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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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money in there for Israel, it's because you've got some Jewish constituents. If I didn't know you better, I would think you were anti-Semitic.” Just in that tone. And he's shocked. And he says, “Are you Jewish?” And I say, “You bet your ass I am.”

I ought to tell you that that conversation took place maybe in 1970, ‘71. In 1975, the opening of this year, I saved Wayne Hays’ ass because he was being challenged for chairman. He's a very arrogant man, somewhat petty. But we had become friends over the years. I had become a member of his committee, which is House Administration, and also I eat at what we call the liberals’ table. You can see how liberal it is, because it goes from Wayne Hays to Phil Burton, Wayne Hays being very conservative in some areas and Phil Burton being a radical. And over the years you have lunch, and we just established a rapport. He's a very good chairman, a very fair chairman. But he had an arrogance, and he treated people shabbily who were not on his committee, and they really hated him, and they decided that they were going to depose him -- some leadership people did. That was this year when the freshmen came in, and they had desposed of three others. They had deposed Patman from Banking and Currency, Poague from Agriculture and Hebert on Military. Wayne Hays was in that group. They had four they were out gunning for. And Hays said to me, “Will you speak for me?” I had no intention of speaking for him. I said, “Yes, I will.” I believe





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