Master of the Senate (224 page)

Leaking to
Newsweek
; “not very substantive”:
Reedy OH IV, p. 21; Reedy interview.
“We didn’t”:
Investigation of the Preparedness Program … Thirty-fifth Report: Interim Report on Defense Mobilization
, p. 15.
“This report”:
FWS-T
, Nov. 29;
Newsweek
, Dec. 3.
Foster’s letter:
NYHT
, Nov. 28, 29;
NYT, FWS-T
, Nov. 29.

Waiting for the cover:
Jenkins interview.
“Walter says”:
Rather to Johnson, Nov. 28.
“TOO MUCH BUTTER”:
Newsweek
, Dec. 3.
Getting Reedy out of town:
Reedy OH IV, pp. 21–24.
“Unfair”:
Jenkins, quoted in
NYHT
, Nov. 29.
“Doubletalk”:
NYT, NYHT
, Nov. 20.
“Just didn’t know”; “people”:
NYHT
, Dec. 2. Also see
NYT
, Dec. 3,
NYHT
, Dec. 7.
Friendly’s study:
WP
, May 12–17, 1952.

“Often criticized”:
McConaughy to Beshoar, June 19, 1953.
“Much ado”:
Blair to Beshoar, June 13, 1953, both SP.

Development of leadership:
Primarily Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, Vol. II, pp. 167–268, and Vols. I and II,
passim;
Galloway,
Legislative Process
, pp. 542–90; Matthews,
U.S. Senators
, pp. 118–46; Floyd M. Riddick,
Majority and Minority Leaders;
Alsop and Kintner, “Sly and Able: The Real Leader of the Senate, Jimmy Byrnes,”
SEP
, July 20, 1940.

Interviews particularly with Richard A. Baker, Neil MacNeil, Floyd M. Riddick, Donald A. Ritchie and Howard E. Shuman.

“Were generally”:
Byrd,
The Senate
, Vol. II, p. 187.
“No one”:
Wilson,
Congressional Government
, p. 147.
“No single”:
Walter J. Oleszek, “John Worth Kern: Portrait of a Floor Leader,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 8.
“Baronial”:
Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 1.
Lacked; “Priority”:
Riddick,
Senate Procedure
, p. 883.

Primarily:
Oleszek, “John Worth Kern,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 24. One study states: “Never before had the president’s party in the Senate intentionally elected a floor leader for the primary purpose of implementing an executive-initiated legislative program” (Margaret Munk, “Origin and Development of the Party Floor Leadership in the United States Senate,”
Capitol Studies
, Winter 1974).

“He roars”:
Alsop and Catledge, “Joe Robinson: The New Deal’s Old Reliable,”
SEP
, Sept. 26, 1936.
Ran it on behalf:
Donald Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson: The Good Soldier,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, pp. 74, 75. George Norris was to accuse Robinson of voting “contrary to his party’s policies” during the Coolidge Administration. During the Depression, Al Smith was to say, “He has given more aid to Herbert Hoover than any other Democrat.”
“A socialistic dole”; “the most humiliating”; “I know”:
Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, pp. 77–78. H. L. Mencken was to write that although Robinson “was still” the New Deal’s “spokesman on the floor of the Senate, and he roared and sweated for it every day, everyone knew that he was in the forefront of the opposition to it behind the arras, and the only question in doubt was whether he would ever summon up courage enough to denounce it in the open” (Mencken, “Hero or Hack,”
The American Mercury
, Dec. 1937).

“Congress doesn’t”:
Will Rogers, quoted in Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p.
“not interested”; “his loyalty”:
Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, pp. 86,
“Joe’s Job”; Huey Long “drove”:
Alsop and Catledge, “Joe Robinson: The New Deal’s Old Reliable,”
sep
, Sept. 26, 1936.
“He Did”; of Which:
Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
,” pp. 93, 83–84.

