The Passage of Power Excerpts by Robert Caro Lyrics
Sam Rayburn reacts to Kennedy winning the 1960 presidential nomination over LBJKennedy has 763. Sam Rayburn shut his eyes, and began to cry. He put his head down on a friend's chest, and tears ran down his cheeks. After a while, he sat up in his seat, squared his shoulders, lit a cigarette, and took a long puff."And perhaps annoucning the results; the amendment is unclear about that"The Constitution of The United States says that the Vice President shall preside over the Senate, "but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided." It says that in case of the President's "death. resignation) or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president." And, in regard to the powers of a Vice President, that is all it says*
* = The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1794 says that he "shall open" the envelopes containing the certifications from the various states of their electoral votes in presidential elections, but opening them (and perhaps announcing the results; the amendment is unclear about that) is his only function in this ceremony"Washington was a Kennedy town now"It wasn't only newspapermen who had stopped calling. Washington was a Kennedy town now; it wasn't a good idea for Lyndon Johnson to be able to say he had been talking with you. A friend who visited him in EOB 274 says, "I couldn't believe it, I sat there for an hour and the phone didn't ring." When old allies from Texas—who, not being familiar with vice presidential traditions, assumed that a Vice President would have an office in the White House—visited Washington, he was ashamed that he didn't, so he would bring that fact up himself, as if doing so made it less bad. Charlie Herring came by, and Johnson said, "You know, I feel like I've got nothing to do. I don't even have an office in the White House. Let's go out for a while." Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark of Texas, an old ally, was at home, and they dropped in on him "just to have something to do." Dropping by for another visit some months later, Herring found that nothing had changed. "He was completely at loose ends. He had nothing to do. He said 'We might as well get out and see the country.'" and in the middle of the day they drove down to Fairfax, Virginia, to see a facsimile of George Washington's willBobby Kennedy with his kidsOn weekends, there was, from this man who disliked being touched by adults, "a lot of physical affection," Kathleen says. "All the children would pile into my parents' bed and tickle each other; it was called 'tickle-tumble'. "On the sweeping lawns of the rambling Civil War mansion in McLean, Virginia, called "Hickory Hill," a place Bobby and Ethel had filled not only with the seven children but with a donkey, two horses, three ponies, five goats, ten ducks, rabbits (thirty-two one day, forty a few days later), snakes, a burro, a tortoise, hamsters, a cockatoo and a parakeet (and, for awhile, a sea lion in the swimming pool)—and seventeen servants—he and the boys would roll in the ground in playful wrestling matches, grunting ferociously, "exchanging," as a frequent visitor recalls, "terrible threads and mock punches" in a "Donnybrook that left everybody all laughed out and tearfully exhausted." If one of the children started crying, Bobby would hug him, saying soothingly, "Hush, now, Kennedys don't cry." Horace Busby sits with LBJ while he (=LBJ) falls asleepGoing upstairs after dinner, [LBJ] asked [Horace] Busby to sit in his bedroom until he had fallen asleep, and after the lights had been turned out, Busby did that, until, after about a half hour of silence, he thought it was safe to leave, and started tiptoeing toward the door.
“Buzz,” said Lyndon Johnson’s voice out of the darkness. “Buzz, is that you?” And when Buzz said that it was, the voice said, “Buzz, I’m not asleep yet.”
Returning to his chair, Buzz waited for a while longer, but again, when he tried to leave, Johnson asked, “Buzz, are you still there?” Busby assured him he was, and that he had just been walking over to the window to adjust a curtain. It took several more attempts, and several more “Buzz are you still theres?” before he finally made it out of the room. Busby, who loved him, didn’t mind waiting, he was to say. He had done it before, when Lyndon Johnson found it hard to get to sleep. “Anything I could do to gentle him down,” he says. “His mind just wouldn’t stop working, working, working”
* = The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1794 says that he "shall open" the envelopes containing the certifications from the various states of their electoral votes in presidential elections, but opening them (and perhaps announcing the results; the amendment is unclear about that) is his only function in this ceremony"Washington was a Kennedy town now"It wasn't only newspapermen who had stopped calling. Washington was a Kennedy town now; it wasn't a good idea for Lyndon Johnson to be able to say he had been talking with you. A friend who visited him in EOB 274 says, "I couldn't believe it, I sat there for an hour and the phone didn't ring." When old allies from Texas—who, not being familiar with vice presidential traditions, assumed that a Vice President would have an office in the White House—visited Washington, he was ashamed that he didn't, so he would bring that fact up himself, as if doing so made it less bad. Charlie Herring came by, and Johnson said, "You know, I feel like I've got nothing to do. I don't even have an office in the White House. Let's go out for a while." Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark of Texas, an old ally, was at home, and they dropped in on him "just to have something to do." Dropping by for another visit some months later, Herring found that nothing had changed. "He was completely at loose ends. He had nothing to do. He said 'We might as well get out and see the country.'" and in the middle of the day they drove down to Fairfax, Virginia, to see a facsimile of George Washington's willBobby Kennedy with his kidsOn weekends, there was, from this man who disliked being touched by adults, "a lot of physical affection," Kathleen says. "All the children would pile into my parents' bed and tickle each other; it was called 'tickle-tumble'. "On the sweeping lawns of the rambling Civil War mansion in McLean, Virginia, called "Hickory Hill," a place Bobby and Ethel had filled not only with the seven children but with a donkey, two horses, three ponies, five goats, ten ducks, rabbits (thirty-two one day, forty a few days later), snakes, a burro, a tortoise, hamsters, a cockatoo and a parakeet (and, for awhile, a sea lion in the swimming pool)—and seventeen servants—he and the boys would roll in the ground in playful wrestling matches, grunting ferociously, "exchanging," as a frequent visitor recalls, "terrible threads and mock punches" in a "Donnybrook that left everybody all laughed out and tearfully exhausted." If one of the children started crying, Bobby would hug him, saying soothingly, "Hush, now, Kennedys don't cry." Horace Busby sits with LBJ while he (=LBJ) falls asleepGoing upstairs after dinner, [LBJ] asked [Horace] Busby to sit in his bedroom until he had fallen asleep, and after the lights had been turned out, Busby did that, until, after about a half hour of silence, he thought it was safe to leave, and started tiptoeing toward the door.
“Buzz,” said Lyndon Johnson’s voice out of the darkness. “Buzz, is that you?” And when Buzz said that it was, the voice said, “Buzz, I’m not asleep yet.”
Returning to his chair, Buzz waited for a while longer, but again, when he tried to leave, Johnson asked, “Buzz, are you still there?” Busby assured him he was, and that he had just been walking over to the window to adjust a curtain. It took several more attempts, and several more “Buzz are you still theres?” before he finally made it out of the room. Busby, who loved him, didn’t mind waiting, he was to say. He had done it before, when Lyndon Johnson found it hard to get to sleep. “Anything I could do to gentle him down,” he says. “His mind just wouldn’t stop working, working, working”