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GOP Fund-Raising Dinner/Dance for Abner Sibal, Westport, CT, June 25, 1966
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GOP Fund-Raising Dinner/Dance for Abner Sibal, Westport, CT, June 25, 1966
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D20, folder "GOP Fund-Raising Dinner/Dance
for Abner Sibal, Westport, CT, June 25, 1966" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press
Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
SPECIAL for Ab Sibal Dinner-Dance, Westport--
Ab Sibal is not only a highly capable fellow, he also is mighty lucky--
and this helps in politics, too.
Ab will wonder how I happemed onto this story, and he 'll never know. But
it's a true one. When Ab was in Congress, he once had to
make a
hurry-up trip to Westport right around income tax time. He dashed out to his
car near the Congre ssional Hotel, with his income tax returns and records in
GERALD R. FORD
an envelope in one hand and his suitcese in another. He put the envelope on top
of the car while he placed the bag inside. Then he drove off.
(MORE)
2/ SPECIAL on Sibal..
Some blecks away he muttered "O Migosh" and whipped back
to the Capitol area. There was his income tax envelope, lying in the stroet,
with somebody's tire tread marks on it.
of
course,
like everyone else, there are times when Ab is not so
lucky.
When he got to Westport, his wife was waiting for him. "I'm glad you're
here," sher said. "I need the car to take Susie to her music lesson." She
jumped into the car and took off. She no more than got around the corner when
the car ran out of gas. --I haven't run out of gas but I'll say thank you and
GOD BLESS YOU.
Digitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Delaver to Cory. Ford via applane
ABNER W. SIBAL
Norwalk, Connecticut
NOMINATION ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
REPUBLICAN 4TH DISTRICT CONGRESSIONAL CONVENTION
PLEASURE BEACH BALLROOM, BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1966
I thank you for your nomination and I accept it in
the full knowledge of the challenge and the importance of
the campaign that faces us, and the importance of the
responsibility that will be mine in the 90th Congress.
Because I feel so deeply that this year's elections
are of utmost importance to our future course as a nation,
I intend to campaign to the limit of my strength and
resources. As your candidate for Congress, I ask you to
help me restore to the Fourth Congressional District the kind
of representation it deserves and needs in Congress.
In this District for the past two years, we have had
an example of the kind of legislative subservience that puts
partisan loyalty ahead of the national good and the needs of
our people.
--MORE--
Sibal Acceptance Speech
2
Our District is a meterogenous one, of diverse interests
and needs. Our commuters are a unique group whose focus is on
New York and on their difficulties in getting there from their
homes. Our heavily industrialized communities are a key factor
in the Connecticut economy. These cities are beset with a
multitude of problems of housing, education, redevelopment and
recreation stemming from rapid growth. Our equally growing
suburban towns find themselves confronted with demands for
municipal services deemed unnecessary only a few years ago.
No Congressman can represent such a District merely by
following the dictates of the administration in Washington.
For no central government can be cognizant of our variety of
problems.
The trend toward one-party government that was accel-
erated in the 1964 election must be halted definitively in
1966. The Congressional elections next Fall provide the means
whereby the American voter can end the comination of our legis-
lative branch of government by a strong and willful executive.
I do not by any means believe that this is going to be
an easy election to win in the Fourth District. The coattails
the incumbent Congressman rode in 1964 are more remote this year,
but he is going to make the best use he can of them, and indeed,
he can do little else because his record of subservience to the
man who wears the coat has been total and abject.
--MORE--
Sibal Acceptance Speech
3
In contrast to this record I propose upon my election
to commit myself to the approach I took in my two terms in the
House
serving as Representative of the people of the Fourth
District not the White House.
I offer the voters of our District a record of four
years of Congressional service during which my principal aim
was not to do what would look good to the White House, or even
what would look good to the leadership of my own party, but
what was best for my constituents and my country.
I have been willing in the past and I am willing in the
future to stand up for our District in terms of what I think is
right. I refuse to be an obstructionist or merely a carping
critic. I condemn as firmly the line that everything the
administration does is wrong, as I do the line taken by my
opponent that everything the administration does is right.
I intend to be everybody's Congressman
not a Presi-
dent's Congressman, not a special interests Congressman, not
a party bloc Congressman, but your Congressman and the
Congressman of every voter in my District.
As your Congressman, I will oppose the unlimited,
undisciplined government spending that since 1962 has added
$25 billion to the national budget. I will oppose it because
the greater part of this increase represents an escalation of
domestic spending that has resulted in stepped up withholding
taxes, national debt increases and the inflation that is eating
away at your income.
