Encyclopedia of the Kennedys: the People and Events That Shaped America [3 Volumes] by Siracusa Joseph M.;

Author:Siracusa, Joseph M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO, LLC
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Further Reading

Allison, Graham T., and Philip Zelikow. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1999.

Wyden, Peter. The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.

McCormack, John William

(1891–1980) U.S. Representative (D-Mass.), House Majority Leader, Speaker ofthe House

John William McCormack was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1891, and grew up in the poor, tightly knit Irish community of South Boston. He left school to go to work at age 13 after his father died. McCormack read law and passed his bar exams when he was 21. In 1917, he was elected a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. Three years later, he was elected to the state legislature, where he served for six years. In 1926, McCormack ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives, but two years later he won a special election to fill a House vacancy.

In Congress, McCormack was a strong supporter of New Deal programs and worked closely with the House Democratic leadership as a member of the important Ways and Means Committee. When Majority Leader Sam Rayburn became speaker of the House in 1940, McCormack moved into Rayburn’s former post.

As majority leader, McCormack gained a reputation as a good soldier who was an unswervingly loyal deputy to Rayburn. He made many political friendships in the House by helping to procure committee assignments for colleagues and influencing the scheduling of their bills. McCormack also became known for his sharply partisan debating style.

McCormack and Senator John F. Kennedy, leaders of opposing factions within the Massachusetts Democratic Party, were not close political allies. Nevertheless, McCormack was the chairman of his state’s pro-Kennedy delegation at the Democratic National Convention of 1960, and as majority leader he backed almost all administration programs in 1961. Nevertheless, he was a devout Catholic with close ties to many of the church’s high clerics, and in 1961 he favored adding parochial school assistance to the administration’s aid-to-education package, a course opposed by President Kennedy. As a result of controversy over aid to parochial schools, the program did not clear the House in 1961.

On August 31, 1961, after Rayburn became ill, McCormack was elected speaker pro tempore. Rayburn died on October 2, and on January 10, 1962, McCormack, drawing upon the political IOUs he had accumulated as majority leader, won the election to succeed him. McCormack was the first Catholic and, at age 70, the second-oldest man to win election to the speakership.

The speaker of the House was in a position to exert great influence on the flow of legislation. He had the right to refuse recognition to representatives wishing to speak and could also refuse to entertain motions from the floor. The most important foundation of a speaker’s power, however, was the informal influence he exercised over his colleagues.

According to the New York Times, McCormack, despite the numerous ties he had established with his fellow representatives over many years, “never developed, either through disinclination or inability, the same sort of elaborate network of information and rewards that enabled Mr.

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