Word: rayburnisms
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...vote, party lines dissolved: 138 Republicans joined with 205 Democrats (and two minor party members) to pass, the bill, 345-to-18. (The dissenters were all G.O.P. bitter-enders.) The overwhelming vote was due to: 1) educational spadework by the Treasury Department; 2) sure-footed maneuvering by Speaker Sam Rayburn; 3) sober second thoughts by Republican House leaders. The nonpartisan character of the vote prompted a happy comment from President Truman: Congress would really be ready for the peace treaty...
Finally, bald, persuasive Speaker Sam Rayburn went down to the floor, solemnly read a letter from President Truman: "I regard the pending measure . . . as of the first order of importance for the success of my administration." With the party whip thus cracked. Democrats held firm, passed the bill 239 to 153, sent it to a none-too-friendly Senate where hearings, debate and outcry would start this week...
...Harry Truman's appointments were with ailing Harry Hopkins, who gave him a long fill-in on Yalta and on foreign policy in general. The President also made another swift visit to Congress, where he had lunch with Speaker Sam Rayburn, and shook the hands of 350 Congressmen and a handful of page boys...
With hardly a care on his mind, Harry Truman had left his spacious, picture-lined office in the Senate Office Building, walked over to visit Speaker Sam Rayburn in the Capitol. Others had already gathered in the Speaker's office: White House Assistant James M. Barnes and House Parliamentarian Lew Deschler. It was the kind of company Harry Truman liked. None of them was a policymaker from the high levels of the Roosevelt Administration. In his two and a half months as Vice President, Harry Truman had not been invited to sit in with the policymakers; he had continued...
...Rayburn had just poured the Vice President a drink of bourbon and tap water when there was a call from the White House. Steve Early was on the wire. As he listened, Harry Truman's face turned pale. He left abruptly, saying not a word. But his sudden action spoke loudly enough. Every man in that room knew that Franklin Roosevelt's health had been swiftly declining. Said Sam Rayburn before the Vice President got to the door: "We'll all stand by you, Harry...