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Arizona's Statesman:
Congressman John J. Rhodes
Leaving Congress
By 1980, John Rhodes had been Minority Leader for seven years. As he so aptly put it, “first, a Minority Leader wants to lead a majority, not a minority. Second, until his situation improves, he wants to lead a cohesive, effective minority.” Rhodes found his position challenged by freshman members who wanted a more aggressive leader who would be receptive to “new ideas.” Among these was Newt Gingrich of Georgia.
Rhodes knew that if there was to be a contest for leadership of the House Republicans, he could win, but his victory would engender major divisions within the party. It was not his style to undertake a campaign that would damage either the House of Representatives that he loved so well, or the post of Minority Leader. Therefore, he decided that he would run for his seat in the House; that if the Republicans won a majority, he would serve as Speaker; but if there was not a Republican majority, he would not be a candidate for Minority Leader.
Click Here to View a Video Excerpt from a Floor Speech by Mr. Rhodes. Select 'Leaving' from the Menu.
John Rhodes was re-elected to his seat in the House with a whopping 73 percent of the vote, helped Bob Michel become Minority Leader in his stead, and happily took a position on the House Rules Committee. It was his last term in Congress, having completed thirty years of meritorious service — for which he would later be honored with the Congressional Distinguished Service Award.
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In 1982, John Rhodes gave the following speech, which consisted of his farewell remarks as well as his assessment of the state of the country and his vision for its future. He chose to have it presented here unedited, and wrote this introduction shortly before his death:
At that particular time in our history, the possibility of an attack by Russia across the north German plain was very present and threatening. At the same time, the domestic economy was not in as healthy a position as it needed to be, so the means of attacking both of these problems were important to the people of our country. I submit this entire work because I think it is important to know how we were thinking in 1982. In many ways, these thoughts are just as fresh today as they were then. In other ways, of course, developments in our relationships and our strengths and in the world in which we live have changed so much that we would want to make some drastic changes in the remarks and the capabilities set forth on April 20th, 1982.
Click Here to Read Floor Remarks
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Just before he retired from Congress, Mr. Rhodes published an amended and expanded version of his Floor Remarks in the prestigious journal, Foreign Affairs. The abridged article is presented here because of its remarkable prescience and because it demonstrates John Rhodes’s statesmanship. In this essay, the Congressman expounds upon the issues he believed of were (and are) of the greatest importance to the well being of the United States: the development and widespread use of alternative energy; the importance of a strong, goal-directed, forward-looking foreign policy; and the interdependence of foreign policy and the U.S. economy.
