Master of the Senate (217 page)

“Archaically”:
White,
Citadel
, pp. 72, 73.
“Was peculiar”; “chat”:
White, pp. 68–70.

“A oneness”; “for all”:
White,
Citadel
, pp. 74, 78.
“Walk as a body:
A vivid picture of the southerners marching into the Chamber is in Drury,
A Senate Journal
, p. 162.
“The South”:
Steele interview.
Had allies:
Baker,
American in Washington
, pp. 154–56; Shuman OH, interview.

“We seldom”:
Drury, p. 196.
“Hell”:
Drury, p. 169.
Leaving”; “warning”:
Drury, p. 167.
“Regardless”:
Drury, pp. 138–41.

“Happily”:
McCullough,
Truman
, p. 468.
Homebuilding:
Phillips,
The 1940s
, p. 347. In Chicago alone, McCullough says, “there were reportedly 100,000 homeless veterans” (
Truman
, p. 470).
Other Truman programs:
Phillips, pp. 347–49.

Went further on race:
Phillips,
The 1940s
, pp. 346–47; McCullough, p. 586.
Thirty-one:
Phillips, p. 347.
“Congressmen”:
Time
, Dec. 24, 1945.

“Rewriting”:
USN & WR
, March 15, 1946.

The Senate stood:
Baker,
American in Washington
, pp. 151–52; Byrd, Vol. I, p. 586; Josephy, p. 366.
“My very”; “when the mob”:
McCullough, pp. 588, 589.
Special message:
Phillips,
The 1940s
, pp. 349–51.
“The crime”:
McCullough, p. 587.
“A lynching”:
Donovan,
Conflict and Crisis
, p. 354.
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner:
McCullough, p. 588.

“The inefficiency”:
Strout,
New Republic
, March 18, 1946.
“The life”; “the people”:
Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?”
SEP
, Oct. 6, 1945.
“The Senate’s”:
Baker,
American in Washington
, p. 142.
“For generations”; “breaking down”:
Fortune
, Feb. 1952.
“For years the House diligently”:
Baker,
American in Washington
, p. 153.
“Never”:
Matthews, p. 6.
“I’ve never”:
Barkley, quoted in
Pathfinder
, Feb. 11, 1948.

“Run by”:
McCullough, p. 661.
“No, we’re”:
Manchester,
Glory
, p. 459.
“A mob”; “Majority to hades!”; “we are”; “Dear Dago”; “It was cloture”:
I. F. Stone, “Swastika over the Senate,”
The Nation
, Feb. 9, 1946.
“I don’t like you”:
NYT
, Sept. 5, 1977.
“Ten thousand”; “Typically”; “There is”:
I. F. Stone, “Swastika over the Senate,”
The Nation
, Feb. 9, 1946.
“This is”:
I. F. Stone,
The Nation
, 1948.

“Communistic”; “un-American”:
McCullough,
Truman
, p. 667.
“There’s not”:
Bass and Thompson,
Ol’ Strom
, p. 188.

The material in this chapter is drawn from Volumes I and II of
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
.

The description of Johnson and the circle of young New Dealers is based on the author’s interviews with the following members of that circle: Benjamin V. Cohen, Thomas G. Corcoran, Abe Fortas, Arthur (Tex) Goldschmidt, Elizabeth and James H. Rowe, and Elizabeth Wickenden.

The description of Johnson’s relationship with his office staff is based on the author’s interviews with the following members of that staff: Roland Bibolet, Yolanda Boozer, Horace W. Busby, John Connally, Nadine Brammer Eckhardt, Ashton Gonella, Jack Gwyn, Charles Herring, Walter Jenkins, Sam Houston Johnson, Eugene Latimer, Margaret Mayer (the same Margaret Mayer who was also, at different times, a journalist), J. J. (Jake) Pickle, Mary Rather, George Reedy, James H. Rowe, Gerald W. Siegel, O. J. Weber, Warren Woodward, and Mary-Louise Glass Young.

It is also based on the author’s interviews with the following persons who observed Johnson’s relationship with his staff: Richard Bolling, Thomas G. Corcoran, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Bryce Harlow, Welly Hopkins, Joe M. Kilgore, Frank McCulloch, Daniel
McGillicuddy, Dale Miller, Edward Puls, Benjamin H. Read, Harry Schnibbe, Howard Shuman, Stuart Symington, George Tames, and Harold Young. And with journalists Rowland Evans, Neil MacNeil, Sarah McClendon, Hugh Sidey, John Steele, and Alfred Steinberg.

