Word: speaker
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Democratic leader was sudden and unexpected. Barely had Wright's lawyer, Stephen Susman, begun his opening statement to the House ethics committee last week, pleading that even a dead man deserves due process, when all parties seemed to be looking for a way out of the spectacle of a Speaker of the House of Representatives going on trial...
Getting Wright to walk the plank -- with dignity, if possible, but above all with speed -- seemed to be Congress's best hope of restoring its tattered reputation. When the Speaker and his wife Betty left town for a Memorial Day vacation in an undisclosed location, where Wright was expected to prepare a departure-with-dignity speech, Democrats quickly began speculating openly about his successor, no longer so squeamish about reading the will before the funeral...
Meantime, former Speaker Tip O'Neill was seen jetting into the capital, rumored to have been summoned by distressed old-line Democrats who were profoundly concerned that the scandals were gravely hurting the House and shaming the Democratic Party across the nation. One unconfirmed story had it that O'Neill, who disappeared as mysteriously as he came, had fingered the entire top Democratic leadership of the House as damaged goods who should be replaced by fresh men such as Indiana's Lee Hamilton and Missouri's Dick Gephardt...
...Wright affair has a low-priority rating among most Americans. That may , change with the televised debate. It appears that many people are just beginning to understand that the Speaker is at the top of our political structure along with the President and the Chief Justice of the U.S. An assault on his authority is a historic event. No Speaker has been forced from office because of personal scandal. The autocratic Joe Cannon was stripped of much of his power back in 1910, and he withered away. But that was a sheer political play by fed-up House members...
...week's end the Capitol was in a hushed frenzy. Wright's legal team was desperately organizing his case. Democrats were gathering in clots to probe one another's views, phoning for news, sometimes arguing angrily over how much loyalty they owed the Speaker. The general feeling was that the disenchantment with Wright may have reached critical mass midweek, and it would take a miracle to cool it down. Miracles have been in short supply lately, particularly for Democrats...