MORE
Sibal Acceptance Speech
4
As your Congressman, I will work for the establish-
ment of sensible priorities in spending. While our economy
is strong enough to undertake many worthwhile efforts at
public betterment, we cannot support every project with
an interesting title and a humanitarian viewpoint. As in
private budgeting, we cannot afford everything that seems
desirable, so in public budgeting we must use good judgment
and common sense to choose which programs are essential and
which we can defer or do without, or leave to another level
of government.
As your Congressman, I will call for constant review
and evaluation of existing programs as they come up for
budget appropriations. Such worthwhile undertakings as the
anti-poverty program must be strengthened when they are
sound, but curtailed and disciplined when they are wasteful
or politically oriented.
As your Congressman, I propose to approach the problem
of defense spending and the war in Vietnam from a non-partisar
national point of view. As a loyal American, I intend to do
in Congress all I can to support our country's interests
against Communist aggression. But as a loyal American, I do
not believe our system of government envisages or requires
that Congress give the executive branch a blank check to
conduct any or all operations at home or abroad.
--MORE--
Sibal Acceptance Speech
5
Finally, as your Congressman, I propose to follow a
program of constructive initiative on problems that concern
our country and our District.
I believe my record in Congress from 1960 to 1964 has
proved my ability to initiate and work successfully for
worthwhile legislation in response to our needs for growth
and change.
During my two terms as a member of the Interstate and
Foreign Commerce Committee and its subcommittee on Transpor-
tation and Aeronautics, I was able to continue my efforts
towards finding a solution of the rail transportation problem.
To this end I introduced legislation granting Congres-
sional approval to an interstate compact enabling several
states to work together on the commuter problem.
I also proposed and worked for the repeal of the Federal
tax on passenger fares, which increased income for the New
Haven Railroad by $3 million a year. I urged the inclusion
of the New Haven in the merger of the New York Central and
Pennsylvania Railroads. The Interstate Commerce Commission
later took this position in granting approval of the merger.
I also introduced legislation to implement a national
transportation policy.
A bill I introduced to establish a scientific advisory
staff for Congress led to the creation of a new scientific
advisory service in the Library of Congress.
--MORE--
Sibal Acceptance Speech
6
Another of my bills called for the establishment of
a joint Congressional committee to oversee all government
intelligence operations except the FBI---a proposal which
current events have proved most timely.
The ethics in government bill I introduced and
strongly supported was blocked by the Democratic majority,
but recent developments, especially in Connecticut, have
shown the critical need for this legislation.
In other fields, I introduced bills to provide an
annual tax deduction of $1,500 for college tuitions; to
provide tax deductions for the cost of education or training
for a better job, and for expenses of travel and maintenance
when employed away from home.
I supported the move to amend the Constitution to
guarantee equal rights for men and women, and was active in
sponsoring and promoting Civil Rights.
My third term in the House, like my previous two
terms, will strive for the dynamic, creative and construc-
tive representation that the Fourth District of Connecticut
deserves.
Aside from the question of whether the Fourth District
is represented by a think-for-yourself Congressman or by an
administration down-the-liner, is the wider question of what
a Republican victory in the Fourth District can contribute to
our country in this time of distant peril and domestic unease.
--MORE--
Sibal Acceptance Speech
7
In Vietnam we fight an escalating war, bearing almost
alone its cost in blood and billions as our allies, for the
most part, shun that struggle and continue to do business
with our Communist foe. At home, our people are confused
about our government's aims and policies in Vietnam. This
is the first war in our history in which the President of
the United States has not had the undivided support of
the country. As your Congressman it will be my purpose
to call on our national leadership to tell our people the
nature of its short-term and long-range goals in Southeast
Asia.
At home, as every responsible American knows, despite
our position as the strongest, most powerful country in the
world, despite our affluence, there is a widespread sense
of dismay and disenchantment.
A sharp increase in the cost of living has eroded
the value of our dollars.
We are urged to private curtailment and reduction of
our standard of living, while our government continues to
spend unprecendented sums on all manner of domestic programs,
mamy of questionable worth and some seemingly designed to
buy the votes of the disadvantaged.
--MORE--
Sibal Acceptance Speech
8
A rising tide of crime and juvenile deliquency makes
our streets unsafe and breeds fear for our safety even
within our own homes.
