Word: rayburns
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...move, Lady Bird carried a color picture of the late House Speaker Sam Rayburn in her limousine, while Daughter Lucy Baines, 16, brought the two Johnson beagles, Him and Her, in a white convertible. The Elms is up for sale (asking price: over $250,000), and Lady Bird visits her old home regularly, often spies knickknacks that she suddenly decides she must have at the White House...
...moved the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate ahead of the Secretary of State in the line of succession to the presidency. The theory was that elected, not appointed, officials should have precedence-and for so long as Texas' revered Sam Rayburn was Speaker, there were few questions about the law. But now, with Speaker John McCormack standing next to the President, arguments against the law have been expressed by some who doubt McCormack's capacities...
Best Behind the Scenes. A member of the House since 1928, McCormack served ten years on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, was Democratic floor leader for 17 years before succeeding Rayburn as Speaker in 1962. Although his name is associated with few major bills, his influence has been vast in the legislative field. McCormack is not a bookish man; his curiosity has seldom fastened on subjects outside his own political sphere. His skills are great as a behind-the-scenes negotiator, but House critics, mostly Northern and Western liberal Democrats, insist that he is too willing to compromise...
...McCormack is to be judged on the amount of major legislation he has pushed through the House, then he must be found lacking. But it is likely that no Speaker, not even Rayburn, would have scored high with the Kennedy Administration's programs. For a House majority was simply against them. As for the charge that McCormack's knowledge of foreign affairs is sketchy, not even he would claim to be an expert (he has never been outside the U.S.); by instinct, he has followed the internationalist policies of Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy...
First, the Speaker is the product of partisan politics and seniority, which are not necessarily linked to his political ability. True enough, there have been great Speakers like Henry Clay and Sam Rayburn, but by far the majority, including McCormack, have been mediocre. Because most Speakers become acclimated to the slow procedural process of House activity, they simply do not have the energy and initiative required of a President. Besides, the House's seniority system makes the Speaker too old to endure the pressures and demands of the Presidency. Speakers are chosen for reasons other than being men of Presidential...