“Woe”; “no one”; “there remains”; “a large”:
William S. White, “Rugged Days for the Majority Leader,”
NYT Magazine
, July 3, 1949.

Forced; “Dear Alben”; “public humiliation”:
Ritchie, “Alben W. Barkley: The President’s Man,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, pp. 127–34.
“Real leader”:
Alsop and Kintner, “Sly and Able,”
SEP
, July 20, 1940.
Life
poll:
“Washington Correspondents Name Ablest Congressmen,”
Life
, March 20, 1939.
“Bumbling Barkley”:
Ritchie, “Alben Barkley,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 129. Barkley was to admit that that label stuck to him “like tar did to Br’er Rabbit.”

Salted; “as the unhappy”:
Alsop and Kintner, “Sly and Able,”
SEP
, July 20, 1940.

McKellar incident:
Ritchie, “Alben Barkley,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, pp. 142–43.
“Now he”:
Sen. Elbert Thomas of Utah, quoted in Ritchie, “Alben Barkley,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 148.
“I have nothing
”
Drury, Reedy interviews. A different version (“I didn’t have anything to threaten them with, and it wouldn’t have worked even if I had tried”) is given in Matthews, p. 126, quoting Truman,
Congressional Government
, p. 136.

“Taft is”:
White, Wallace, quoted in “Old Guard Supreme,”
New Republic
, Jan. 13, 1947.
Looked back; “Rearview”:
White,
The Taft Story
, p. 58; Drury interview.
“Boss”:
Time
, Jan. 1947, quoted in Robert Merry, “Robert A. Taft: A Study in the Accumulation of Legislative Power,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 177.
“No desire”:
Merry, “Robert Taft,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 174.

“Barrymore”:
Sidney Shallett, “The Senator Almost Got an Ulcer,”
Collier’s
, Jan. 14, 1950; Robert Albright,
W P
, Feb. 20, 1949.
“Formidable”; “worn”; “hostile”:
William S. White, “Rugged Days for the Majority Leader,”
NYT Magazine
, July 3, 1949.
Russell approved:
Evans and Novak,
LBJ: Exercise
, p. 40.
Caught between:
Krock,
NYT
, March 20, 1949.
“Ever more”; “rumors”:
“The Perennial Filibuster,”
New Republic
, April 18,
“It now”; little poems:
Shallett, “Senator Almost Got an Ulcer,”
Collier’s
, Jan. 14,
Without even:
Willard Shelton, “Battle in a Paper Bag,”
The Nation
, May 20, 1950.
Displaced-persons bill; “snake”:
“Everything but Liars,”
Newsweek
, March 20, 1950.
“Out of control”:
“Taft Holds the Key,”
New Republic
, May 22, 1950.

“Debating” empty chair:
MacNeil,
Dirksen
, p. 90.
In “a serious”:
Shallett, “Senator Almost Got an Ulcer,”
Collier’s
, Jan. 14, 1950.
The most unhappy:
Evans and Novak, p. 41.

One item:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, pp. 41–42.
Other than that:
Reedy interview.

Johnson’s feelings; staff would hear:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, pp. 106–11; Busby, Jenkins, Rowe interviews.
“Restlessness”:
Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, p. 106.
To wait:
Rowe interview.
“He told Russell”:
Goodwin, p. 107.

“With him”:
Darden interview.
Russell felt:
Fite,
Russell
, p. 266; Goldsmith,
Colleagues
, p. 23; Darden, Jordan interviews.
“And there”:
Darden interview.
“You could”:
Sparkman to Russell, Nov. 28, 1950; Russell to Sparkman, Dec. 1, 1950, VI A—Dictation Series, Personal Political Files, “Majority Leader,” Box 31, RBRL.

Solid on cloture:
Robert Albright, “Gallery Glimpses,”
W P
, Dec. 3, 1950.
“Perhaps yearning”:
Evans and Novak, p. 43.
“Amiable”:
Mellett,
WS
, Jan. 2, 1951.
Liberals behind O’Mahoney:
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 317;
WS
, Dec. 12, 1950.

