General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A question about RFK [View all]UTUSN
(70,435 posts)Until I read CARO's bio of LBJ, I had no idea how far back he and HUMPHREY went. I had thought LBJ had just picked him for veep as a political expedience. But LBJ sized him up when HHH first arrived at the senate in full flaming Lib mode and schooled him and drilled the realities of politics into him on the topic that making pretty speeches in front of adoring choirs don't get things done and the way to get actual results "into the books" was sometimes to compromise, sometimes to settle for partial/incremental results (CONCRETE results), and to BE REAL in assessing what is possible, knowing when you've got the votes to win and when you don't.
Yes, LBJ humiliated HUMPREY and even emasculated him, as he did many others, but by the time LBJ was in the White House and it was time to capitalize on the emotions after JFK, it was HUMPHREY that LBJ put in charge as the captain of getting the Civil Rights bill passed through the humongous obstacles of the Southern Caucus, with LBJ's hand on the tiller. And LBJ's tutelage of HUMPHREY paid off.
And, yes, LBJ hated Robert KENNEDY (not JFK), but most assuredly, Robert KENNEDY hated LBJ in the most vicious, ruthless, and irrational way, too.
On behalf of the Civil Rights law, the Voting Rights law, the war on Poverty, Medicare/Medicaid, the no-descrimination on housing, and the much more in the Great Society programs: I will take HUGH offense to the aspersion that LBJ would work with NIXON, not only against HUMPHREY but against his Democratic party.
If you can produce the "evidence," let's see it.