Readers React: In praise of Howard Baker, respected Washington insider

To the editor: Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr., the Republican senator from Tennessee, was a man of passion and tolerance.

Like so many Republicans of his time, he understood the need for the GOP to carry the fight to the Democrats; yet, when faced with certain defeat, he believed a compromise was better than nothing. That was true when he was a member of the Watergate committee as well as when he served as chief of staff to President Reagan. (“Howard H. Baker Jr., 1925-2014: Senator was Washington insider,” Obituary, June 27)

Today’s Republicans are at war with one another. Many decry the Baker way as selling out the party. I doubt the Great Conciliator, as Baker was known, would agree. He understood that politics, like life itself, is not black and white but shades of gray.

Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach