Posted on 11/28/2002 12:37:04 PM PST by Torie
As civil rights leader Roy Wilkins succinctly put it: "With Johnson, you never quite knew if he was out to lift your heart or your wallet."This is what makes the Democrats the political party of choice among sociopaths.
What a great line!
Caro is unashamedly liberal. That being said it is human nature to project our hopes and good will on to others that we like or support. If we like a particular leader than his actions reflect upon us as we support him. It is basic instinct, self preservation, to then put the best appearance forward of those to whom we attach. This can be seen in extreme cases like Clinton defenders with their bunker mentality support of the man through overwhelming evidence of his malfeasance. So with Caro he sees good in the results of Johnson's career. He is able to see the real character of the man yet tries to redeem him. Not surprising. Still Caro is a good writer and a researcher of intense ambition. He is worth the time it takes to read him.
Johnson's White House aide John P. Roche wrote years after LBJ died that he could not make Johnson understand that Ho Chi Minh was a dedicated Leninist. Johnson, Roche recalls, kept asking, "'What does Ho want?' as if Ho were a mayor of Chicago holding out for five new post offices." Such a question could only come from a man for whom politics is merely a nihilistic series of deals, utterly without any principled ground.
Fascinating. The one thing that completely befuddled Johnson was a man who wanted power for the sake of a deeply held principle, even if that principle was an evil ones. In the end politics is about principles. Johnson's number one principle was self-advancement at all cost, and feeding his own perverse carnal desires for sex and power.
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Reagan had an organ transplant flown to the patient in a fighter jet. Have you run across that, or am I mistaken?
No doubt you have heard the story of Frances Green from California.
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I an not aware of either of the stories. However, knowing Reagan, the first story could very well be true.
Frances Green was an 83 year-old woman who lived in California. She lived in a bad neighborhood, and survived on Social Security. For eight years she had been sending perhaps a dollar a month to the Republican National Committee. She did it because she loved Ronald Reagan.
One day in the mail she received a very nice fund-raising letter from the RNC as she was on their list from her tiny donations. It "invited" her to meet the President at the White House. Of course you had to be a donor of considerable size to rate that privilege. Frances Green didn't notice that part. She assumed that the RNC was inviting her to meet President Reagan because of her faithful giving all these years.
Frances Green was thrilled. So she took every cent she had an purchased a four-day train ticket to Washington. She could not afford a room so she slept in a seat in coach. She reached the White House on the appointed day and got in line with the tourists. She was refused entrance because her name was not on the list.
Frances Green was confused and her spirits were crushed. Didn't they understand that she had been invited? Fortunately, an executive from the Ford Motor Company was also standing in line, and got her story. He asked her to stay in town for a few days while he did what he could for her.
The executive spoke to some of Reagan's staff, and the story was run up the chain of command to Reagan's personal secretary Kathy Osborne, who told the Old Man. Reagan said to bring her in and they set the time.
The Ford executive gave Frances Green a tour of the White House, but was worried that she would never get to meet the President. Ed Meese had resigned that day and the White House was a bit chaotic.
They stood outside the Oval Office as the NSC and various Generals walked out. Reagan saw them standing there and motioned Ms. Greene inside.
He said: "Frances! Those darn computers, they fouled up again. If I'd have known you were coming I'd have come out there to get you myself."
And he sat down with her and gave her time on that busy day. And that says more about his character than anything else.
If that doesn't put a lump in your throat you need to check your pulse. :)
If Richard M. Nixon had REALLY wanted to be a crook, he would have paid Lyndon Johnson to teach him how!
Exactly. To LBJ, politics was like negotiating over a used car. Principle was completely outside of his understanding.
I hope the redneck is burning in hell.
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