Barney Frank: “there is a cliche of the unsung hero. Cliches can be tiresome, but generally they have to be true to become a cliche.…”

“there is a cliche of the unsung hero. Cliches can be tiresome, but generally they have to be true to become a cliche. One such unsung hero in the history of this House recently died. His name was Leo Diehl. Tip O'Neill was a great Speaker, and we have seen before and since that it is not as easy to be a successful Speaker as it may look. One reason Tip was so good at his job was the friendship and partnership he had with Leo Diehl. Leo Diehl was a man of integrity, vision and intelligence. He had lost the use of much of his body, but his brain worked, and his eyes and ears and mouth. Because of the great friendship with Leo Diehl, because he could so clearly rely on a man of such strength of character and wisdom, that was one of the reasons that Tip O'Neill's speakership, as he was free to acknowledge, was so successful. Leo Diehl recently died at the age of 92. He was a great figure in the history of this House, and I think it is appropriate that those of us particularly who served under Tip O'Neill's speakership with Leo Diehl mourn him today.”