Dick Gephardt

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Dick Gephardt
United States Representative from Missouri's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1977 - January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Leonor K. Sullivan
Succeeded by	Russ Carnahan
Born	January 31, 1941 St. Louis, Missouri
Political party	Democratic

Richard Andrew "Dick" Gephardt (born January 31, 1941) is senior counsel at the global law firm DLA Piper and a former prominent American politician of the Democratic Party. Gephardt served as a U.S. Representative from Missouri from January 3, 1977, until January 3, 2005, and Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. Previously, from 1989 to 1995 he was Majority Leader. He also ran twice for Democratic nomination for U.S. President (in 1988 and 2004), but these attempts were unsuccessful (in 1988 he lost to Michael Dukakis, and in 2004 to John Kerry). He was also mentioned as possible Vice Presidential Nominee in 1988, 1992 and 2004.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 2004 campaign for President 4 Political views 5 Retirement 6 Quotes 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Gephardt was born in St. Louis, Missouri into a working-class family to Louis Andrew Gephardt (a German American Teamster milkman) and Loreen Estelle Cassell, and graduated from the former Southwest High School in 1958. Gephardt is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He earned his B.S. at Northwestern University in 1962 where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi and earned his J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School in 1965.

In 1965, he was admitted to the Missouri bar. He then entered the Missouri Air National Guard, where he served until 1971.

He and his wife Jane have three grown children, Matt, Katie, and Chrissy. His brother, Donald L. Gephardt, is the Dean of The College of Fine and Performing Arts at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

[edit] Political career

He was Democratic committeeman for the 14th ward in St. Louis between 1968 and 1971, moving up to 14th ward alderman 1971-1976, as part of a group of young aldermen known informally as "The Young Turks." He was elected as a Democrat to the 95th succeeding Congress, and was repeatedly re-elected until he chose to not to run for re-election in 2004.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1988 presidential election and then again in the 2004 presidential election . Gephardt ran hard and early in 1987/88 and finally started moving ahead in Iowa after running an ad that criticized what he thought were unfair trade barriers by Korea and Japan. Gephardt won the Iowa Caucuses and South Dakota primary in February, but ran out of money and dropped out after losing badly in the March "Super Tuesday" primaries. An ad aired by the campaign of Governor Michael Dukakis focussed on Gephardt's "filp-flopping" voting record, and showed a Gephardt look alike doing forward and backward flips for the camera. Many felt that the ad killed any chance Gephardt had of winning. Dukakis did consider picking Gephardt to be his running mate, but he instead chose Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

He was Democratic leader in the House from 1989 to 2003, serving as majority leader from 1989 to 1995 (101st through 103rd Congresses) and minority leader from 1995 to 2003 (104th through 107th Congresses). Gephardt's successor as House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, endorsed his bid for president.

[edit] 2004 campaign for President

He announced his second run for President on January 5, 2003, dropping out a year later after his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucus. Gephardt was seen by many as too old fashioned and unelectable, and his support of the Iraq War resolution hurt him among liberal activists. Gephardt promoted a form of universal health care, and was supported by a dozen labor unions, but did not have enough support to receive the endorsement of the AFL-CIO. Although Gephardt was ahead in Iowa throughout early 2004, Vermont Governor Howard Dean pulled ahead in the polls by August, his campaign fueled by anti war activists. The Gephardt campaign was embarrassed by an early August St Louis Post-Dispatch article that revealed that 11 of 33 "Gephardt team leaders" listed on his Iowa campaign's web site were actually supporting other candidates or neutral. The race between Gephardt and Dean became negative, and took an ugly turn in October when a Gephardt staffer reportedley pushed a Dean staffer out of a meeting while calling him a "faggot". Dean chairman Joe Trippi (who worked for Gephardt in '88) and Gephardt chairman Steve Murphy became involved in a war of words over that incident. In the final days of the campaign, both Dean and Gephardt faded and finished third and fourth, respectively.

Although he dropped out of the running for President, Gephardt was mentioned as a possible running mate for John Kerry. On March 7, 2004, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, seen as a strong possibility for the position himself, endorsed Gephardt for the Vice Presidency. "I think he's the best candidate," Richardson said of Gephardt in an interview with the Associated Press. "There's a good regional balance with Kerry and Gephardt." Nevertheless, Kerry announced that he had chosen John Edwards as his running mate on July 6, 2004. (Interestingly, on that same day, the New York Post published an incorrect headline stating that Gephardt had become Kerry's running mate.) Shortly after this false story broke, the headline was compared to the 1948 "Dewey defeats Truman" front page of the Chicago Tribune, which falsely reported the presidential election results of that year.

[edit] Political views

Since his election to the U.S. House in 1976, Gephardt's political views gradually moved to the left. Originally, Gephardt was strongly anti-abortion and was viewed as a social conservative. His views on abortion shifted to pro-choice in late 1986.

"Life is the division of human cells, a process that begins with conception. The (Supreme Court's abortion) ruling was unjust, and it is incumbent on the Congress to correct the injustice." Gephardt wrote in 1984, "I have always been supportive of pro-life legislation. I intend to remain steadfast on this issue.... I believe that the life of the unborn should be protected at all costs."

However in 1987, when Gephardt decided to run for president, he announced that he had discontinued his support for pro-life legislation. He informed the National Right to Life Committee; "I now do not support any Constitutional amendment pertaining to the legality of abortion."

Gephardt's views on economic policy have also changed. He voted for President Reagan's tax cuts in 1981; in the 2000s, however, he became a staunch opponent of similar tax cuts by President George W. Bush, saying that the enormous surplus created during the administration of Bill Clinton should have been spent on health care instead. Gephardt is widely viewed as an economic populist. He supports universal health coverage, fair trade, and progressive taxation. Although a former chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Gephardt in his later years in Congress distanced himself from the organization, finding his pro-labor views at odds with the DLC's pro-business positions.

[edit] Retirement

On January 3, 2005, Gephardt's three-decade political career ended with the expiration of his fourteenth term in the House of Representatives. The Hill reported that Gephardt was close to signing a contract to work for investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. Gephardt joined the international law firm of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP as Senior Counsel in June 2005. http://www.dlapiper.com/dick_gephardt/.

[edit] Quotes

"I never felt it was inevitable that we had to go to war." — on the invasion of Iraq.

"It’s a great day for our troops, for this administration, for the people of Iraq. My hope is that this will decrease the violence our troops will have to face." — on the capture of Saddam Hussein.

"I want to say a special thank you to every member of every labor union in this country who has stood by my side ... throughout my career. Your fight is my fight, and it will always be that way." — conceding defeat after winning no delegates in the Iowa Democratic caucus of 2004.

"Politics is a substitute for violence." — at the 2004 Missouri Democratic Convention

"This president is a miserable failure on foreign policy and on the economy and he's got to be replaced." — in a presidential debate on September 4, 2003

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Richard A. Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis
• Richard Gephardt Bio at Greater Talent Network (Speakers Bureau)
• Gay Issues and Gephardt

Preceded by Leonor K. Sullivan	United States Representative for the 3rd Congressional District of Missouri 1977–2005	Succeeded by Russ Carnahan
Preceded by Tom Foley	House Majority Leader 1989–1995	Succeeded by Dick Armey
Preceded by Robert H. Michel	House Minority Leader 1995–2003	Succeeded by Nancy Pelosi

Majority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives
Payne • Underwood • Kitchin • Mondell • Longworth • Tilson • Rainey • Byrns • Bankhead • Rayburn • McCormack • Halleck • McCormack • Halleck • McCormack • Albert • Boggs • O'Neill • Wright • Foley • Gephardt • Armey • DeLay • Blunt (acting) • Boehner • Hoyer