[Torie]

For your reading pleasure John, regarding a president about whom we are both not indifferent. Ping to the others who might be interested.

[okie01]

LBJ is a real toughie for the liberals to deal with.

Most of his legacy is an unmitigated disaster: Viet Nam, the War on Poverty, the much overlooked budget unification act -- when the Social Security budget was consolidated with the government operating budget, so that we could "afford" both a War in Viet Nam and a War on Poverty. All illustrate the utter failure of "good intentions".

Meanwhile, all the positive parts of his legacy (the Civil Rights Act, e.g.) were fostered by cynical, self-serving political calculation -- i.e., "bad intentions".

As a nation, and on balance, we would be better off without LBJ and his dubious works.

[x]

Good review. Caro has a lot of the 1950s or 1960s liberal in his make-up. It's hard to be that naive about political "compassion" today, but that was the religion of liberals forty years ago.

It's striking but not surprising that Johnson wanted to maintain his Senate leadership position as Vice President. One would have thought that LBJ would rig things so as to keep the power and exercise it behind the scenes after he left the Senate. But I guess he wasn't quite as clever as he liked to think himself.

But really, starting the list of his offenses with public urination is hardly fair. For those were different times with different manners, indeed. Another review (continued here} has a more entertaining -- or repellent -- story about Johnson's, er ... Johnson, whom he apparently called "Jumbo."

[Bigun]

Thanks for the Ping Torie but I have little left to say regarding President Johnson beyond what I have said MANY times before on this board.

If Richard M. Nixon had REALLY wanted to be a crook, he would have paid Lyndon Johnson to teach him how!