| Tip O Neill, one of America s most color-ful public figures, is a master politician--and amaster storyteller, a man of wit and wisdom.First elected to the Massachusetts legislature in1936, O Neill has had an extraordinary politicalcareer spanning fifty years, including a decadeas Speaker of the House. These memoirs featureeveryone from Boston politicos--unforgettablecharacters like Ralph Granam, Paddy Hynes,and Up-Up Kelly--to America s biggest politi-cal names--the Kennedys, every presidentsince FDR, greats in Congress like Sam Ray-bum, and legendary personalities like JamesMichael Curley, the mayor of Boston immortal-ized in The Last Hurrah. The narrative stretches from O Neill s hum-ble background in Cambridge (where the clos-est he got to Harvard was a summer job mowingthe lawn) to his tenure as the nation s top-ranking Democrat. He describes his complexties with the Kennedys--his early encounterswith old Joe Kennedy, whose formidable politi-cal machine bought a congressional seat forJFK, then a "pasty-f~aced kid7 whom Tip laterreplaced in the House. He confides his dislikefor Bobby Kennedy ("a self-important upstart")and his doubts about the Kennedy assassinationand the Warren Commission s conclusions. He examines the turbulent Watergate years,including Gerald Ford s startling explanation ofwhy he pardoned Richard Nixon, and explainshis decision to break with Lyndon Johnson onVietnam, becoming the first major Democrat todo so. He also takes us behind the scenes to |
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