The Passage of Power (132 page)

“One thing”
:
Davis, quoted in Blair and Blair,
Search for JFK,
p. 512.
“I have never”
:
Smathers OH.
Magazines:
Laura Bergquist, “Rise of the Brothers Kennedy,”
Look,
Aug. 6, 1957.
“The flowering”
:
Harold H. Martin, “The Amazing Kennedys,”
SEP,
Sept. 7, 1957.
Cover stories:
Time,
Dec. 2, 1957, “The Man Out Front.” Phillips, “How to Be”; “Young Man with Tough Questions,”
Life,
July 1, 1957; “The Amazing Kennedys,”
SEP,
Sept. 7, 1957.
Time, McCall’s, Redbook
;
“This man”
:
William V. Shannon,
NYP,
Nov. 11, 1957.

“His Senate”
:
Dallek,
Unfinished,
p. 226.
“Seldom”
:
Childs, May 15, 1957, quoted in Goodwin,
The Fitzgeralds,
p. 792.

Applauding at Alsop’s:
Alsop, with Platt,
I’ve Seen,
p. 406.
Reversing against Kefauver:
Parmet,
Struggles,
p. 439.

“Enormously successful”
:
Goodwin,
The Fitzgeralds,
p. 794.
“If the convention”
:
Sorensen, quoted in Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 25.
“By general
agreement”
;
“Jack Kennedy could”
:
Time,
Nov. 24, 1958.

“I still think”
:
Rowe to Johnson, January 17, 1959, Box 32, LBJA SN.

Texas law:
CSM,
May 25, 1960;
HP,
July 13, 1960;
FWS-T,
July 15, 1960;
AA-S,
July 27, 1960;
DMN,
Nov. 9, 1960.
Phone calls to Clark:
Clark interview.

Parr had done so in 1948:
Caro,
Means of Ascent,
pp. 308–17.
Same ink in the same handwriting:
Caro,
Means,
pp. 324, 328.
Johnson had assisted:
Means,
pp. 186, 191.

Needed a lawyer:
Clark, Jones interviews.
Another incentive:
Thomas, quoted in Murphy,
Fortas
, p. 105.
“In return”
:
Murphy,
Fortas,
p. 105. Murphy bases this on his interview with Donald.
Fortas agreed:
“In the Supreme Court of the United States,” October Term, 1959, No. 391,
“George B. Parr, D. C. Chapa, et al. v. United States of America Respondent, Petition for a Writ of Certiorari.… Abe Fortas, Paul A. Porter, Charles A. Reich … Attorneys for the Petitioners.”
“Had not asked”
:
When, in March 1960, Parr’s petition for bankruptcy was settled, and, Fortas reported to Johnson, he (Parr) “got about
a million out of his bankruptcy proceeding,” Fortas told Jenkins, “in view of that I think I will render him a bill for this case and the prior one also. I had not asked for any money, but in view of the recent developments, I think I will …” (“Telephone Conversation between Abe Fortas and Walter Jenkins,” March 24, 1960, Box 1, Special File Pertaining to Abe Fortas and Homer Thornberry, LBJL). He told Johnson in an earlier letter that
he had offered to take the case “without reference to fee,” but that Parr’s lawyer at the time had declined to have him participate in the case (Fortas to Johnson, April 10, 1959, Box 1, Special File).
“The best break”
:
“Resume of Telephone Calls on December 7,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Dec. 1959,” Box 1, Series 2,
OFWJ, LBJL.
“We got him off”
:
Reich, quoted in Kalman,
Abe Fortas,
p. 159.
“Burn your memo up”
:
Johnson to Jenkins, undated, but attached to “Resume of Telephone Calls—December 7,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Dec. 1959,” Box
1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL.
Monitored:
Murphy,
Fortas,
p. 105; Fortas to Johnson, Dec. 8, 1959. For examples of the reports on the case’s progress that Fortas and Porter delivered to Jenkins over the telephone, “Highlights of Conversations on December 4—Paul Porter,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Dec. 1959,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. “Telephone Conversation between Abe Fortas and Walter Jenkins, Dec.
14, 1959.
“He was”
:
Clark interview.

“It’s the politician’s task”
:
Johnson interview with Doris Goodwin, quoted in Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson,
p. 141.

“Democratic Victory Dinner”
:
Steele to Williamson, May 7, 1959, SP.
“You felt”
:
Steele interview.
“I don’t want”
:
“Conversation with Eddie
Higgins, Assistant to Sen. Green (Senator Johnson), Nov. 18, 1959, “Administration, [Administrative], Memoranda, Jenkins, Walter, 1 of 2,” Box 633,
JSP.
Although he had:
Jenkins, McPherson, Reedy interviews, OHs.
“Torn”
—
“tortured, almost”
:
Rowe interview. George Reedy also uses the word “torn” to describe Johnson during this period: “I believe he was a man badly torn …” (Reedy
OH II). A photographer for
Time
magazine got a glimpse of this when he asked him to pose at the gate to his ranch. “Well, all right, but you better take a good one—one I can use in 1960,” Johnson said. Reminded by
Time
’s reporter John Steele that,
as Steele put it, he “had often said that at the end of the present term he wants nothing but retirement, he replied, ‘Well, it’s nice to know you can
run if you want to run’ ” (Steele to Williamson, Nov. 13, 1958, SP).

Western strategy:
Hoff interview.
Hells Canyon Dam:
Caro,
Master of the Senate,
chapter 38: “Hells Canyon.”
“Very sympathetic”
:
Edward M. Kennedy interview.
“Very fast”
:
Rowe interview.

