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HEADLINE: Revenge on Capitol Hill: Obituary of John Tower
BYLINE: By MARK TRAN

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FORMER Republican Senator John Tower of Texas has died in a plane crash, cheated of the prize he sought after a long political career - United States Secretary of Defence. The manner of that defeat - the first Cabinet nominee of a new president to be rejected by the Senate - left him an embittered man, despite a consolation appointment by George Bush as chairman of the foreign intelligence advisory board. Only last month, after the end of the Gulf war, the 65- year old senator struck a rueful note about being on the fringes during a moment of national crisis. 'It's a little bit frustrating not to be involved,' he said. 'I think I could have made a very good job of it.'

It was not that he lacked the qualifications for defence secretary. A dapper, diminutive figure, he served 24 years in the Senate and was chairman of the armed services committee for four years before retiring in 1980. In that position Tower became a key ally of the Reagan administration as it embarked on the greatest military build- up in peacetime.
He was called out of retirement to chair the commission that looked into the Iran-Contra affair, a scandal that threatened to unravel the Reagan presidency. The Tower commission report criticised President Reagan's laid-back management style, made White House chief of staff Don Regan the fall guy and absolved key figures, including then vice-president George Bush.

Tower also worked tirelessly for Bush in the 1988 presidential campaign and was rewarded with the nomination to the Pentagon. The process turned into a humiliating ordeal as the confirmation hearing degenerated into soap opera. It was not the nominee's qualifications that came under scrutiny but allegations of drinking, womanising and close ties with defence contractors. His autocratic ways, his low tolerance for fools during his Senate career returned to haunt him as his colleagues, in a 53-47 vote, cut him down to size.
Afterwards Tower compared Capitol Hill unfavourably with Beirut. 'They're pretty straightforward what they do in Beirut. They hurl a grenade at someone or shoot a machine gun. Up here it's a little more subtle, but just as ruthless, just as brutal.'

He got a small dose of revenge with his memoirs, Consequences, published last year, in which he struck back at his tormentors, particularly Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, described as timid, inexperienced, priggish and suffering from blind ambition.

John Goodwin Tower, born September 25, 1925; died April 5, 1991