracy in the history of thep world. and i was so privileged to be a part of it. i learned to love it. i learned to love the people who loved the institution. one of the people recurs in my book in one of the few people with whom i serve whose approval i coveted was senator byrd from weste virginia. people think that such a strange choice. but i loved senator byrd for the way he loved and i wanted him to remember me. as a person that did honor to the institution. 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 really minded a member of congress, i could innovate legislation because i knew with the rules were. thanks largely to david hobbs who taught me the ropes. if you know the institutional structure and the procedures, and the protocols. if you dare to believe they will be counted on you can exceed in your individual initiative. you can't in a world that does not have that structure. now, i look at congress today and i feel bad. i remember the people i served. i rammed 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 that very, very gentle and lovingy touch. and they deserve to be respected and they were. but now i have watch the house fall into a different direction. i have seen republicans speakers who have fallen by the wayside. i believe it's 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 tried to bully it into passage. 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 election. and if the elections are administered fairly and honestly the republicans will regain a majority of the house. i believe they do an extraordinarily good job of his administering honest elections the republicans 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 protocols petitions. allow each member to be honored

and appreciated and active. in doing what they do so well on every committee you have people who have devoted a lifetime , who have expertise in historical knowledge that should be respected. and if you do that mr. new speaker, you will retain your speakership because you will have it 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 driver 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 think senate together. of all the things i admire about

newt gingrichoo 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 that great lesson. that is what we do. we come here to serve the nation together. an inclusive faction that is respectful of all of our members. all our members. even the nitwits on the other side of the aisle should be respected. member joe cap he couldn't throw a perfect spiral and the response was i am 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 in on their behalf by demand to be respected. now, i wrote this book, people thinkpe it's about me. it's 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 18, we were together, we stuck upe for each of these stuk by each other. one day i compose at the typewriterer, i found myself typing these words. we loved each other for what we love together. a safe, 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 call

respectful division of labor. that we became known as armey guys and i love that. i thought it was fitting. could've called them. not guys. you could have called them gillaspie's if you like good whiskey. [laughter] 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. [laughter] 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 shops. their other members of congress. there were even a handful of particularly enlightened senators who called themselves armey guys. so, if you are an army guy it is because you love one another for

what you love together, a safe, 'prosperous, happy america. that is why we work. this is the prize for which we toil. so may i ask you, if you are an army guy, will you stand and give yourself a hand? thank you. [applause] [applause] talks well, dick armey it is fantastic to have you back in washington. i think this is what he her first back since you left town. it is amazing you are able to come here. it's a great book is called a leader. truly this is a great, great book for it's a great read about how washington works and when it doesn't works. senatorr phil gramm thank you fr

coming from texas, it's great having you. we'll have drinks after words, all of the armey guys and gals thank you for all you did for our country. [applause] >> if you are enjoying book tv than sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen. receive a schedule of upcoming programs, author discussions, book festivals and more. book tv every sunday on cspan2 or anytime online apple tv.org. television for serus readers. ♪ listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker plate c-span radio and listen to it "washington journal" daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern important

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