Our friend, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, speechwriter to Presidents and fellow conservative warrior Tony Dolan passed away Monday, March 10, he was 77 years old and left this Earth recognized as the premier rhetorician of the modern conservative movement.
No one we can think of in our 50-year career in conservative politics more often voiced the aspirations of the American people than did Tony Dolan.
“Evil empire” and “ash heap of history” were two of Tony’s notable contributions to President Ronald Reagan’s public rhetoric. But Tony’s contribution to Reagan’s speeches wasn’t limited to a few memorable phrases, he was one of the few White House staffers to understand and help the President articulate his deep moral outrage at the ravages Communism perpetrated on the human spirit.
Tony’s fierce anti-Communism was rooted in his Catholic faith and the conservative Republican politics he learned from his parents.
At his sister Maiselle Dolan Shortley’s funeral just a year ago, Tony shared a childhood anecdote: “My mother took a course on communism downtown at St Mary’s Church from Louis Budenz, former Soviet operative and editor of The Daily Worker, who had become a Catholic and Fordham professor. She took Budenz’s talks to heart about communism’s global menace. ‘I used to wonder if you kids would even have a country to grow up in,’ she would say.”
In his vast personal library Tony still kept a book that Budenz had autographed for his mother.
Among the many friends and acquaintances we’ve made on our journey through conservative politics Tony Dolan was among the easiest to like. His wealth of stories and Irish humor delivered with impeccable timing made a stop at his regular table at Georgetown’s Café Milano an hour or two to be treasured. The table (215) will always be Tony’s table, but no matter how full it is, the restaurant will now be empty without Tony.
A graduate of Yale, Tony Dolan’s interests were not limited to his encyclopedic knowledge of history and conservative thought. Unlike many of Washington, DC’s top tier players Tony served in the Army as an enlisted Spec 4 and when he found out I was an NRA rifle instructor he cross-examined me at length over the propriety of the Army’s switch from the 7.62×51mm NATO (.308) to 5.56×45 NATO rifle cartridge. Ever the conservative Tony was skeptical.
While Tony Dolan is most often associated in the public mind with his role in the Reagan White House he served in the Bush and Trump administrations and advised many of the leading conservative candidates of the later part of the 20th century and early 21st century.
Once meeting him at the Trump White House he observed to me with a chuckle that he had the same title he had held in the Reagan White House almost 40-years earlier, but that was OK, he was still in the fight.
The fight, as Tony Dolan knew better than most, and articulated better than anyone else, was not to be found in the day-to-day battles on Capitol Hill, it is between good and evil – the good of the liberty under God’s laws expressed in America’s founding documents, and the soul crushing evil of Communism and the other totalitarian systems that Tony Dolan battled with one of the sharpest pens of his generation.
Friends of Tony Dolan may call at the Money & King Funeral Home, 171 W. Maple Ave., Vienna, Va., on Friday, March 28th from 6–8 p.m. Tony’s funeral mass will take place at St. Mary’s Basilica in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday the 29th at 10: 30 a.m., a reception at Hummingbird will follow. The burial will take place at a later date at the family cemetery in Massachusetts.
O MOST powerful and glorious Lord God, the Lord of hosts, that rulest and commandest all things; Thou sittest in the throne judging right, and therefore we make our address to thy Divine Majesty in this our necessity, that thou wouldest take the cause into thine own hand, and judge between us and our enemies. Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come and help us; for thou givest not alway the battle to the strong, but canst save by many or by few. O let not our sins now cry against us for vengeance; but hear us thy poor servants begging mercy, and imploring thy help, and that thou wouldest be a defence unto us against the face of the enemy. Be thou our Saviour and mighty Deliverer, and be thou the Saviour and Deliverer of our departed friend, and your tireless servant-warrior, Anthony Rossi Dolan, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie’s ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for then-Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for retired Rep. Mac Thornberry, former Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