“Johnson had”:
Robert Byrd, “Addresses on the History,”
CR
, Feb. 1, 1988, p. S 354.
“Once”; “eyebrows went”:
MacNeil interview.
“Simply”:
Evans and Novak, p. 39.
“Lyndon, you”:
Stennis OH.
“The world outside”:
Evans and Novak, p. 39.
Walking:
Goldsmith, p. 24.
Sparkman withdrawing:
AA-S
, Jan. 3, 1951.

“It is doubtful”:
Rovere and Schlesinger,
The General
, p. 5.

“The homecoming”:
Life
, April 30, 1951.
“The largest”:
Nixon, quoted in
Life
, April 23, 1951.
First seventy thousand:
Manchester,
American Caesar
, p. 648.
“A gesture”:
Life
, April 30, 1951.

“Most Americans”:
Life
, April 30, 1951.
“Stepped down”; “we heard God”; sobbing”; “reincarnation”:
Manchester,
American Caesar
, p. 661.
“A senior”:
White,
Citadel
, pp. 243–44.
“The only”:
Reedy OH IV, p. 7.
“[T]he adoring”:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, p. 58.
“One of”:
White,
Citadel
, p. 244.
“The greatest”:
Time
, April 30, 1951.

“Almost runaway”:
White,
Citadel
, p. 250.
“What was bad”:
Life
, April 9.
“Perhaps”:
White,
Citadel
, pp. 241–42.
“Popular”:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, p. 14.

“Absolutely”; “Boy”:
Reedy OH IV, p. 8.

“When the U.S.”:
Hugh Sidey, “Playing the Middle Octaves,”
Time
, Dec. 15, 1986.
“Rather amusing”:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, pp. 13, 14;Reedy OH IV, p. 4.

“Deep sense”:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, p. 15.
“Russell believed”:
Reedy OH IV, p. 5.
“He believed”:
Fite,
Russell
, p. 256.

“Anxious”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.
“We are entering”:
Time
, May 21, 1951.
“Whether closed”:
Fite, p. 257.
“I have been”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.

“Down from the Cross”:
Richard Rovere,
The New Yorker
, April 21, 1951.
“On the permanent”:
Rovere and Schlesinger, p. 184.
“For three”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.
“No man”:
Life
, May 14, 1951.
“I was operating”; “no policy”:
Rovere and Schlesinger, pp. 187, 188.
“It isn’t”:
Manchester,
American Caesar
, p. 667.
“I am not”; “quite a difference”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.

Johnson loaning Reedy, Cook, and Siegel:
Reedy, Cook, Siegel OHs; Reedy interview.
“I do not”:
Manchester,
American Caesar
, p. 669.
Lodge brought up:
Time
, May 14, 1951.
What if Mao:
Rovere and Schlesinger, pp. 238–40.
“If we”:
Manchester, p. 671.
“That doesn’t”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.
“Senator, I have asked you”:
Rovere and Schlesinger, p. 241; Manchester, p. 671.
“When General”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.
“Among themselves”:
Manchester, p. 670.

A compliment:
Fite, p. 259.
“The civilian”; “flat”:
Time
, May 14, 1951.
Marshall’s testimony:
Life
, May 21, 1951.

“Quiet, unruffled”:
White,
Citadel
, p. 246.
“It is possible”:
Rovere, “Letter from Washington,”
The New Yorker
, May 19, 1951.

“I am asking”; “compliment”:
Time
, May 28, 1951.
“Private”; “Frantic”; “iron”:
Fite, pp. 260–61.
“Every half”:
Rovere, “Letter from Washington,”
The New Yorker
, May 19, 1951.
“A careless”:
Fite, p. 260; Reedy interview.
“In doing so”; “Russell put”:
Time
, June 4, 1951.