Word: rayburnisms
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...thar." Since 1939 he has represented the hill-and-dale Second District, which also boasts such place names as Morning Sun, Evening Shade and Oil Trough. Stocky (5 ft. 8 in., 180 Ibs.), gracious Wilbur Mills has a first-rate fiscal mind, is a Rayburn protege, ranks high on the list of possible future Speakers. But he is in a dangerous political situation: with Arkansas due to lose two Representatives after the 1960 census. Mills cannot risk being gerrymandered out of Congress by a legislature under the segregationist thumb of Governor Orval Faubus. Mills therefore has recently taken a strong...
...does with all young Democratic Congressmen, Rayburn took Mills in hand early, gave fatherly advice and counsel. "Don't try to go too fast," he says. "Learn your job." Or: "Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about." Or still again: "If you want to get along, go along." By that he does not mean blindly sticking to the party line. He does mean living by the manners and morals...
House as an institution. "The House is the greatest jury on earth," says Sam Rayburn. In his capacity as chief juror, he soon decided that Wilbur Mills was a real comer. He brought Mills along, got him elected to Ways & Means in 1942, saw him become chairman last year...
...strong sense, Mills is Rayburn's right hand. As chairman of Ways & Means, Mills is responsible not only for tax writing, but for the program that Rayburn himself deems important above all others: reciprocal trade. This requires the most sensitive sort of judgment. Last year, for instance. Mills knew that a majority of his committee was willing to vote for reciprocal trade, then about to expire, as a permanent program. But he also knew that the House as a whole would not go that far and that if he tried for too much he might get nothing...
...chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, Arkansas' Mills automatically becomes the chairman of the Democratic Committee on Committees, which makes the party's House committee assignments. These are as vital to the career of every Congressman as they are to the efficient operation of House machinery. Through Mills, Rayburn can see to it that a promising youngster gets a good committee. If he kicks loose from the party traces too often, a Gentleman from Iowa, say, may find himself a member of the Merchant Marine & Fisheries Committee ("I don't mind them voting against the party sometimes," says Rayburn...