Word: rayburn
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...hundreds of other dignitaries from all over the U.S. At the door of the church, William ("Fishbait") Miller, longtime chief doorkeeper of the House, greeted the distinguished mourners and quietly ushered them to their seats. Out front, an overflow crowd of the friends and neighbors of Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn waited in the street...
...casket under a mantle of deep red roses. "Whatever was great and noble in his life shall abide forever," said the Rev. Bernard Braskamp, chaplain of the House. "We are not saying farewell, only good night." Elder H. G. Ball, the Primitive Baptist Church pastor who had baptized Sam Rayburn just five years ago, intoned the eulogy. Then, while the organ played America, the Beautiful, six of Mister Sam's lifelong friends carried him away...
...what made Sam Rayburn so remarkable was probably not these qualities, but his ability to combine them with a profound awareness of what power was and how to use it. His contribution to the job of running the tremendously awkward machinery of a fragmented and stubborn House was actually a very new one, for he introduced to the Speakership an entirely different politics of control. His great predecessors-men like Cannon and "Czar" Reed-were largely parliamentary tyrants. Rayburn was more, because he was shrewd enough to realize that stamping on all Congressmen is nowhere near so effective as encouraging...
That was Sam Rayburn's accomplishment, and not even the memory of the sharp, benign figure who presided at party conventions will be missed so much. His successor will most likely be John McCormack, who will soon experience the overwhelming loneliness of the speaker, who must, often sympathizing neither with the President nor with his chamber, act to reconcile them both. Rayburn sat in that isolated chair for 18 years, trying at once to legislate and to preserve his integrity and humanity; and he was successful...
...Kennedy does not really expect to get all or even most of the programs he wants in the coming Congress (in particular, he will miss Sam Rayburn's savvy help). But as his bills travel along the legislative path, Kennedy intends to note well who votes for what, then lay his prestige on the line by taking the issues to the nation during the 1962 campaign...