Tom Korologos, Sherpa of Republican Nominees, Dies at 91

As a White House official and later as a lobbyist, he guided about 300 nominees through their confirmation hearings, including Supreme Court justices.

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Tom Korologos at the United States embassy in Brussels in 2005, when he was ambassador to Belgium. Mr. Korologos, who had shepherded numerous presidential nominees through their Senate confirmation hearings, received a friendly reception at his own.

Tom Korologos, an influential Republican lobbyist and adviser whose specialty was shepherding presidential nominees through their Senate confirmation hearings, died on July 26 at his home in Washington. He was 91.

His son, Philip, confirmed the death.

Mr. Korologos (pronounced core-a-LOW-gus) was a strategist, hand-holder and stage manager for about 300 nominees to the United States Supreme Court, the cabinet and other positions in the federal government. He coached them in the politics of the confirmation process, which grew more contentious over the course of his lifetime; squired them to meetings with senators; counseled them to speak with caution; and conducted tough mock hearings that he called “murder boards.”

“I fire the rottenest, most insulting questions in the world at them,” he told The New York Times in 1986.

He was the successful sherpa for major figures like William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia when they were nominated to the Supreme Court, and once again for Judge Rehnquist when he was named chief justice; Nelson A. Rockefeller as vice president; Edwin Meese III as attorney general; Alexander M. Haig Jr. as secretary of state; and Donald H. Rumsfeld both times he was nominated for secretary of defense.

Mr. Korologos developed his expertise in Senate confirmations while working from 1971 to 1975 as special assistant to President Richard M. Nixon, and later as deputy assistant for legislative affairs under both Mr. Nixon and President Gerald R. Ford. He continued that work, without pay, as the president of Timmons & Company, a lobbying firm he helped start, whose clients included Eastern Airlines, Major League Baseball and Anheuser-Busch.

ImageMr. Korologos, right, conferred with Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, President Gerald R. Ford’s running mate, at a platform committee meeting in advance of the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Mo.Credit…George Tames/The New York Times

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