Two Who Will Run the House

Thomas Philip ("Tip") O'Neill Jr., who turned 64 last week, is the quintessential Boston Irish pol. Grandson of an immigrant bricklayer, he was a campaign worker for Alfred E. Smith at 15 and a candidate for the Cambridge city council at 22. He wound up 150 votes behind in the only election he has ever lost. A year later he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, and was 36 when he became the first Democratic speaker of the house.

By coincidence, the powers of that speakership were comparable with those wielded by the Speaker of the national House until they were so brutally abused by Joseph G. ("Uncle Joe") Cannon (TIME'S first cover subject, March 3, 1923) that they were drastically trimmed. In Boston, O'Neill exercised such powers as the right to appoint and dismiss committee chairmen--with less brutality but no less forcefulness.

After O'Neill succeeded John F. Kennedy as Representative from Massachusetts' Eighth District in 1953, he lived half the week in bachelor style in Washington. Weekends he commuted to Cambridge, where his wife Mildred had chosen to stay to mother their five children. Saturday mornings he was likely to be seen pushing a shopping cart through the Star Market on Porter Square, where constituents buttonholed him. He patiently jotted down their complaints--and later acted on them.

Would-be muckrakers find little dirt in O'Neill's record. He has voted right, by liberal Democratic standards, on virtually every major bill before the House. Tongsun Park paid heavily for a birthday party for O'Neill, but Tip got none of the money.

With his salary raised from the majority leader's $52,000 a year to $65,600, Tip has finally persuaded Millie that they can afford a Washington home, and she will join him there. Two daughters are already near by--Rosemary in the State Department and Susan working as a representative for the National Association of Government Employees. Eldest son Thomas P. O'Neill III, 31, is currently tied to Boston: he is Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.

While Tip may rule the House, he could find that with Millie ruling the household seven days a week, he might at last lose weight and keep it off. Although he stands 6 ft. 2 1/2 in., he has yo-yoed between 210 and 296 lbs., now carries a bulky 263.

The town of Weatherford in Texas has a population of about 12,000 and boasts that two of its citizens have won national fame: Actress-Singer Mary Martin and Congressman James Claude Wright. For the next two years at least, Wright will probably get top billing over Mary Martin for a change.

Jim Wright, as he prefers to call himself even on official congressional stationery, will be 54 next week. Elected to the state legislature at the unripe age of 24, he was considered outrageously liberal on some civil rights issues. He retained that label in the first few years after he reached Congress in 1954. But while he continues to be rated as liberal on economic issues, on others he has become conservative.

His Fort Worth district produces the F-111 fighter plane, and Wright usually supports generous defense spending. In 1969 he was the chief sponsor of a House resolution endorsing President Nixon's prosecution of the Viet Nam War (two years after Tip O'Neill had become a dove). He has voted for an expanded anti-ballistic missile program and for development of the B-1 bomber.

Domestically, Wright has sided with the highway lobby and opposed help for mass transit in the cities. He supports the widely criticized depletion allowance for "small" oil companies, but not for the majors. He voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbidding discrimination in public accommodations, but in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965--one of the foundation stones of Candidate Jimmy Carter's victory.

In all, Wright has voted counter to the Democratic majority that he must now lead no less than 30% of the time, as against a mere 6% for Tip O'Neill. To offset these political liabilities, Wright has precious personal assets. He is a good listener, ever ready to help his colleagues. When he chooses to speak 'out, he displays a good command of rhetoric. Wright has defined his future role as that of a builder of bridges between differing Democratic factions. With a ready smile below his high-flying eyebrows, Wright has a personality that wins him friends among men who disagree strongly with his ideology. But when he does differ with Speaker-elect O'Neill, he can still be counted on to be a loyal player on Tip's team.

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