Robert Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953), of the Taft political family of Cincinnati and the son of President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft, was a Republican Senator and a prominent conservative statesman and presidential hopeful. As the leading opponent of the New Deal in the Senate from 1939 to 1953, he led the successful effort by the conservative coalition to curb the power of labor unions, and was a major proponent of the foreign policy of non-interventionism. However, he failed in his quest to win the presidential nomination of the Republican Party in 1940, 1948 and 1952. From 1940 to 1952 he battled New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the leader of the GOP's moderate "Eastern Establishment" for control of the Republican Party. In 1957, a Senate committee named Taft as one of the five greatest senators in American history, along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Robert La Follette.
Read more about Robert Taft: Family, Early Public Career, U.S. Senator, Senate Majority Leader, Death and Legacy
Famous quotes containing the word taft:
“We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)