You knew the town was going wacky. On the eve of Kenneth Starr’s gala Monica Report going public, there was live television coverage Thursday night of the House Rules Committee–a group generally less animated than transit bureaucrats in the former East Germany.
I was forced to wonder what Mayor Richard J. Daley would have thought.
By coincidence, a tape recording came my way earlier in the day from the Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, one that has not yet made it into print anywhere.
It’s of an Oval Office phone conversation at 10 a.m. on Dec. 3, 1963, shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It begins as one between House Speaker John McCormack, the Massachusetts Democrat, and Daley. It ends with the new president, Lyndon Johnson, getting on the line and turning Daley into a marshmallow and sealing a deal.
McCormack wanted Daley’s support–which meant support of the powerful Illinois delegation–for passage of a cotton-subsidy bill, the first big legislation of Johnson’s tenure. But Daley wouldn’t budge, knowing Johnson needed Daley’s support on pending civil rights and tax legislation.
McCormack: Hello, Dick!
Daley: Yes, how are you?
McCormack: Dick, on this cotton bill. This is really a cotton bill to help the American cotton industry. It’s essentially a business bill about. . . .
Daley: I’m opposed to those business bills. We got too many of them. When we gonna start getting some Democratic bills?
McCormack: Well, this is a Democratic bill ’cause it’s four, five hundred thousand employees.
Daley: You fellows will be alright if they’ll support any part of our civil rights bill or our tax bill. But they won’t vote for anything and not have a commitment back for them. We’ve been doing too much of that. We lost a depressed area (bill) by one or two votes and that was something to help the Northern cities. And I don’t think we as Democrats can support anything unless there’s some sort of agreement. And if there is, that’s all right. If there isn’t. . . .
McCormack: I’m satisfied we can get the area development bill through in January.
Daley: Well, I don’t know about that. But if they can defeat that, let them defeat it. But if we have no agreement on a civil rights bill, the tax bill or any of these other Democratic measures, Mr. Speaker, we are making a mistake.
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McCormack: Well, here’s the problem now, Dick. We don’t want to start President Johnson’s administration out with a defeat.
Daley: Well, I hope he’s not for this bill as the first bill in his administration. This isn’t a bill for all the American people. This is a bill for one section of the country.
McCormack: No, it’s Northeast, South and West. There’s the, it affects everybody. There are 400,000, 500,000 employees, and most of them are Democrats.
Daley: John, we wouldn’t be for it unless you could say there’s an agreement on one of these other programs from the gentlemen from the South.
McCormack: No, I couldn’t say that.
Daley: Then, what the hell, our fellows will not vote for it.
McCormack: Well, Dick I think you’re makin’ a mistake.
Daley: Well, we might be. We all make mistakes. But I think it’s about time we find out where we stand on the Kennedy-Johnson program (pause). If this is part of the president’s program and he tells me that, that’s a different thing (pause), but I hope he wouldn’t start out on a bill like this as a part of his program.
McCormack: Well, this is.
Daley: I hope we’d get something that means something to all the people of America.
McCormack: Well, this is a part of the program, the late president brought it up at two or three of the leaders’ meetings just prior to the assassination. That was on the agenda. The cotton bill.
Daley: Only thing (pause) I don’t know how you operate down there, but surely if you’re operating, and this bill is to help certain interests, which it is, there must be some road back from those same people. And we all know who’s interested in it. And if there isn’t, there’s no purpose in voting on it. And voting for it.
McCormack: Well, you got the bill submitted, and if it’s defeated, it will be a helluva shattering blow.
Daley: Well, that’s all right. It will surely be a more shattering blow if we pass it. And then along comes a part of the program on civil rights or something
McCormack: On civil rights, we can employ the discharge petition method.
Daley: You can employ more than that. What the hell is a discharge pe. . . .
McCormack: Tell me, Dick, how?
Daley: On this very bill. If these people are interested. There must be some people in the Rules Committee who can discharge the bill and get it out on the floor. This is the most dramatic thing to do for our part and for Johnson and Kennedy. Do it before you vote on this bill.
McCormack: Well, you got five Democratic votes on the Rules Committee. And you gotta have three Republicans, and they won’t give the votes at the present time, not till January.
Daley: Well, we’re alright if we get the five Democrats, won’t we?
McCormack: No, we need the eight votes.
Daley: I’m sure he can get the eight votes.
McCormack: It’s not that easy.
Daley: Well, sometimes you’re better off to try and lose than not to try.
McCormack: We’re trying with the discharge petition. I’ve come out for it, which is unusual for a speaker to do. I can assure you it would be a mistake (pause) we got the votes now.
Daley: We all make mistakes. If it’s a mistake, let it be a mistake (pause). It’s about time we stand up as Democrats and try to do something. I think the long session down there is a disgrace to everyone, including the Congress.
McCormack: There’s no control over that.
Daley: There should be some way.
McCormack: It’s very easy to sit back and say that.
Daley: I’m out here (in Chicago), I’m not sitting back. I’m working every day in the interest of the Democratic Party.
McCormack: I know that, I know that.
Daley: On this one, I think our fellows will just pass it.
McCormack: I was talking about the rules and so forth, the parliamentary situation.
Daley: Oh, yeah, I know that, they’ve been arguing that for years. But parliamentary or any other way, there’s ways and means to take care, if there’s a determined effort to do it, whether we win or not in the Rules Committee.
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McCormack: Dick, I wish you’d get a hold of the members and go along on this bill.
Daley: Well, I’ll think it over.
McCormack: You know, there’s nobody (pause). Who the hell did more for your water diversion than John McCormack? And who went through (pause) I stood outside the door as the members came in and you’re my friends no matter what you do, and I’ll continue that way, always have and always will.
Daley: Fine, John. We’ll think it over.
McCormack: Now wait a minute, here’s the president. Wait a minute, Dick.
Johnson: Dick? Lyndon Johnson.
Daley: Mr. President. How are you?
Johnson: Fine, Dick. We just finished a leadership meeting. This cotton bill. I don’t know anything about it. I haven’t seen it, but. . . .
Daley: I was talking to McCormack. If it’s your bill, it’s one thing.
Johnson: Now here’s the situation.
Daley: I don’t like the idea of us having no commitments on some of this other legislation.
Johnson: Here’s the situation, Dick. I don’t think it’ll do a helluva lot of harm or good one way or the other if we pass it. If we don’t, it’ll do a helluva lot of harm. Let me tell you what the picture is. This bill affects a half a million workers–primarily the textile manufacturers. They call it a cotton bill, but it tries to give our domestic textile people a fair shake as against the Japanese who get our cotton so much cheaper. They have the votes to pass it. President Kennedy talked to them two or three times and announced that they were going to bring it up, were going to take it up before his death. They got it all set.
Daley: All I want to know, Mr. President. Are you for it?
Johnson: Yes sir.
Daley: OK.
Johnson: Thank you, Dick. God bless you.
Ah, yes, when politics was much simpler, and arm-twisting was the most physical act in the Oval Office.