Michael Hammond

Michael Hammond, master of the Senate rules, Cold War hero, champion of the Second Amendment, passed away Wednesday, August 6, 2025 after suffering several strokes. His determination enabled a poor kid in St. Louis to ace the SAT (except one question when time ran out), attend Washington University, and there earn ROTC paratroop wings and marksman medal. His ability to speak and read Mandarin was put to use by the National Security Agency shortly after he joined the US Army. He then earned a law degree at NYU, a school he always called "Ted's School of Law and Auto Mechanics." Joining the staff of Senator Jim Buckley of New York as legal counsel, Mike was on the team that won the historic case of Buckley v. Valeo, limiting the government's ability to control the outcome of elections. Thereafter he was counsel to either the Steering Committee, the score or more conservative Republican senators, or one or another individual member. His mastery of the Senate Rules repeatedly enabled his employers to block liberal or defective legislation. On his own, Mike went to Poland to confer with leaders of the Solidarity movement, which was desperate for foreign aid. In a large meeting, knowing that the dictatorship probably had goons in the crowd, he promised to get the money from Congress and warned any spies present that the Congress would strongly retaliate if they laid a hand on him. It worked: He came home safe, and Congressman Jack Kemp and Senator Bob Kasten added the money to a must-pass appropriation bill, and the Reagan Administration had to reluctantly hand it over. In 2017, the Polish government gave Mike the highest honor for any non-Pole: The Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit. Little more than two years ago, Mike joined up with some Solidarity vets to cross the Carpathian mountains to lead a convoy of trucks bringing aid to the Ukrainian people. Mike hated oppression and exemplified the motto of his beloved New Hampshire: Live Free or Die. His yearly Halloween party for local youngsters was a politicized house of horrors about the perils of Leftism in all its forms. Mike is survived by no family but by a large number of admirers and coworkers. Among them, Pete Weyrich, Tim Sappington, Ed Corrigan, Daniel Perrin, Greg Rothman, Tony Rudy, Brian Darling, and Anne and Bill Gribbin -- all but one of whom were present or on the phone for Michael's last rites and death bed entrance into the Catholic Church. We loved him. Service scheduled for later date.