House Speaker Tom Foley: 1929–2013

This morn­ing, we lost a leg­end in Wash­ing­ton and U.S. politics.

Tom Foley, who served the Ever­green State with dis­tinc­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for sev­er­al decades, died of com­pli­ca­tions from mul­ti­ple strokes in the ear­ly hours of the day today, his fam­i­ly has announced. He was eighty-four.

Foley, the last Demo­c­rat to rep­re­sent Wash­ing­ton’s 5th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, rose to be Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the late 1980s, becom­ing the first Speak­er of the House from west of Texas.

He was an effec­tive leg­is­la­tor, an able lis­ten­er, and an enthu­si­as­tic men­tor to younger lawmakers.

His career was abrupt­ly end­ed in the 1994 midterm elec­tions, when attor­ney George Nether­cutt oust­ed him from office, but he went on to serve as the Unit­ed States’ ambas­sador to Japan on behalf of Pres­i­dent Clin­ton, and he remained engaged and involved in pol­i­tics through­out his final years.

I caught up with him last year with Char­lotte at the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion; he joined the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic del­e­ga­tion’s morn­ing break­fasts and sat with us inside Time Warn­er Cable Are­na dur­ing the gen­er­al sessions.

It was a great hon­or to meet with him and talk pol­i­tics with him.

Fol­low­ing his defeat in the 1994 midterms, The Spokesman-Review praised him for serv­ing with integri­ty while in office and accept­ing defeat with grace. Unlike his suc­ces­sor, he was an hon­or­able man… a wise and thought­ful elect­ed leader.

Remem­brances and trib­utes have been flow­ing freely since the fam­i­ly acknowl­edged his pass­ing, from the White House on down.

“Today, Amer­i­ca has lost a leg­end of the Unit­ed States Con­gress,” said Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma in a state­ment. “For thir­ty years, Tom Foley rep­re­sent­ed the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton’s 5th dis­trict with skill, ded­i­ca­tion, and a deep com­mit­ment to improv­ing the lives of those he was elect­ed to serve.”

“Tom’s straight­for­ward approach helped him find com­mon ground with mem­bers of both par­ties, even­tu­al­ly lead­ing to his elec­tion as the 57th Speak­er of the House,” the Pres­i­dent added. “After his career in Con­gress, Tom served as the U.S. Ambas­sador to Japan, where his poise and civil­i­ty helped strength­en our rela­tion­ship with one of our clos­est allies. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Tom’s wife, Heather, and the entire Foley family.”

“Jill and I were sad­dened to hear of the pass­ing of for­mer Speak­er Tom Foley,” said Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden. “Tom was a good friend and a ded­i­cat­ed pub­lic ser­vant. It was an hon­or to work with him dur­ing the bud­get sum­mits of the 1980s that did so much to secure our nation’s future, and when he served over­seas as our nation’s Ambas­sador to Japan. He was a good man.”

“When I was first elect­ed to Con­gress, Tom was serv­ing as Speak­er of the House, and I will nev­er for­get the way he wel­comed me to ‘the oth­er Wash­ing­ton,’ and the incred­i­ble exam­ple he set as a tire­less pub­lic ser­vant for our state,” said Wash­ing­ton’s senior sen­a­tor, Pat­ty Murray.

“Tom spent his life serv­ing his state and his coun­try, and his lega­cy is felt not only in East­ern Wash­ing­ton, but around the world. From his work to build new roads, pro­tect pub­lic lands, and bring fed­er­al resources to Spokane, to his career as a states­man over­seas, Tom touched the lives of every­one he encoun­tered, whether it was a wheat farmer in Wash­ing­ton or a for­eign dig­ni­tary in Japan.

“He will be missed by me and by all those who knew him. My thoughts are with his wife, Heather, and all of his fam­i­ly and loved ones today.”

“Wash­ing­ton lost a his­toric fig­ure today with the pass­ing of for­mer U.S. House Speak­er Tom Foley,” agreed Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee. “Tru­di and I extend our con­do­lences to Heather, the entire Foley fam­i­ly and his friends.”

“Speak­er of the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, pros­e­cu­tor, Ambas­sador to Japan – Tom Foley did all of those things in the course of his life. And at the heart of  every one of those roles was a pas­sion to serve. He served the vic­tims of crime. He served the cit­i­zens of Spokane. He served the State of Washington.”

