Richard Keith "Dick" Armey (born July 7, 1940 in Cando, North Dakota) is a former U.S. Representative and House Majority Leader from Texas.
Armey, a member of the United States Republican Party and former economics professor at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984.
During his time in Congress, he conceived the independent nonpolitical commission that became responsible for identifying those military bases to be closed as a cost-cutting measure. Armey, an ally of Newt Gingrich and now-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, has been one of Congress's fervent supporters of privatization of Social Security and phasing-out of farm subsidies.
In 1995, Newt Gingrich selected Armey to be House Majority Leader. That year, he also wrote a book, Freedom Revolution.
In 1998, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a reporter asked him what he would do if he were in President Bill Clinton's position. He replied "If I were, I would be looking up from a pool of blood and hearing my wife say: 'How do I reload this thing?' " [1]
Armey announced his retirement in 2002 and did not run for re-election that year. Fellow Texan and Republican Tom DeLay, then House Majority Whip, was elevated to hold Armey's Majority Leader position.
On May 1, 2002, during an interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Rep. Armey called on what appeared to many as a call for ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Quotes
- "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."