Word: johnson
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Connally's first advice when Johnson became President was that he should set about ridding his Administration of Kennedy loyalists. Said he: "They think you're a hillbilly, a hillbilly from the hill country, and they'll never accept you." When he pressed the advice, Johnson only stared at him coldly. Connally never followed Johnson's tactic of trying to win the love of his enemies. In retrospect he says: "They made his life miserable. He wasted four years trying to win them over...
Connally first publicly broke with his political godfather when he openly opposed Johnson's Public Accommodations Law, which outlawed racial discrimination in hotels, restaurants and other public places. He also refused to spend some of Johnson's pet poverty program funds allocated to Texas. The wires between the White House and the Austin statehouse hummed. Johnson at one point badly needed Connally's support for a project but the Governor would not talk to him; the President phoned a startled Congressman Gonzalez at midnight and asked him to persuade the prodigal proteg?...
...their feuds were family quarrels; they remained cronies through it all. In October 1967 George Christian called upon Connally in Texas and told him that Johnson had secretly decided not to run for another term. Lady Bird Johnson was the only other person to know. They prepared a draft of a withdrawal announcement for the January 1968 State of the Union message, but Connally thought the timing was inappropriate and Johnson held back. When the announcement came in March, Johnson confided immediately to Connally that he regretted the move, and continued to look for ways to retain his office...
Most of the Government's case rested on information provided by Jake Jacobsen, a Texas lawyer who was once an aide in the Johnson White House and who had long been Connally's friend. Jacobsen faced numerous charges of fraud and perjury. In plea bargaining, these charges were dropped; but he pleaded guilty to a single count of bribery and agreed to testify against Connally. He maintained that during a talk in Connally's office at the Treasury Department on April 28, 1971, Connally asked for money for himself in return for his help in persuading President...
...details. Williams also emphasized that Jacobsen, on other occasions, had admitted perjury. Cumulatively, this eroded Jacobsen's credibility and enhanced Connally's. Perhaps no less important was the parade of celebrated witnesses who testified to Connally's integrity. They included: the Rev. Billy Graham, Lady Bird Johnson and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk...