took to the floor

-----{excerpt}----------
Politicians, journalists, and scholars often wonder what might have happened if Kennedy had turned over his congressional operations to Johnson. Galbraith observed that Kennedy "always used less power than he had in dealing with the Congress and dealing with the public; Lyndon Johnson, in contrast, with a better understanding of power, always used slightly more than he had." But for all Johnson's legislative talents, Kennedy felt he had to keep the Vice President in check. If Johnson had been unleashed, "he would have found it hard to refrain from running the whole show," said his aide Harry McPherson.

Instead, Johnson entered the political wilderness, a "frustrated force of nature," in Joe Alsop's words, whose loss of influence was agonizingly conspicuous. After running the Senate, now he could only carry out orders....Johnson was "a proud and imperious man of towering energies and passions," wrote Schlesinger. "Self-effacement" was "unnatural."

...LBJ's demeanor in meetings only exacerbated the situation. "I can't stand Johnson's damn long face," Kennedy told George Smathers. "He just comes in...with his face all screwed up, never says anything. He looks so sad." Whenever Johnson was asked his opinion, he would say, "I agree with the President." "I know he didn't do that when the President called him privately," said Joe Alsop, but "he didn't want anyone to hear him disagree with the President."

...Like her husband, Jackie flinched at Johnson's crudity; she was shocked when she heard that LBJ described [Adlai] Stevenson as a man who "squats to piss." But she was also tickled by Johnson's colorful mannerisms and extravagant gestures, and touched by his contribution to her restoration project. Responding to her pleas, he cut red tape to arrange the transfer of a crystal chandelier from the Senate to the White House, where she installed it in the upstairs Treaty Room.

Jackie had fun with Johnson. Since her husband disliked dancing, she often took to the floor with LBJ.

...In small doses JFK seemed to enjoy LBJ's company, "poking fun at him in a gentle way," recalled Ros Gilpatric. During a visit in Palm Beach, the President invited his Vice President for a cruise, where Gilpatric observed them sitting on the fantail as JFK "spent two or three hours going from state to state and just dredging out of Johnson every bit of the latest political gossip and lore he could elicit."
---------------- {end excerpt}
{Grace And Power. S.B. Smith.
2004. Random House. New York.}

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