“Bobby, you’ve never”
:
Baker,
Wheeling and Dealing,
p. 43.
“His attitude was”
; Jenkins handing out:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 43.
Johnson had told him;
“I want
to ask”
:
“Transcripts of Telephone Conversations—January 1960,” OFWJ, Series 2, Box 1; Dallek,
Lone Star Rising,
p. 564.

First encounter:
Busby, Reedy interviews.
Roosevelt tricking Joe Kennedy;
“Oh, boy”
:
Sidey, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
pp. 77–78.
“For decades”
:
Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency: When Ike Wore His Brown Suit,”
Time,
Aug. 20, 1979.
“Bobby’s a tough one”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times,
p. 97.
“Did you ever see”
:
Reedy interview; Reedy, quoted in Collier and Horowitz,
The Kennedys,
p. 534.
“Forget Bobby”
;
“runt”
;
“no ambition”
;
“he was willing”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 30, 45, 53, 55. “He was not only
smaller and slower than his brothers, he
looked
afraid,” Thomas writes. “He lacked the jaunty, glowing air of a young Kennedy” (p. 31).

“I wish, Dad”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 53.
“Didn’t have”
:
Lasky,
J.F.K.: The Man and the Myth,
p. 63.
“For Christ’s sake”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 51.
Breaking his leg:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 51; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 67.
“Furious”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 51.
Hitting Magnuson; O’Donnell apologizing:
Collier and Horowitz,
The Kennedys,
p. 179.
“I didn’t”
:
Lewis, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 66.
“Would have killed him”
;
“he became”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 55–56.
“Liked to bite”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 55.
Fierce Dobermans;
“terrible time”
:
Spalding OH, JFKL.
“Ready to punch”
:
Page, quoted in Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 55.
Sailing incident:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 56.

He did; “I felt”
:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy at Forty,
p. 56.
“At the time”
:
Maas, quoted in Stein and Plimpton,
American Journey,
p. 50. After a pause, he said, “I was wrong.”
When he resigned:
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 18; Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy at Forty,
pp. 57–58.
Walking out on Murrow:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 67.

“Black and white hats”
:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 22.
Giancana exchange:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 83.
Glimco exchange:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 71.
“Full of shit”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 83.
Gallo exchange:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 24.

“I wanted”
:
Haddad interview.
“A little keyed up”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 83.
“Bobby hates like me”
:
“What
Makes Bobby Run,”
Time,
March 18, 1963. Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 69. As Thomas notes, he later denied having made the remark. Yet others recall remarks by him in which the wording is similar. Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill writes that Joe Kennedy once told him, “Bobby’s my boy. When Bobby hates you, you stay hated” (O’Neill and Novak,
Man of the House,
p. 83). Thimmesch and Johnson quote Joe Kennedy as saying of
Bobby, “He’s a great kid, he hates the same way I do.” (They add “later Joseph Kennedy told a reporter that ’All I ever meant to convey is that he has the capacity to be emotionally involved, to feel things deeply, as compared with Jack and that amazing detachment of his.” That is not exactly a denial of the remark. Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 24, 25. And the first full-scale biography of Joseph Kennedy gives the quote
almost exactly: “He’s a great kid. He hates the same way I do” (Whalen,
The Founding Father,
p. 457). So do early magazine articles about Bobby: for example,
Newsweek,
March 18, 1963. And three journalists who spent time with Kennedy and his staffers—Peter Maas, Jack Newfield, who wrote a book,
Robert Kennedy: A Memo
ir; and Robert F. Greene, an investigative reporter who in 1957 was an investigator with Robert Kennedy’s
Senate Rackets Committee—say that in conversation Robert Kennedy aides and Jack Kennedy aides who had been with the Kennedys a long time repeated the exact remark, “He hates like me” (Greene, Maas, Newfield interviews). Schlesinger writes, “His father was supposed to have said in later years that Robert was more like him than any of the other children because ‘he hates like me.’ In 1960 he denied to John Seigenthaler that he had ever said
this. But … to another reporter he said proudly, ‘Bobby’s as hard as nails’ ” (Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 97). “Bobby is just as tough as a bootheel,” Joseph Kennedy said on another occasion (Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 107).

“Absolute evilness”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 81.
Trying to trap Hoffa; would jump;
“Frustrated”
:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 73–75.
Use of
friendly reporters:
Greene, Maas interviews.
“The full arsenal”
:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 76.
“When Bobby hates you”
:
O’Neill and Novak,
Man of the House,
p. 83.

“This was the Leader”
:
Barr interview.
“Sonny Boy”
:
Goldsmith interview.
“A snot-nose”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 138.
“If it had someone”
:
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 8.

“Just get one thing”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 132.
“Bobby and I”
:
O’Donnell, quoted in Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 26.
“It
really”
:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 115.

“Making notes”
;
“we fell”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 133–34.

“Holds his head”
:
Eugene Patterson,
Atlanta Constitution,
Sept. 10, 1960, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 218.
DiSalle:
“Di Salle had no alternative,” Rep. Wayne Hays reported. “He knew that if he did not come out for Kennedy that Kennedy would come into his state and probably beat him. Kennedy was
holding a gun to his head” (“Telephone Conversation between Congressman Hays and Walter Jenkins,” Jan. 18, 1960,” OFWJ).
“Does not shock”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 151.
“Stormy”
;
“fierce; “real rough”
:
Lasky,
The Myth,
p.127.