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NEWS ABOUT: Lyndon Johnson

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Air Force One Death Call to Rose Kennedy Released

National Archives release recording of conversations day JFK was killed

(Newser) - A heart-wrenching call from Lyndon Johnson placed to Rose Kennedy from Air Force One has finally been released more than 48 years after her son was assassinated. "I wish to God there was something I could do," says Johnson the day John F. Kennedy was killed. "I... More »

Jackie O: MLK a 'Phony'

...and other revelations from a new book of interviews

(Newser) - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was not a fan of Martin Luther King Jr, once describing him as "tricky" and a "phony," after hearing FBI tapes of him with a woman other than his wife in a hotel room. That's just one of the revelations contained in a... More »

Top 10 Presidential Getaways

Martha's Vineyard isn't the only game in town

(Newser) - President Obama is chilling in swanky Martha's Vineyard this week ... again. And while the Massachusetts hotspot is a vacation destination that has attracted presidents Kennedy and Clinton, Time r uns down a list of other noted places where commanders in chief have gone to unwind:
  • Florida White House: Richard
... More »

ABC Says Jackie Tapes Not So Sordid, but Won't Spill

You'll have to wait for the network special

(Newser) - ABC officials are saying that their Jackie O tapes are not nearly as "sordid" as claimed in press reports—but aren't saying what's on them. The Daily Mail has reported that Jackie Kennedy told historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in a lengthy interview that she believed Lyndon Johnson... More »

Report: Jackie O Thought LBJ Plotted JFK Assassination

Knew of husband's intern flings, had affairs of her own

(Newser) - Jackie Kennedy Onassis believed Lyndon B. Johnson was behind JFK's assassination, knew about her husband's affairs with his interns, and had her own fling with actor William Holden. Those are the stunning revelations from an interview she held decades ago, tapes of which are about to be released... More »

Most Productive Congress Since 1960s Adjourns

111th passed vast legislation in 'dysfunctional' environment

(Newser) - The 111th Congress adjourned last night, after passing more key legislation that affected more Americans than any since Lyndon Johnson’s 1960s “Great Society,” Bloomberg reports. That included $1.67 trillion spent to save the economy, health insurance for 32 million people, and new regulations on Wall Street;... More »

Secret Service Almost Shot LBJ After JFK Assassination

New book reveals fresh details about tragedy

(Newser) - We almost lost a second president just hours after losing JFK, according to The Kennedy Detail, an account of the assassination by members of the president’s security detail. In it, retired agent Gerald Blaine admits to nearly shooting the VP-turned-president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Blaine was protecting Johnson’s house... More »

WikiLeaks Documents Are Not the Pentagon Papers

War logs don't match revelations of Vietnam skullduggery

(Newser) - The release of 92,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan war has prompted many comparisons to the Pentagon Papers. But that's a bit superficial, writes Richard Tofel for ProPublica . "In terms of important disclosures, it's not even close." The biggest WikiLeaks revelations involve Taliban fighters' use of... More »

A History of Political Cussing

Joe Biden will go down in history with these other respected figures

(Newser) - Quite a big deal has been made over Joe Biden dropping the F-bomb . “But America has a long and honorable tradition of top elected officials using salty language,” writes John Dickerson on Slate . Allow him to educate you:
  • Barack Obama: Famously called Kanye West a “jackass.”
... More »

Forget It, Dems: Obama's No LBJ

President doesn't have LBJ's deal-making skills

(Newser) - People are urging President Obama to start acting like Lyndon Johnson, but the president isn't going to suddenly turn into LBJ any more than the 2,000-page health care bill will turn into the 4-page Civil Rights Act LBJ muscled through as Senate majority leader in 1957, writes Daniel Henninger.... More »

Obama Needs a Louder Left

Without a strong progressive movement, country won't shift leftward

(Newser) - If Barack Obama wants to be a transformational progressive president like Lyndon Johnson or FDR, he’s going to need a strong liberal movement in the streets. “Every Democratic president since Johnson has raised the hope that he would bring with him a new era of progressive reform,”... More »

Is Obama's Afghanistan Turning Into LBJ's Vietnam?

Both presidents tried to push big home agendas during war

(Newser) - As the war in Afghanistan rages alongside President Obama’s sweeping domestic battles, he’s keenly aware of the dangers of becoming a modern-day LBJ, an insider tells the New York Times. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program at home was dogged by the Vietnam war, a historian says; Obama... More »

McNamara, Palin Share Lousy Exit Strategies

(Newser) - The governor of Alaska and the architect of the Vietnam War both make fine examples of how not to quit a government post, David Broder writes in the Washington Post. Robert McNamara waited 28 years to explain that he stepped down as defense secretary because of his grave doubts about... More »

Rot in Hell, Mr. McNamara

(Newser) - At long last, Robert Strange McNamara has “shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of hell,” writes journalist and author Joseph Galloway, who couldn’t be more pleased. “McNamara was the original bean-counter—a man who knew the cost of everything but... More »

RNC Recycles LBJ 'Daisy' Ad to Bash Obama on Gitmo

Classic incendiary spot doesn't age well in Michael Steele's hands

(Newser) - RNC chairman Michael Steele has rolled out an ad remixing an LBJ classic on nuclear war to warn about the danger of closing Guantanamo. The infamous 1964 spot used images of a little girl plucking petals off a daisy juxtaposed with a nuclear explosion to illustrate the risk of Armageddon.... More »

Obama's Plans Require a Lot More Hands

Federal workforce could expand by 100-250K, experts say

(Newser) - President Obama’s ambitious budget and stimulus plans will require the government to hire scores of new workers, the Washington Post reports. Analysts put the number between 100,000 and 250,000 spread among various agencies, the biggest expansion of the federal workforce since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society days.... More »

Conservatives Must 'Obstruct and Delay' Obama: Kristol

GOP can check rush toward big government

(Newser) - The “day of reckoning” has come for Republicans, writes William Kristol in the Washington Post. On Tuesday, President Obama delivered “the most unabashedly liberal and big-government speech” since Lyndon Johnson, and seems poised to undo the whole Reagan agenda. “Conservatives can’t win politically right now,”... More »

Lone Star Political Clout Rides Into Sunset

After fifty years of political clout, Texas has lost its primacy as national king-maker

(Newser) - The booming voices of Texas politics have, for the first time in half a century, fallen silent, writes Bryan Burrough in the Washington Post. After vast deposits of oil wealth propelled Lone Star personalities like LBJ and both Bushes to the White House, as well as several influential leaders like... More »

Hoover's FBI Launched Gay Probe on Valenti

LBJ aide turned Hollywood figure was secretly scrutinized

(Newser) - Before his long presidency of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti served as a top White House aide to LBJ. Recently declassified files show that, at the same time, the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover was investigating whether Valenti, who died in 2007, was gay. Although no proof... More »

LBJ Biographer Aims for Eternity

Tireless writer published average of one book every ten years

(Newser) - Lyndon Johnson's biographer takes his work seriously—so much so, he didn't cover LBJ's presidency for 30 years, Newsweek reports. Rising from the tabloid world in the 1960s, Robert Caro first wrote a painstaking biography of New York mogul Robert Moses. Next came a volume on LBJ's youth; Caro even... More »

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