It is based as well on oral history interviews, many of them with the same persons, conducted by the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, the Senate Historical Office, and other institutions; on the intraoffice memoranda found in many different files in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library; and on books and magazine articles cited individually below when they are quoted directly.

Bunton clan:
Caro,
Path
, Chapters 1 and 3.
“Commanding”:
Caro, p. 4.
“If you”:
Cox, quoted in Caro, p. 3.
“Afterward”:
Davie,
Foreign Observer’s Viewpoint
, p. 8.
“Exceptional”:
Davie,
The Observer
, July 18, 1965.
Santa Claus incident:
Busby interview.

“He just”:
John Skuce, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon
, p. 213.
“A mountain”:
Benjamin Read interview.
Weight:
Dr. Willis Hurst interview.
“You could”:
Tames interview.
“Fun”:
Elizabeth Rowe, in Caro,
Path
, p. 453.
“Never a dull”:
Fortas, in Caro, pp. 454–55.
Take his ball:
Edwards, SHJ, in Caro, p. 71.
Sleeping at table:
Eliot Janeway, Elizabeth Rowe interviews.
“If he’d”:
Redford, in Caro, p. 76.

“Always repeating”:
SHJ interview.
“What convinces”:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 124.
“Revving up”:
Clark interview.
“Got bigger”:
Donald Oresman interview.
“Let it fly”:
Goodwin,
Remembering America
, p. 258.
“I want to”:
Sidey, “Way Out There in Vietnam, He Can’t See ’Em or Hear ’Em,”
Life
, June 3, 1966.

Pissing:
Lucas interview.
Urinating:
Bolling, Busby, Reedy interviews.
“Jumbo”:
Caro,
Path
, p. 155; SHJ interview.
“And shaking”:
Walton interview.
“Have you”; “crude”:
Bolling interview; Bolling, quoted in Miller, p. 541.

Relationship with Latimer, Jones:
Caro,
Path
, pp. 229–40.
“Apparently”:
Goodwin,
Remembering America
, pp. 256–58.
“Lubriderm”; inhaler:
For example, Busby, Gonella, Mary-Louise Young interviews.

Harsh lesson:
Caro,
Means
, p. 128.
Trying for Appropriations:
Caro,
Path
, p. 541.
“The only”:
Garner, quoted in Caro,
Path
, p. 317.

“No Democrat”:
Douglas,
Fullness of Time
, p. 205.
The plaque:
Steinberg,
Sam Rayburn
, p. 236.

Johnson and his staff:
Interviews listed above; also Mooney,
LBJ
, Chapter 5 and
passim;
Miller, pp. 533–57; Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, pp. 277–81.
Roosevelt imitation:
Busby, Jenkins interviews.
“Johnson created”:
Connally interview.
Day Roosevelt died:
Busby interview.
Johnson had not:
Steinberg,
Sam Rayburn
, p. 226.
“You felt”:
L. E. Jones interview.
“That”:
Pickle interview.

Gonella’s strategy:
Gonella interview.
“That’s forty-five”:
Busby interview.
“His rages”:
Bolling interview; Bolling quoted in Miller, p. 214.
Latimer’s map:
Latimer interview.
“You’ve poisoned”:
Mooney,
LBJ
, p. 85; Busby interview.
“I didn’t get”:
Nellie Connally, quoted in Russell,
Lady Bird
, p. 135.
“Had to be”:
Gonella interview.
Ordering women’s lives:
Boozer, Gonella interviews.
“Well, I see”; “A little windy”; “he was”:
Boozer, quoted in Miller, p. 536.
“Why don’t”:
Steinberg,
San Johnson’s Boy
, p. 280.
“I don’t”:
Busby interview.
“Everybody”:
Gonella interview.
“There wasn’t”:
Jones interview.
“Like a slave”:
Sidey interview.
Asleep in the bathtub:
Puls, quoted in Caro,
Path
, p. 496.
“Loyalty”:
Halberstam, “Lyndon,”
Esquire
, Aug. 1972. Another version was given by Hubert Humphrey to Merle Miller: “Mr. Johnson always said, ‘I want a guy to be 150 percent loyal, kiss my ass in Macy’s window and stand up and say, “Boy, wasn’t that sweet”’” (Miller, p. 542).