HOW has this come about in this free land? I
believe our problems stem, in large measure, from our
surrender of the right of dissent, best exemplified in a
democracy by two-party government.
Only through the abrasive interaction provided by
an opposition, strong in number and in conviction, is a
free people assured of the leadership that reflects their
real needs and aspirations.
I ask you, as your candidate for Congress, to help
restrengthen America by restoring a meaningful two-party
system in Washington to chart a course toward peace and
non-inflationary prosperity.
I promise, with your-help and support, to make this
campaign worthy of a party that intends to and must stay
alive and prevail, to insure the fulfillment of America's
historic responsibilities to 1ts own people and the world.
-30-
666-21
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY AT 7 P.M.,
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1966
SPEECH EXCERPTS--AT GOP FUND-RAISING DINNER-DANCE, WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT.
I have come to ask you to send Ab Sibal to Washington as a strong force on
the new Republican team in the 90th Congress.
We need men like Ab Sibal in the nation's capital, and with your help we
can make it possible for him to serve the people of his district and his nation
again.
Ab distinguished himself during his two terms in the House by standing on
his own two feet and following nobody's dictates but that of his own conscience
and his constituents in the Fourth District of Connecticut. His was a most
constructive record, as evidenced by the many bills he introduced which ultimately
became law.
In the best tradition of a lawmaker who is keenly aware of his area's special
needs, Ab has sought a solution to Connecticut's perplexing rail transportation
problems since his days in the State Senate.
His efforts in Washington included moves to repeal the federal tax on
passenger fares and to wrap the New Haven Railroad into the merger of the New York
Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The fare tax repeal subsequently
was enacted, and the rail merger recently was approved by the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
Ab Sibal introduced and fought for an ethics in government bill, legislation
which was blocked by the Democratic majority in Congress. The importance of Ab's
attempt to win enactment of such legislation is pointed up by the current case
involving personal fund-raising on behalf of a Democratic member of Congress
from this state.
The Fourth District must regain its proper voice in Congress. That voice--
the voice of Ab Sibal--was heard in the House for four years and it must be heard
again.
Your district deserves the best, and that is what you have in Ab Sibal--a
dynamic 45 years young, a former prosecuting attorney, a former state senator
and state senate minority leader.
The citizens of the Fourth District and we in the Congress are most fortunate
that Ab is running again. His re-election will help to rebuild two-party govern-
ment in Washington and to restore representative government for your district. Ab
led the Republican ticket in this district in 1964 but that lead wasn't enough.
This time put him out front to win. Only you can elect Ab Sibal. That I ask you
to de.
# # #
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY AT 7 P.M.,
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1966
SPEECH EXCERPTS--AT GOP FUND-RAISING DINNER-DANCE, WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT.
I have come to ask you to send Ab Sibal to Washington as a strong force on
the new Republican team in the 90th Congress.
We need men like Ab Sibal in the nation's capital, and with your help we
can make it possible for him to serve the people of his district and his nation
again.
Ab distinguished himself during his two terms in the House by standing on
his own two feet and following nobody's dictates but that of his own conscience
and his constituents in the Fourth District of Connecticut. His was a most
constructive record, as evidenced by the many bills he introduced which ultimately
became law.
In the best tradition of a lawmaker who is keenly aware of his area's special
needs, Ab has sought a solution to Connecticut's perplexing rail transportation
problems since his days in the State Senate.
His efforts in Washington included moves to repeal the federal tax on
passenger fares and to wrap the New Haven Railroad into the merger of the New York
Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The fare tax repeal subsequently
was enacted, and the rail merger recently was approved by the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
Ab Sibal introduced and fought for an ethics in government bill, legislation
which was blocked by the Democratic majority in Congress. The importance of Ab's
attempt to win enactment of such legislation is pointed up by the current case
involving personal fund-raising on behalf of a Democratic member of Congress
from this state.
The Fourth District must regain its proper voice in Congress. That voice--
the voice of Ab Sibal--was heard in the House for four years and it must be heard
again.
Your district deserves the best, and that is what you have in Ab Sibal--a
dynamic 45 years young, a former prosecuting attorney, a former state senator
and state senate minority leader.
The citizens of the Fourth District and we in the Congress are most fortunate
that Ab is running again. His re-election will help to rebuild two-party govern-
ment in Washington and to restore representative government for your district. Ab
led the Republican ticket in this district in 1964 but that lead wasn't enough.
This time put him out front to win. Only you can elect Ab Sibal. That I ask you
to dc.
# # #