Word: cannonism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...half-mast in honor of the late President Truman-when Richard Nixon appeared in front of the building to repeat his oath, using the same two family Bibles as last time and in fact wearing the same clothes and the same expression. Then came the dull thud of cannon firing 21 salutes, the strains of the Marine Band playing Hail to the Chief and, far away and faintly, the sea sounds of chanted protest...
Bargain. The President himself pursued a course of wisdom by staying out of sight until Friday night. Then he joined Pat and the rest of the family for a round of concert hopping, ending at the Kennedy Center, where the Philadelphia Orchestra played the 75/2 Overture, sans cannon...
...Cannon's influence was built on three great weapons, all inherited from Speakers of the past. First, he controlled all committee assignments. Second, only Cannon could recognize members on the floor. Finally, Cannon was chairman of the Rules Committee, which oversaw the flow of legislation. Both careers and legislation depended on his whim. He was called the "Iron Duke of American politics...
When the attacks on him began, they were directed more at his hostility to progress than at the man himself. In 1909, 1910 and 1911, in a series of bitter confrontations, his three great powers were stripped away and Cannon himself was forced to step down. It was the beginning of the long erosion of congressional power. Some current suggestions for reform have an unmistakable whiff of Cannonism to them, notably Carl Albert's plan to exact "loyalty oaths" from new Democratic members of the Rules Committee. Cannon himself would have been horrified by such halfway measures. When...
...93rd Congress, a touch of Cannon's toughness-if not his cantankerous complacency-might be an asset...