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Bob Walker (Pennsylvania politician)
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Bob Walker (Pennsylvania politician)
Robert Smith Walker (born December 23, 1942) is an American educator and politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican for ten terms from 1977 until his retirement in 1997. He was best known for his fiery rhetoric and knowledge of parliamentary procedure.
Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Walker graduated from Penn Manor High School. He attended the College of William and Mary from 1960 to 1961 and received his B.S. from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 1964.
Walker taught high school from 1964 to 1967. He took his M.A. from the University of Delaware in 1968 and served in the Pennsylvania National Guard from 1967 to 1973.
Walker became an assistant to Pennsylvania congressman Edwin Duing Eshleman, working for him from 1967 to Eshleman's retirement in 1977.
In 1976, Walker won the Republican nomination to succeed Eshleman from the 16th District, including all or part of Lebanon, Lancaster, and Chester counties.
In Congress, Walker was an outspoken conservative and allied himself with fellow conservatives Newt Gingrich, Bob Dornan, Trent Lott and the Conservative Opportunity Society. He was one of the speakers at the first Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in 1989. Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa wrote that Walker was "scrappy, good humored, and ready to push his principles forward even at the cost of being mocked."[citation needed]
He was a hawk on deficit spending and worked to reduce government spending but at the same time served on the science committee and advocated more spending on the space program, weather research, hydrogen research, and earthquake programs as well as pushing for a cabinet-level department of science.
Walker was also responsible for a rare punishment of the Speaker of the House and aiding in the rise of Gingrich. When C-SPAN began televising the House, Walker, Gingrich, and other conservatives found they could reach a national audience with special order speeches, given at the end of the day after the House finished its legislative program. In these speeches, they assailed the Democrats and their leadership in the House. On May 10, 1984, Walker was speaking to an empty chamber and Speaker Tip O'Neill had the cameras pan the nearly empty chamber. No notice of this change was given to the Republicans when it was implemented on May 14, 1984. When the Republicans found out what was going on, Walker, who was speaking when the panning began, and Bob Michel, the Republican leader, angrily complained on the floor. The next day, Gingrich was speaking and Speaker O'Neill lost his cool, resulting in O'Neill's words being taken down and ruled out of order. No Speaker had been so punished since 1795. These events made Gingrich a household name. Gingrich would later bring Walker into the Republican leadership; Walker was chief deputy whip.
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Bob Walker (Pennsylvania politician)
Robert Smith Walker (born December 23, 1942) is an American educator and politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican for ten terms from 1977 until his retirement in 1997. He was best known for his fiery rhetoric and knowledge of parliamentary procedure.
Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Walker graduated from Penn Manor High School. He attended the College of William and Mary from 1960 to 1961 and received his B.S. from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 1964.
Walker taught high school from 1964 to 1967. He took his M.A. from the University of Delaware in 1968 and served in the Pennsylvania National Guard from 1967 to 1973.
Walker became an assistant to Pennsylvania congressman Edwin Duing Eshleman, working for him from 1967 to Eshleman's retirement in 1977.
In 1976, Walker won the Republican nomination to succeed Eshleman from the 16th District, including all or part of Lebanon, Lancaster, and Chester counties.
In Congress, Walker was an outspoken conservative and allied himself with fellow conservatives Newt Gingrich, Bob Dornan, Trent Lott and the Conservative Opportunity Society. He was one of the speakers at the first Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in 1989. Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa wrote that Walker was "scrappy, good humored, and ready to push his principles forward even at the cost of being mocked."[citation needed]
He was a hawk on deficit spending and worked to reduce government spending but at the same time served on the science committee and advocated more spending on the space program, weather research, hydrogen research, and earthquake programs as well as pushing for a cabinet-level department of science.
Walker was also responsible for a rare punishment of the Speaker of the House and aiding in the rise of Gingrich. When C-SPAN began televising the House, Walker, Gingrich, and other conservatives found they could reach a national audience with special order speeches, given at the end of the day after the House finished its legislative program. In these speeches, they assailed the Democrats and their leadership in the House. On May 10, 1984, Walker was speaking to an empty chamber and Speaker Tip O'Neill had the cameras pan the nearly empty chamber. No notice of this change was given to the Republicans when it was implemented on May 14, 1984. When the Republicans found out what was going on, Walker, who was speaking when the panning began, and Bob Michel, the Republican leader, angrily complained on the floor. The next day, Gingrich was speaking and Speaker O'Neill lost his cool, resulting in O'Neill's words being taken down and ruled out of order. No Speaker had been so punished since 1795. These events made Gingrich a household name. Gingrich would later bring Walker into the Republican leadership; Walker was chief deputy whip.
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