On an example of how Reagan and O'Neill would "fight like brothers" but find ways to work it out
[They were at a summit] about a deficit problem which was arising the year after Reagan took office and got his big tax cuts through, and his defense increase ... and the deficits were far beyond what they expected or what they could defend, and they needed Democrats to sign on to some kind of change in Social Security.
... I discovered outside the meeting [that] staffers for the president were passing the word that the Democrats were the ones who were ... urging a cut on Social Security benefits. And I told [O'Neill] ... and said to the president, 'Are you calling for a cut in Social Security or not?' And Reagan said, 'No, I'm not doing it, it's you guys that are doing it.' And the speaker said, 'No, I'm not doing it.'
So they got nowhere in that meeting but there was good chemistry there ... these guys were working together. And before the end of the year, before the big midterm election of '82, the speaker backed the president in raising taxes to make up for the excessive deficits from the year before, and he went on the floor of the House and told the Republican members, 'You're here because of Reagan, you owe him your loyalty,' and Reagan said in his diary that day [that] it was very strange to have Tip on his side on this issue. So this is the pattern: they would fight like brothers, and then they would deal.
On the ways that Reagan was willing to compromise
He was far more of a political figure than we think of. We think of him as a philosopher and the leader of ... the conservative moment. ... He wanted Social Security to be voluntary, he didn't like Medicare, he campaigned against it ... those are all in the history books, on the record. And yet ... when he was governor of California, he signed a pro-choice bill.
... He would compromise. He would compromise on making Social Security the strong program that it is today. He didn't just vote to keep it alive, he voted to keep it strong and keep the revenue flowing into it so there'd be enough money to pay for the retirees benefits. He really did make a decision there. And I got to tell you, I think the difference between him and a true purist is that he would always say, 'I'll fight as hard as I can and then I'll make the best deal I can.' And he did that on spending, on taxing, on defense.
On his own interviewing style
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