Word: rayburnisms
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Powerful. Sam Rayburn's job has often been called the "second most powerful job in the nation." From the days of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, the German Lutheran pastor who presided over Congress' first sessions in New York, Speakers of the House have written their will and words into U.S. history. Some of the mighty...
...Compromiser. No one, in the whole 155-year history of the Speakership, held it in a more difficult time than Sam Rayburn. Some Washington observers have called him "the greatest compromiser since Henry Clay." But Henry Clay compromised on issues; Sam Rayburn works to bring about compromise among factions. His technique is something to watch...
...approach is disarmingly personal; when all other arguments fail, he says to a recalcitrant legislator: "You will be doing me a big personal favor if you vote for this." His difficulties are immense. The White House has been taking on more & more power for a decade. Sam Rayburn's job is to translate into Congressional action the will of a President who has frequently regarded Congress with cheerful contempt...
Most notable piece of Rayburn generalship occurred in the summer of 1941, when Congress wrestled over extending the one-year life of the draft. For weeks it seemed certain Congress would defeat the bill. Sam Rayburn sweated day & night, persuading, cajoling, pleading with the members. Congressmen worried desperately over the political effect of the bill on mothers & fathers. But Sam Rayburn was convinced that defeat of the bill would be disastrous to the U.S. When the day for the vote arrived, Sam Rayburn was in a state of honest mental anguish; neither he nor anyone else knew for certain...
...leadership that brought Sam Rayburn through that crisis was grounded in experience: 31 years in the House (only two have served longer: Illinois's Sabath and North Carolina's Doughton) ; 25 years on the Interstate Commerce Committee (five as its chairman); and four years as majority leader before he ascended to the Speakership...