WASHINGTON — To historians, he was a master parliamentarian who changed the party dynamics of Congress in ways still evident more than a century later.
To his opponents, however, the man from Maine who wielded the House speaker’s gavel with ferocious effectiveness was known derisively as “Czar Reed.”
Nearly 125 years before Thursday’s historic vote to limit the Senate filibuster, House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Portland “broke the filibuster” in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1890 and, in the process, enshrined the absolute “majority rules” doctrine that still dominates there today.
“He ran roughshod over the minority,” rewriting House rules to ensure the success of the Republican agenda, said former U.S. House Historian Ray Smock. But Smock said setting aside debates over Reed’s attitude toward the out-of-power party, he ranks the quick-witted Maine Republican among the “giants” of House history.
“I think he is one of the greatest speakers the body every produced,” said Smock, who is now director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University in West Virginia. “He was a man of great principle and learning.”
The filibuster is thought of today as a quirk of the Senate, allowing the minority party to delay or block votes on bills and people supported by the majority. Its defenders insist that respecting the rights of the minority party makes the Senate special.
“We’re not the House of Representatives. We’re the Senate,” a frustrated Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Thursday after Democrats eliminated filibusters on most presidential nominees.
But filibusters used to be common in the House – that is, until Reed triggered the “Battle of Reed’s Rules” in January 1890.
At the time, the minority party had a unique stalling strategy.
The chamber required a quorum (a minimum number of people) to conduct official business. Members were counted by voice vote during quorum calls and roll calls. So members of the minority would prevent a quorum – and thereby bring business to a halt – simply by refusing to respond to their names even though they were standing on the House floor.
Reed excelled at this tactic while in the minority. Once he was House speaker, though, Reed opted to change the rules by instructing House clerk and fellow Portlander Asher Hinds to count whoever was present.
Outraged Democrats screamed objections and then tried to hide under desks and flee the floor until Reed had the chamber doors locked. It took three days of parliamentary battles but “Reed’s Rules” were adopted.
“From the Speaker’s chair early in 1890, he unilaterally stripped the legislative minority of the power to obstruct the law-making agenda of the majority,” wrote author James Grant in his 2011 book, “Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed: The Man Who Broke the Filibuster.” “Enraged Democrats branded him a ‘czar,’ (an) epithet Reed seemed not to mind at all.”
In a much bigger sense, what Reed did was mark the beginning of the modern House with a more powerful speaker and a weaker minority. While House speakers since have wielded the gavel with a different style, recent events show Reed’s principle of true majority rule lives on.
Former Speaker Denny Hastert, R-Ill., expanded on Reed’s philosophy by insisting that only bills supported by a majority of the majority party would even be brought up for a vote. Current Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has largely adhered to the “Hastert Rule,” much to Democrats’ chagrin. And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pushed through the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) without a single Republican vote.
“Some of these issues and some of these (tactics) keep popping up throughout our history,” Smock said.
Reed served as House speaker twice for a total of about five years and apparently had ambitions on the White House. He died in 1902 and is buried in Portland’s Evergreen Cemetery. There is a statue of Reed on Portland’s Western Promenade.
Although largely forgotten elsewhere, Reed still watches over the corridors of power in the Capitol. His bust stands outside the House chamber and his portrait hangs prominently – along with other former speakers – in the ornate Speaker’s Lobby just off of the House floor.
Reed appeared to have mixed emotions about the portrait but eventually came to like it.
Comparing it to the others, the affable yet acerbic Mainer reportedly said that when “those pictures … are dug from the ruins of the Capitol 2,000 years hence … they will pass by the portraits,” according to an account from the Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives.
But when those future observers “see the features of your humble servant … (they will) say ‘here is quite a fellow,’ ” Reed said.
PARTIES JOCKEY OVER 2ND DISTRICT
The House Republicans of today are hoping Maine’s 2nd District voters will turn that seat red next year as they seek to defend or expand their majority.
Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee said 2nd District Republican contenders Kevin Raye and Bruce Poliquin were “On the Radar” of the committee. The designation signals that the NRCC could take a greater interest in the race after the June primaries, offering the eventual nominee both logistical support as well as direct and indirect financial assistance.
National Democrats are keeping a cool face about the open seat created by Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud’s decision to run for governor.
The chairman of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – the NRCC’s campaign counterweight – was dismissive of Republican ambitions in Maine.
“Obama won 54 percent in that district. It is a Democratic district,” Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said when asked about the race last week. “With Mike (Michaud) at the top of the ticket, Democrats will do very well in that district. So Republicans portraying this district as competitive is wishful thinking, at best.”
ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH URGED
Sens. Collins and Amy Klobuchar are calling on Congress to double by 2015 the amount of funding the U.S. provides for research into Alzheimer’s disease.
The Maine Republican and Minnesota Democrat introduced a Senate resolution last week stating that preventing and finding ways to effectively treat Alzheimer’s should be an “urgent national priority” backed up by federal resources. The U.S. currently spends about $500 million a year on Alzheimer’s research, compared to the $142 billion billed to Medicare and Medicaid annually to care for Alzheimer’s patients, according to figures supplied by Collins’ office.
An estimated 37,000 Mainers and 5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, figures expected to grow significantly as the baby boomer generation ages. The impact of age-related diseases such as dementia will hit Maine and other New England states particularly hard because of the disproportionately large size of the elderly population here.
“Like many families who have experienced the pain of Alzheimer’s, I know that there is no more helpless feeling than to watch the progression of this devastating disease,” Collins said in a statement. “Alzheimer’s disease is the only cause of death among the top ten in our nation without a way to prevent it, cure it, or even slow its progression.”
Kevin Miller can be contacted at 317-6256 or at: