My dog can bark like a congressman, fetch like an aide, beg like a press secretary and play dead like a receptionist when the phone rings.

He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1951 to 1952. See also. In 1980 he was an early and avid supporter of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign and remained a Reagan stalwart supporting his efforts to reduce taxes revive the economy halt Soviet expansionism and rebuild America's defenses.

He also sponsored the legislation that created the United States Department of Veterans Affairs granting full cabinet status to the former Veterans Administration. In his district which ran from the Hudson Valley near Poughkeepsie into the Adirondacks including Lake Placid he was a popular and respected figure consistently drawing the highest total vote of any Member of Congress in New York State in his later years. See FAIR v.