The Passage of Power (144 page)

Provence call; Jenkins talking to McClendon:
“Sarah McClendon to The Secretary, Standing Committee of Correspondents, Senate Press Gallery,” April 8, 1964, p. 4 (in author’s possession—hereafter identified as “McClendon to Secretary”); McClendon interview, OH. The words she says Jenkins used vary in each of these versions, but the gist is the same. Jenkins was later to recite the details of the McClendon confrontation to, among others, Reedy, Busby, and Margaret Mayer, a reporter for the
Dallas Times-Herald,
who was a friend of Busby’s and had once worked for Johnson. In their interviews with me, the gist of the Jenkins-McClendon conversation is the same.

“With a mixture”
:
Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives,
Jan. 1, 2007.
“She didn’t know”
:
Andrea Mitchell, quoted in
WP,
Jan. 9, 2003.

McClendon’s article:
“
PROBE DEALS OF LYNDON’S FORMER AIDE
” (by Sarah McClendon, North American Newspaper Alliance),
Des Moines Register,
Sept. 18 1963. The Bobby Baker story had been floating around Washington for years. “Possibly no story illustrates the limitations of Senate reporting as it has been done in recent years better than the Bobby Baker story in Washington,” wrote James McCartney of the
Chicago Daily News
Washington Bureau. “Gossip about his power and influence as well as about the fortune he has amassed has been common in the Senate press gallery. Any reporter with eyes could see him wheeling and dealing on the Senate floor.… The facts that he own a restaurant franchise in North Carolina and has been the co-owner of a plush motel on the Atlantic Ocean have been common knowledge.… Yet Senate press gallery regulars exhibited an astonishing lack of interest in writing about Bobby Baker” (James McCartney, “Vested Interests of the Reporter,” originally in Nieman Reports, Dec. 1963; reprinted in Lyons,
Reporting the News
). It wasn’t just press gallery regulars who hadn’t been reporting it. Drew Pearson had known as far back as April 27, 1960, that, as his associate Jack Anderson reported, “For a couple of years, I have been picking up rumors that my friend, Bobby Baker, has been peddling his influence on Capitol Hill.… Yesterday I did a little checking on Bobby.… Baker is vice president of an insurance firm, Don Reynolds Associates.… Bobby … has been a friend and source of mine for years” (Anderson to Pearson, April 27, 1960, Drew Pearson Papers).

Baker:
McClendon, “Re conversation with Dick Schreiver,” undated.

Jenkins had the editor:
“McClendon to Secretary,” p. 4.
Jenkins telephoned McClendon:
McClendon ms., McClendon Papers; McClendon OH, interview.
“We have your story”
:
Indeed he did, she recalls. Jenkins said “he had in his hand a copy of the story I had sent to Texas” (McClendon ms., p. 14).
“I was given the impression”
:
“McClendon to Secretary,” p. 6; McClendon interview.
While “Walter knew”
:
McClendon ms., pp. 13, 14; McClendon OH I, interview. Jenkins was later to relate these events to, among others, Reedy and Busby.
Only one newspaper:
Des Moines Register,
Sept. 18, 1963.
Willard Edwards article:
Chicago Daily Tribune,
Sept. 23, 1963.
“It was”
:
Laurence Stern and Erwin Knoll, “Washington: Outsiders’ Exposé,”
Columbia Journalism Review,
spring 1964, p. 19.
And the next Monday:
Newsweek,
Oct. 7, 1963.

“With plants”
;
“It is”
:
Murray Kempton, “The Vender,”
The New Republic,
Oct. 19, 1963.
“Just trying to sell”
:
Reedy OH III.
One “horrible”
:
Reedy interview.

“Bobby”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 182.
“I knew”
:
Eleanor Randolph, “
BOBBY BAKER BACK, CHIP ON SHOULDER
,”
Chicago Tribune,
Aug. 21, 1977.
“He’s using Lady Bird”; Johnson was petrified”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 182.
“Lyndon B. Johnson might”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 271.
“He lied”
:
Chicago Tribune,
Aug. 21, 1977.

“We spoke”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 182.
“Very private”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 261.
“Is it going to be”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 272.
“Put in a kind word”
;
“I don’t want”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 268.
“It became too obvious
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 276.

Baker
was,
of course, his protégé:
Caro,
Master of the Senate,
pp. 390–94.

$11,025; $1,791,186:
U.S. Senate, Committee on Rules and Administration,
Report on Financial or Business Interests of Officers or Employees of the Senate,
Report No. 1175, 88
^th
Cong., 2
^nd
Session, 1964 (referred to hereafter as Senate Rules Committee First Report).
“The man most harmed”
:
WES,
Oct. 10, 1963.
The article:
WP,
Oct. 6, 1963.

“Friendly lines”; Washington folklore”
; Voted to censure:
Frederic W. Collins, “Senator Williams—Public Eye,”
NYT,
Feb. 9, 1964.
“Something”
:
NYT,
Feb. 9, 1964.
IRS investigation:
Hoffecker,
Honest John Williams: U.S. Senator from Delaware,
pp. 160–61.
None resonated:
McCullough,
Truman,
pp. 742–47, 863.
Add a dimension:
NYT,
July 21, 1954.
And during:
Hoffecker,
Honest John Williams,
pp. 131–32.
His performance:
NYT,
Feb. 9, 1964.
“A growing army”
:
WES,
Nov. 1, 1963.
“The conscience”
:
NYT,
Dec. 18, 1970.
“Usually echoed”
:
Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 282.

Inviting Ralph Hill:
“In the Office of Senator Williams, Sept. 30, 1963, 10:30 a.m–12:30 p.m., Report of Mr. Ralph Lee Hill …,” Box 33, Folder 148, John J. Williams Papers, University of Delaware Library;
WP,
Oct. 6, 1963;
SAE, Chicago Sun–Times Special
by Sandy Smith, Oct.6, 1963
;
Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
pp. 277–78. The discussions between Reynolds and Williams would continue all through October.

Reynolds told Williams that a
“political connection”
:
Kempton, “The Vender.”
“Because … of his social contacts”
: Senate Rules Committee First Report, p. 38.
Johnson had mentioned;
“told Senator Johnson”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 83.

Reynolds secured; whose premium would be paid:
“Memorandum to: The Files, From: L. P. McClendon and W. Ellis Meehan, Subject: Interview with Walter Jenkins, Re: Life Insurance Sales by Don Reynolds,” Dec. 16, 1963, “Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate, Jan. 9, 17, 1964, Part I, Testimony of Don B. Reynolds, pp. 33–35, 93–95, 108, 121. Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 299.

Baker brought him; Johnson told him jovially:
“Testimony of Don B. Reynolds, accompanied by James F. Fitzgerald, counsel,” “Financial or Business Interests of Officers and Employees of the Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate,” Jan. 9, 17, 1964. Reynolds says (p. 108) that he gave Johnson a $50,000 policy, but Baker says there were two policies, each for $100,000 (Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 83).
“Was delighted”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 83. Baker also said, “I knew that if I testified to the total truth, then Lyndon B. Johnson, among others, might suffer severely. Suppose they asked me whether Lyndon Johnson had, indeed, insisted on a kickback from Don Reynolds in the writing of his life insurance policy. A truthful answer would torpedo the Vice President. Suppose they asked me what I knew of campaign funds for Johnson, or, for that matter, President Kennedy” (Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 185).

Jenkins called him in:
Eleanor R. Lenhart to Williams, “Memo—Visit from Mr. Reynolds at which time he was talking with the Senator with the knowledge that I was taking notes,” Oct. 28. 1963; John J. Williams to files, “Memo—Don Reynolds Insurance Partner,” Oct. 28 (but appears to be Oct. 29), 1963, both Box 32, folder 120, John J. Williams Papers, University of Delaware Library. See also Williams to files, Nov. 4, 1963, “The checks are to be furnished tomorrow night”; Williams to files, “Visit from Mr. Don Reynolds today. Mr. Reynolds brought in cancelled check for payment to LBJ’s station for $208 and also …,” Nov. 18, 1963, both Box 32, folder 120.
“Prodded” him
:
Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 298.
Purchasing $1,208 of airtime:
Reynolds, “Testimony,” pp. 104–08.

