Bob Livingston

The title of this article is ambiguous. For other people of the same name, see Robert Livingston .

Bob Livingston

Robert "Bob" Linlithgow Livingston Jr. (born April 30, 1943 in Colorado Springs , Colorado ) is an American lobbyist and former politician. He was a Republican MP in the United States House of Representatives for the state of Louisiana from 1977 to 1999 .

Life

Livingston was born in Colorado and later grew up in New Orleans , Louisiana. He is married to Bonnie Livingston.

Political career

After studying law at Tulane University , Livingston initially worked for several Republican politicians. In the mid-1970s he was the head of the organized crime department under the Democratic Attorney General of Louisiana, William J. Guste . In 1977 he won the House by-elections for Louisiana's 1st Congressional constituency . Livingston was the first Republican to hold this post since the Reconstruction . 1978 Livingston was confirmed with 86 percent of the vote in his office, which he held until 1999.

1987 Livingston applied for the governorship in Louisiana unsuccessfully . He finished third behind the two Democrats Buddy Roemer and Edwin Edwards and thus failed to make it into the runoff election, which later became obsolete after Edwards' withdrawal. Livingston did not hold a prominent position during his first 18 years as a congressman. However, he succeeded early on in gaining a seat on the influential Appropriations Committee , which controls government spending. In 1995 he was named chairman of the committee after the Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 1994 election . As chairman, Livingston became one of the most influential politicians in the Republican Party.

During his political career Livingston represented value conservative positions. In the context of the Lewinsky scandal , for example, he called for Bill Clinton's resignation as President of the United States .

Resignation and further career

In 1998, Livingston was proposed by the Republicans as his successor after Newt Gingrich's resignation from the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives. Gingrich had resigned as spokesman after losing the Republicans during the 1998 election . Livingston was proposed without opposition. Before he could take office, however, publicist and publisher Larry Flynt alleged that Livingston had had an extramarital affair. Livingston admitted the allegations, withdrew his candidacy as spokesman and announced that he would step down as MP in May 1999.

Livingston has been a lobbyist in Washington since his resignation . In this capacity he received 12 million dollars from the Turkish government for his attempt to dissuade the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives from calling the Armenian genocide “genocide” in an October 2007 resolution.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bob Livingston. The Man Who Must Say No , BusinessWeek, March 13, 1995
2. ↑ The Speaker Who Never Was , CNN, December 21, 1998
3. ^ To Ex-Leader in Congress Is Now Turkey's Man in the Lobbies of Capitol Hill , New York Times, October 17, 2007
4. ↑ Article on haberler.com (Turkish) , accessed on January 13, 2015.

Web links

• Bob Livingston in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)