By Jim Tankersley
As young Capitol Hill staffers are apt to do, Peter Roskam often showed up early for work in the mid-1980s. Often, he recalls, his boss was already in the office.
"You could smell cigar smoke," Roskam said today. "His door would be open and there he was, writing on a legal notepad with a felt-tip pen. A couple hours later, he’d be one of the clean-up speakers on the key foreign policy issue of the day.”
The boss was Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). Roskam worked a year for him as a legislative assistant. Later, he would represent portions of Hyde's congressional district in the state senate. When Hyde retired, Roskam won the 2006 election to succeed him in the House. Today, following news of Hyde's death at age 83, Roskam reflected on his former boss with sadness and stories.
“There’s no replacing Henry Hyde," Roskam said. "I’m his successor, but I’m not his replacement.”
Roskam called Hyde easy to work for - "because he had high expectations of his staff, but you wanted to do well for him" - and “gracious and very helpful" when Roskam transitioned to the House.
He praised Hyde's wit and conviction, and he said his in-laws in Michigan considered Hyde their congressman, too, because he shared their values.
In debates on the House floor, Roskam said, “He would treat opponents as opponents, and he wouldn’t characterize them as enemies. There was a civility in his language. He would not demean people.”
Plenty of Democrats didn't share that view - particularly those who worked for President Bill Clinton and watched Hyde spearhead impeachment proceedings against him. But one former Clinton aide, who is now the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, had nothing but praise for Hyde today.
"Henry always gave me great advice when I got (to Congress)," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). "He was a very, very, very nice mentor. I can understand why other people in the Clinton White House have antipathy, but I worked with him ... and I see him very differently."
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Comments
Roskam: "No replacing Henry Hyde"
We can't replace Henry "Youthful Indiscretion"" Hyde because he's retired but we can and will replace Roscum who is a bugman Tom Delay protege of the worst kind.
Posted by: John E | November 29, 2007 1:48 PM
No replacing Henry Hyde? Let's all hope so. This state needs someone far better then his backwards, bloated, right-winged ideology.
Posted by: RomanB | November 29, 2007 1:56 PM
When I was 14 I worked at a 31 Flavors ice cream shop, I remember writing Hyde about raising the minimum wage (at the time was $4.35)when the vote came around to the house he voted against it. Why you ask ? Well its simple (not simple economics just simple) people who were making $4.35 an hour werent going to vote for him anyways, it could only cost his voters and donors more money. Thats how I remember Henry Hyde ! Thanks for all of those years of service, you wont be missed here.
Posted by: Joe from A-Town | November 29, 2007 2:27 PM
Mr. Henry Hyde will be missed. His intellect is unsurpassed not only cerebrally, but also in making the layman feel heard and understood. With regard to another post - as a reminder, the Clinton impeachment was about purgery and NOT adultery. Clinton's adulterous nature/past played into the liar he was even to the courts of the land. THIS, is criminal. Criminal charges of lying are what Clinton's impeachment was about; having nothing to do with a "bitterly hypocrytical partisan fight..." Clinton was so desperate that he even spoke so as to call for the definition of, "is." Put THAT on Clinton's tombstone. Hyde's tombstone will be clear of any mud.
Posted by: byehyde | November 29, 2007 3:28 PM
byehyde,
And I guess that means you actually believe Henry Hyde ever told the truth about anything?
The man was a bloated pious fraud who wouldn't recognize truth if he tripped over it.
Posted by: John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada | November 29, 2007 3:45 PM
I'm surprised "Pond Scum" didn't classify Hyde's passing as another youthful indescretion...
Good Riddance to bad Rubbish...
Posted by: Truth | November 29, 2007 5:57 PM
"YOU CAN REPLACE HIM BY BURYING HIM NEXT TO GENERAL LEE" AND ONE OR TWO SLAVES THAT HE MAY STILL HAVE ON THE COTTON PAYROLL"
JOHNNIE CASH SAID, GOING DOWN DOWN DOWN IN A HELL OF FIRE!
WE ALL KNOW WHERE THAT IS, CHENEYVILLE!
GOOD RIDDANCE! MAY THE SOUTH RISE ABOVE HIS BIGOTRY AND LEARN FROM HIS INDIGNANT WAYS OF LEADING AMERICA.
Posted by: Roger Morris | November 29, 2007 6:23 PM
n 1981, after leaving the House Banking Committee, Hyde went on the board of directors of Clyde Federal Savings and Loan, whose President was one of many of Hyde's banker contributors. The Congress deregulated S&L industry in 1982, and Clyde began taking part in loans for luxury residences in Texas and bought a bank in the Cayman Islands, a notorious financial exchange for laundering money. Since 1984, when Hyde left the board, it was clear to the directors from the reports that the establishment had failed, but Hyde and others on the board continued to give inappropriate financial loans to cronies and insiders and make it possible for the establishment to overcharge the government on student loans. In 1990, the federal government put Clyde in receivership, and finally paid $67 million to cover deposits. In 1993, the Resolution Trust Corporation sued Hyde and other directors for $17.2 million.
Hyde had an extramarital affair in the late 1960 and destroyed a family.
Hyde was 41, a state legislator, and the father of four sons when the affair began in 1965 with a
29-year-old Cherie Snodgrass, who had a son and two daughters between the ages of 7 and 9 at the time. The relationship lasted until at least 1969.
The Snodgrasses divorced because of the affair.
Shalom,
---Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Posted by: Leland MIlton Goldblatt | November 29, 2007 7:10 PM
Hyde's death has confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Trib is a partisan newspaper of the FOX ilk. Many readers of the swamp posted appropriate condemnations of one of America's foulest hypocrites only to have them purged within 24 hours. To make the censorship complete there is no longer a reply form following that entry. To top it off, today's editorial in the Trib is as one-sided as it can get.
It's hard to decide which is worse, the GOP or the mainstream media which protects and obeys them.
Posted by: Bruce Y | November 30, 2007 9:09 AM
byehyde, I see you disagree with my post on that Swamp entry. That is your right and I do not object to your posting your opinions. Have you noticed that the Trib has deleted that post? Think about that the next time you hear someone use the term "liberal media".
Posted by: Bruce Y | November 30, 2007 9:57 AM