lbj blog

sorenson - w va

so i'm at the part in sorenson's book where they are in the west virginia primary
in 1960 against humphrey. kennedy had won in wisconsin, but not by much.
these days we think of the primaries as crucial, but in those days most of the action was at the convention.
(this year's libertarian party convention determined its candidate, what's his name.
badnarik. the lp has never really understood primaries, in the 10 states where they get to have them. my guess is badnarik won't get a lot of votes this fall, that he'll come in 4th with maybe 300,000 votes.)
the players were stevenson, who had been drafted by convention in 52 or was it 56 or both, symington, humphrey, and johnson. johnson had lined up lots of delagates while not entering any primaries. he wanted to be drafted at the convenion like stevenson had been, expecting that humphrey and kennedy would cancell each other out.
in 56, johnson sought the presidential nomination and lost, while kennedy sought the vice-presidential nomination and lost. so they were both players in 1960.
lbj had been running for president probably since he was 15, but definately since he was 22.
as a school teacher to mexicans in south texas at 22, he demanded respect, saying they were looking at the future president of the united states. he knew.
i'll need to check my dates. if he was born around 1900, that would be 1923, but i think it was later, 1933ish. he insisted the kids speak english only, and spanked the boys when they spoke spanish. he expected them to study hard, and organized sports teams, and instilled what today might be called self-esteem.
i think he got electric lights installed at the school for the first time.
so he knew he would be president, but he might not have decided when exactly.
in 1946, when jack kennedy ran for congress from boston, as a carpetbagger,
his father assured reported reporters that he would president in 1960.
so johnson wasn't running against jack - he was running against joe kennedy senior.
i forget if it was joe jr or jack, who when he was born, his grandfather said
"there's the first irish presdient of thre united states."
his grandfather was honey fitz fitgerald. saloonkeeper and mayor of boston.
joe was a campaign aide when fitzgerald won election to congress from the same district jack did, but was tossed out by the house of representatives because the election had been stolen. stuffed ballot boxes and strong-arm tactics, gangster activity, coordinated by joe kennedy. source: seymour hersh, reporting on the house records which were unsealed after 50 years.
jack's mission, should he choose to accept it, was not just to reclaim the seat
his grandfather had been denied, at a time when fitzgerald was the only catholic in congress. it was to be the first catholic president - that would be their revenge.
in order to get there, joe needed money. he found it.
earle halliburton built hallibuton by hard work and ingenuity and patent infringement, operating in the private sector. brown and root built brown and root by hard woprk and sucking up to the government. the company today known as halliburton is a betrayal of the good name of earl haliburton, and is a cover for the continued shenanigans fo brown and root. really it was brown and brown - root was always just a silent partner who put up the capital. source: the legend of halliburton. indy public library.
editorial comments are mine.
joe kennedy was a mixture of the two - he could and did make money in both private and public sectors. bootlegging, sure. legal importing of liquor, sure. banking. shipbuilding. stocks and bonds. a movie studio. real estate. legal and illegal, honest and dishonest, as long as the money was green.
one partner was franklin roosevelt jr. the roosevelts' story is beyond the scope of the story i'm telling, but is has been suggested that running medicinal products around the world would not have been unknown to the roosevelts.
the son of the president made a good crony for joe. together they imported scotch and rented whores - joe was big pimpin'. the biographuies say that the kennedies had a british attitude toward women - as commodities to be used for sex and discarded,
unlike the american romantic view of love. i don't know whether that's fair toward hte british, but it is fair toward the kennedies. joe, jack, bobby, teddy, all cheated, wildly. recklessly. with joe it was hardly cheating - he was brazenly open about bringing his mistresses around.
gloria somebody? it'll come to me. swanson.
big early movie star. the marilyn monroe of her day.
joe was a letch, who always hit on the girlfriends of his children.
i might be that way too if i had a spare billion. the part i don't get is tossing them aside when bored - i'm an american style romantic. but as a bisexual, i recognize the behavior - gay culture is that way - guys use each other for sex,
without looking for a deep emotional bond. since i am looking for a deep emotional bond, i get hurt time after time. i can't say i've never enjoyed casual sex for its own sake, but usually i regard sex as auditioning for a partner - and they don't.
west virginia.
see, humphrey is complaining, in the sorenson book, about kennedy buying the election. joe. and it's true. hersh says 2 million was spent, mostly in payoffs to county sheriffs and committeemen. humphrey was broke.
it wasn't just money. the family was a team, a dozen experienced hard core activists, including junior roosevelt. jack made speeches and shook hands.
phones were worked. lit was dropped. good solid politics, backed by daddy's money.
they knew they needed west virginia to force humphrey out they knew they needed humphrey out to sweep the primaries, in order to sew up enough delagates to beat
johnson at the convention. it worked. ok that's enough for now.

posted by gt @ 9:44 AM