Word: rayburns
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James Monroe Sam Rayburn...
...President struggled with the doorknob. "Mrs. Johnson's locked the bedroom on me," he said. When he knocked, the door was finally opened by a ruffled Lady Bird, who had obviously just finished tidying up. Outdoors again, the President pointed out his 400-acre spread, recalled what Sam Rayburn had said when he first came calling: "I thought it was a big ranch, and it's just a little old farm." He passed out ashtrays bearing his signature: "They only cost a few cents, so they come under the Paul Douglas rule...
...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...