Word: barkley
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...Alben Barkley the scene was familiar: the high-ceilinged room, and the big man propped up in the plain mahogany bed, his tremendous shoulders bulging his pa jama coat. In seven years as majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Kentucky's Barkley had talked with President Roosevelt literally hundreds of times, at all hours and in many places, including the President's bedroom...
House. But last week Mr. Roosevelt held the conference in his bedroom. The other leaders-Vice President Wallace, Speaker Rayburn, House Majority Leader John McCormack-were already there when Alben Barkley walked...
...Bedroom. The President was jovial. He announced cheerfully he had decided to veto the new tax bill. He proceeded to read excerpts from his veto message. A three-against-one argument promptly boiled up. While Wallace sat silent, Barkley, Rayburn and McCormack vigorously tried to persuade the President to change his mind. A veto, they argued, would simply mean throwing away more than two billion dollars in revenue. Why not let this bill become law without his signature? A veto would stir up fresh bitterness in an already restless and resentful Congress...
...debate grew detailed. Leader Barkley nailed the President's false classification of social-security taxes as general revenue. Bringing up his point against the timber tax, Mr. Roosevelt reminded the leaders that he is a treegrower himself. Politely but firmly, Barkley declared that the President's annual crop of quick-growing Christmas "bushes" cannot be compared with the once-a-generation harvest of slow-growing commercial timber...
...standout fact about Congress last week was that it was virtually leaderless, and hence thoroughly confused. In the Senate, bumbling Democratic Leader Alben Barkley, worried over almost certain defeat in Kentucky next November, was completely incapable of holding rebellious Southern Democrats in line. On the Republican side, there was an active behind-the-scenes struggle for the powers of Minority Leader Charles McNary, still ill in Fort Lauderdale...