'Great Conciliator' Howard Baker dies

Howard Baker, a former Senate majority leader and presidential contender known for his ability to achieve compromise across the political aisle, died on Thursday. He was 88. Baker became the first Republican leader of the Senate in 26 years when he took the reins in 1981. He later went on to serve as chief of staff for president Ronald Reagan, to whom he lost the Republican nomination in 1980.
Current Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who took to the Senate floor to announce Baker's death, hailed his former colleague as "one of the Senate's most towering figures." He earned the nickname "the Great Conciliator" at a time when acrimonious partisanship was just beginning to build in Washington. That tone of cooperation may have been his undoing on the White House campaign trail, as his party shifted rightward and embraced Reagan, who called for a return to rigid conservative orthodoxy. Baker later served as president George W. Bush's ambassador in Tokyo.