“The weakest lady in the Senate!” LOL. I will never forget this quote about Baker from the late editor of the Manchester Union Leader. His name escapes me at the moment but he was known as a real hard line right winger. In 1980 Sixty Minutes asked him to rate the GOP candidates and when he referred to Baker in that sneering way I had to laugh. He said Baker was not a man because of how he failed to oppose President Carter on the Panama Canal treay.
re: Panama Canal
Oppose him... shoot he helped him.
I was looking at a Wiki list the other day and I could only find 3 guys in the U.S. Senate during the Carter years I would classify as real conservatives (from memory, admittedly I was in high school then).
It seems to me that there were no “Reaganites” before 1983 or so, (except maybe Jessie Helms) and then they all wanted to be one.
That’s why I don’t blame a young Fred Thompson for coming under the wing of Howard Baker....Baker was very much the mainstream of the party until Reagan came along.