What President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) “deplored more than each other’s political philosophy was stalemate, and a country that was so polarized by ideology and party politics that it could not move forward. There were tough words and important disagreements. . . yet a stronger commitment to getting things done.” That observation came from O’Neill’s oldest son, Thomas P. O’Neill, in a 2012 New York Times column entitled, “Frenemies: A Love Story” regarding his Democratic father’s relationship with the Republican president. O’Neill and Reagan were both of Irish descent. And when disagreements got heated between the...