“And he served this great nation of ours. He was a giant at a time when bipar­ti­san coop­er­a­tion for the good of the coun­try was the norm, not the excep­tion. He ded­i­cat­ed his life to mak­ing his com­mu­ni­ty, his state, and his coun­try a bet­ter place. He did it by reach­ing across the aisle, by bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er, by find­ing com­mon ground. A true states­man knows how to unite peo­ple around their mutu­al, shared inter­ests, while still respect­ing the dif­fer­ences among individuals.

“That’s the exam­ple Tom set, and it’s some­thing all pub­lic ser­vants should strive to emu­late. It was an hon­or to serve with him dur­ing my time in Congress.”

“Amer­i­ca has lost a great leader and a won­der­ful human being,” said Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell. “Tom Foley typ­i­fied what is best about polit­i­cal lead­er­ship, lead­ing no mat­ter what the con­se­quences. Today, all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ thoughts and prayers are with Tom’s wife, Heather, and the Foley family.”

“Every­one liked Tom Foley… He had an unbe­liev­able abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate and fight for the peo­ple he rep­re­sent­ed. A proud son of Spokane, Tom rose to become the nation’s first Speak­er of the House from west of the Rocky Mountains.”

“He became one of the most pow­er­ful politi­cians in the coun­try, but he nev­er for­got where he came from. His foot­prints are left all over the State of Wash­ing­ton and our nation, from mod­ern agri­cul­ture and trade pol­i­cy to Fairchild Air Force Base and the expan­sion of the Grand Coulee Dam.”

“Tom Foley will always be remem­bered as the King of Agri­cul­ture. He worked across the aisle to cre­ate the mod­ern food stamp pro­gram, com­bat­ing hunger in Amer­i­ca while broad­en­ing the agri­cul­ture market.”

“Rep­re­sent­ing an agri­cul­tur­al dis­trict, Tom worked to make sure prod­ucts grown in Wash­ing­ton State made it to din­ner tables all around the world. He was a leader in open­ing Asian and oth­er mar­kets to North­west wheat and cher­ries. And he worked with both Pres­i­dent Carter and Pres­i­dent Rea­gan to con­tin­ue the Colum­bia Basin Irri­ga­tion Project that kept water flow­ing in East­ern Washington.”

“As Tom said: ‘A strong agri­cul­ture econ­o­my is absolute­ly essen­tial for a strong nation­al econ­o­my.’ Today, those words still ring true. Tom Foley’s impact will be felt for gen­er­a­tions to come in Wash­ing­ton state and across our nation. Tom was a true leg­end, and he will nev­er be forgotten.”

“For thir­ty-six years, Speak­er Tom Foley served our coun­try as a quin­tes­sen­tial cham­pi­on of the com­mon good,” said House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Nan­cy Pelosi, who became Amer­i­ca’s first woman speak­er and the sec­ond from west of Texas in 2007.  “A proud son of Wash­ing­ton State, he stood on the strength of his prin­ci­ples and inspired a sense of pur­pose and civil­i­ty that reflects the best of our democracy.”

“In his years lead­ing the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Speak­er Foley’s unri­valed abil­i­ty to build con­sen­sus and find com­mon ground earned him gen­uine respect on both sides of the aisle. The year I took office, he secured a much-need­ed bud­get com­pro­mise that restored pub­lic faith in our finan­cial secu­ri­ty and con­fi­dence in Con­gress. That char­ac­ter­is­tic pas­sion for fair­ness and deep respect for oth­ers lat­er defined his extra­or­di­nary work as Pres­i­dent Clinton’s Ambas­sador to Japan.”

“Today, our coun­try mourns the loss of a leader whose authen­tic­i­ty, ded­i­ca­tion, and diplo­ma­cy will for­ev­er serve as an exam­ple to all of us who strive to make a dif­fer­ence through pub­lic ser­vice. It was an hon­or to serve with him as a col­league; it was a priv­i­lege to know him as a friend. We only hope it is a com­fort to his wife Heather and his fam­i­ly that so many mourn their loss at this sad time.”

Obit­u­ar­ies and appre­ci­a­tions worth reading:

• Joel Con­nel­ly, The Seat­tle Post-Intelligencer
• Adam Cly­mer, The New York Times
• Jim Cam­den, The Spokesman-Review
• Emi­ly Langer, The Wash­ing­ton Post