Word: rayburnisms
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...Democratic leaders of both chambers to his office for weekly instructions. This made them political lieutenants of the President. Yet Congress could rebel, as when he tried to pack the Supreme Court. Strong congressional leaders still carried heavy weight after F.D.R., notably Lyndon Johnson in the Senate and Sam Rayburn in the House, but they held a more cooperative attitude toward the White House. Declared Rayburn at one point...
Tough, smart and profane, he ranks with Henry Clay, Thomas Reed and Sam Rayburn among the most powerful Speakers ever. A bred-in-the-bone Republican from Illinois, he was first elected to the House in 1872-a century ago-and served a total of 46 years...
Similarity, the personality of Johnson is only the most colorful and powerful of many. When reading Halberstam's book, we should not permit Johnson's gaudy figure to obscure the Image of his staff. Sam Rayburn described than best. When his good friend Lyndon came to him after the 1960 election, gushing over the brilliance of the new Cabinet, the shrowd old Speaker said, "Well, Lyndon, you may be right and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I'd feel a whole let better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff...
Again as in all proper tragedies, there are choruses to sound the alarum on the McNamara Rostow-Bundys, including old Senate Majority Leader Sam Rayburn ("I'd feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff once"). There was also plenty of handwriting on the walls. As early as 1954, General Matthew Ridgway had drawn up a report indicating that if the U.S. wanted to follow France into Indochina the price would be between 500,000 and 1,000,000 men tied down to a prolonged guerrilla...
...problem of the War is one of disbelief as well as of political expediency; it is difficult for officials to be affected by the facts even when they have access to them. Vietnam is a world away from Washington. After all the Rayburn Building, with its marble fountains, steamrooms, and bronze eagles, cost three times as much as the entire North Vietnamese electrical system