Connally had:
Connally, Busby, Jenkins interviews.
Pleading with Harlow:
Harlow interview.
“I can’t”:
Gwyn, in Caro,
Path
, p. 118.
“It was”:
James Rowe interview.

“Well, I”; Inaugural Ball tickets:
Woodward interview.
Forcing Connally to return:
Connally, Busby, Jenkins interviews.

Marlin meeting:
Oltorf interview. A somewhat different version, in which Johnson is asking only for the Finance Committee, was given by Oltorf in his OH, but the version he gave in the interview was confirmed by an interview with John Connally.

Telephoning Hayden; Hayden’s reply; “Tendered”:
Hayden to Johnson, Nov. 18, 1948, Box 45, LBJA CF; Connally, Jenkins interviews. And see Woodward to Jenkins, Dec. 3, Box 61, LBJA CF.
Asked the Speaker:
Johnson to Rayburn, Dec. 2, 1948.
And Rayburn did:
Rayburn to Barkley, Dec. 8, 1948, Papers of Tom C. Clark, Box 48, LBJ(1), HSTL; Jenkins interview.
“Put in”:
Johnson to Corcoran, Dec. 15, 1948; Corcoran interview.
“I want very much”; “since Texas”:
Johnson to McKellar, Johnson to Barkley, both Nov. 13, 1948; Johnson to Corcoran,
undated, with attached Johnson to McKellar, Dec. 22, 1948—all Box 48, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL. Also, Johnson to McKellar, Nov. 19, 1948, Box 49, LBJA SN. Trying to enlist Tom Connally’s support for Appropriations, Johnson wrote him expressing “my intense interest in being assigned to Appropriations,” and then including Agriculture and Armed Services among “other committees for which I would like to be kept in mind,” but Johnson’s staffers explain that that letter—and a similar one to Barkley (a copy of which Johnson sent to Connally)—were really intended only as “a sop” to make Connally think he was taking his advice seriously (Johnson to Connally, Dec. 12, Box 49, LBJA SF; Johnson to Barkley, Box 49, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL; Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins interviews).

Parking encounter:
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, pp. 276–77; Carpenter, “The Whip from Texas,”
Collier’s
, Feb. 17, 1951.
Senate’s response:
Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Rather interviews.
Pro forma:
For example, McKellar to Johnson, Dec. 23, McMahon to Johnson, Dec. 24, Box 49, LBJA SF. As late as Dec. 27, Tydings replied to Johnson’s request with a polite note (Tydings to Johnson, Dec. 27, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF). In an interview thereafter—apparently that same day—Johnson realized that Tydings was not really intending to help (Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins interviews).
Barkley’s letter:
Barkley to Johnson, Nov. 27, 1948, Box 52, LBJA SN.
“Of course”:
Rayburn to Johnson, Dec. 8, 1948, Box 48, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL.
Showed him:
Busby, Connally interviews.
“Your letter”:
E. Chance to Johnson, Dec. 29, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF.
“The trouble”:
Busby, Jenkins interviews.
“I am pleased”:
Hayden to Johnson, Dec. 18, 1948, Sen. 81A-F15, Rules and Administration (402), NA.
Extra room:
Busby, Jenkins interviews; Hayden to Gillette, Jan. 3, 1949, Sen. 81A-F15, Rules and Administration (402), NA. From other senators, Johnson received, in answer to his committee-assignment requests,
pro forma
replies to “do everything I can to help you.” For example, O’Mahoney to Johnson, Dec. 23, 1948; Tydings to Johnson, Dec. 27, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF.

Johnson in doorway:
Jenkins interview; Jenkins, quoted in Miller, p. 141. Jenkins repeated Johnson’s remarks to Busby at the time (Busby interview).

“Watch”:
Busby interview.

“Seemed to
sense
”:
Baker,
Wheeling and Dealing
, p. 87.
“One on one”:
Latimer interview.
People had been saying this since college:
Caro,
Path
, p. 177.
“The knack”:
Brown, quoted in Caro, p. 552.
“Operated best”:
Reedy interview.