Saralee Says
Long before he was tagged with the chant “Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” Lyndon Johnson was one of the most powerful, progressive, and manipulative people to ever serve in the United States Senate. Johnson lived one of the most colorful political lives during the last century and Robert A. Caro’s current book, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Knopf) which deservedly won the National Book Award last month, is fascinating reading.
As a political junkie, I eagerly awaited this book that is the companion to Caro’s other books about Johnson. The first book, The Path to Power is about Johnson’s life as a young man in Texas and the second, Means to Ascent is about his service in the House of Representatives. Master of the Senate covers the years Johnson served in the United States Senate.
My confession for our book club is that I “read” this book by listening to it on audio. What do you think about that? Did I really “read” the book? Master of the Senate turned out to be the perfect choice for me because so much of the book was about Johnson’s manipulation of Southern senators regarding Civil Rights and there I was, driving through Tennessee, Alabama and Florida hearing the narrator talk about how racist many of our leaders were.
My next question is: What do you remember about LBJ? I remember Kennedy’s election and assassination but not as well I remember Johnson’s presidency. Listening to this book helped me understand why Johnson was selected as Vice President — because he was the most powerful leader in the Senate in more than a century. As someone who is a product of the sixties, most of my memories of Johnson pertain to Civil Rights and Vietnam. What are yours?
One thing I learned is that Johnson loved his wife but does not appear during his years in the Senate to have treated her with respect. Lady Bird stayed with him as many political spouses stay with their mates who have affairs. To me, Johnson treated his wife in a condescending way, ordering her about and chastising her for not being as glamorous as other Washington women. I wanted her to tell him off and ditch him for someone who would treat her better but marriages are private or should be. As much respect as I had for Johnson as a legislative boss, I had even more disrespect for him regarding his relationship with women. Do you think there is an excuse for chauvinistic behavior?
Finally, do the means justify the ends? Was it OK for Johnson to make one senator feel like he was his closest friend while stabbing him in the back the way he did Senator Hubert Humphrey? I confess, I thought if the senators were dumb enough to believe Johnson’s words, then they deserved what they got.
Larry’s Language
In days of old, public officials were well thought of and it was a joyous occasion when they would return home. Never a hostile question was heard. Think Congressman Joe Evins, Senator Howard Baker, and President Dwight Eisenhower. But that was in the days before Rush Limbaugh, Phil Valentine, Steve Gill, Crossfire and similar media circuses. I still love politics — despite the trench warfare way it is carried out today — and firmly believe our great nation is always better when people like Lyndon Johnson devote their heart and soul to their vision of the betterment of mankind. But then I am an old-fashioned bleeding heart and very out of date.
Lyndon Baines Johnson was a master of the old system but he came to power just as that system was changing. Johnson served 12 years in the House of Representatives before his election to the United States Senate in the late 1940s, just as television began to dominate our lives. Johnson, with his exaggerated facial features and his larger than life personality, was not ideally designed for the media. He was always more of a backroom, cloakroom, slap on the back, buy you a drink, (or more likely demand a drink from you) kind of negotiator and wheeler-dealer.
Lyndon Johnson suffered from massive ego and Shakespearean size ambition. This third installment of the political biography of Johnson by Robert Caro covers his ten years of leadership in the United States Senate. It is an almost unbelievable story of how the new guy seizes power from the old bulls with their consent and changes Washington political life. Johnson was the Tom Daschle and Trent Lott of his day except he had far more power and believed in using it every day and every minute. Part of the beauty of Caro’s book is that you actually get to read in detail how Johnson changed votes and manipulated political lives.
Lyndon Johnson took the Majority Leader position that nobody wanted in the early 1950s because it had no power. By force of his own ego and ambition, Johnson created the power of that job because of his love for country and desire to move the United States Senate into the twentieth century. Oh, and of course, because Johnson wanted to be President.
How did this brash, uncouth newcomer do it? Primarily through leisurely Sunday dinners, courting first the Southern segregationist Senators as allies, then by socializing with the Northern liberals to the point where they secretly believed he was a political friend. Through constant personal stroking, Johnson forged coalitions in the Senate that had more to do with personality than issues.
The glare of television, of course, was a constant problem for a political genius like Johnson who relied upon back room deals and personal in your face confrontation. As television became controlling in politics, Johnson’s star faded as he lost the Democratic nomination to John F. Kennedy, a master of media, in 1960 and lost the battle for hearts and minds over Vietnam. But that is the subject for Robert Caro’s next book on LBJ.
Coming up next is One for the Money by Janet Evanovich.