The stereo:
“Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate, Jan. 9, 17, 1964, Part I, Testimony of Don B. Reynolds,” pp. 37–42 (with exhibits of checks and invoices). Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
pp. 297, 298.
Jenkins would later deny, again and again:
For example, in an interview with investigators for the Senate Rules Committee, “Memorandum, Dec. 16, 1963, To: The Files, From L. P. McClendon and W. Ellis Meehan,” “Testimony,” pp. 93–95.
“He [Johnson] took the stereo”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 196. Baker also says that Reynolds “had originally volunteered to waive his cash commission on the policy and then had reneged,” but this in itself would have been illegal. “Testimony,” p. 4 (
WES,
March 11, 1964), and Reynolds’s own testimony about the circumstances in which he was forced to buy the advertising time and stereo contradicts Baker’s statement. Reynolds, “Testimony,” pp. 105–08.
“A kickback pure and simple”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 196.
A
“shakedown”
:
Reynolds, quoted in Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 298.
Proof:
“Reynolds Exhibits 8, 9, 10, 11,” pp. 37–41.
$1,000 check:
Reynolds Exhibit 7, “Testimony,” p. 36.
$208 check:
Reynolds Exhibit 26, “Testimony,” p. 120, also pp. 119–21.

Insurance laws:
WES,
March 11, 1964.
“Precisely my point”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 83.

Unfortunate echoes:
Senator Williams was to draw the comparison himself: “I see no difference in the acceptance of an expensive stereo than in the acceptance of a mink or vicuña coat, a deep freeze, or an oriental rug” (
NYT,
Jan. 3, 1964).

“He hated that word”
:
Reedy interview.
“He knew”
:
Busby interview.

There had been speculation:
The story of Lyndon Johnson’s relationship with the TV stations will be discussed in the next volume, because it was in 1964 that it became a matter of public record and public controversy. The story of his earlier relationship is in Caro,
Means of Ascent
and
Master of the Senate.
For articles that summarize the 1964 revelations, see
WES,
June 9, 1964;
Wall Street Journal,
March 23 and Aug. 11, 1964;
Newsday,
May 27–29, 1964; and
Life,
Aug. 21, 1964.
Five Texas cities:
Chicago Tribune,
Oct. 25, 1964.

“All that is owned”
:
Johnson, quoted in Caro,
Means,
p. 88.
His denials had omitted:
Caro,
Means,
pp. 105–06. Mollenhoff, who was working very closely with the committee’s staff, writes that “Although Vice-President Johnson contended, before and since, that he had no interest and no voice in the L.B.J. Company radio and television enterprises, Reynolds said it was the L.B.J. Company that paid for the insurance policy on the Vice-President’s life. The company could not insure Johnson unless he was a person of such value to the firm that he would be regarded as a valuable, key man in the firm’s operations, Reynolds suggested” (Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 299). Reedy explains that “At KTBC they had a reason for Johnson wanting to have that kind of a policy. Texas is a community property state. That meant that if he died, half of KTBC would go into the Johnson estate, where it would have to pay inheritance taxes. In order to pay the inheritance taxes they would have had to sell KTBC at a loss. So they wanted a very heavy strong insurance policy on his life” (Reedy OH XXI).

He had been boasting:
Caro,
Means,
p. 106.
By 1963, he was not merely a millionaire but a millionaire many times over.
Life
was to put the net worth of Lyndon and Lady Bird at $14,000,000 (Aug. 21, 1964); the
WSJ
put the estimated market value of the television holdings alone at “around $7,000,000 that year” (March 23, 1964). John Barron of the
WES
put the figure at $9,000,000 (June 9, 1964). Johnson disputed each appraisal, and put the figure at about $4,000,000.