Conversation 491-011

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Let's take a look.

Let's take a look at that.

Oh, I just had a horrible thought.

I was thinking of a squirt guy down in the public park.

It's been cold as hell today.

I apologize.

It's pretty hell, right?

No.

It's so cold, those fellows still stop out in the park.

Yeah, you know.

That's just too bad.

What do you think?

Hey, thank you.

The wedding is the best, sir.

We'll meet in the middle.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

He said, no, he said, not only do you, that this president couldn't have, not totally, he said, I do too.

He said, I would never ever pull the aside, you know, submit anything that was not good.

I think what I want you to check in further, he told me he was a portrait photographer.

That's either that or he's distinguished from the other.

And see what his experience is in doing that.

And I may give him a crack at a portrait shot.

See what I mean?

You've got to try different photographers.

And we will bring you all into the shot too.

This guy, he seems to have a...

A really great man.

Always a great photographer, but Conant does a different type of photography.

For example, he told me, he said, I worked with Trish before.

He said, when I was, you know, working, he said, I was, he said, I had never worked with the president, so I was watching him mostly in the land, and I was the first general.

So he said, he's a good, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said,

The point is that Ollie is basically, well he does work, he's more, he knew his photographer.

Ollie is great on the shots, the move shots and all those things.

What we really want is a guy that's just going to say, God, man, what a portrait.

There's a real, all these pictures are great pictures to look at quickly and then grab you.

They tell a great story.

It's a great story picture.

Right.

The best.

But for the president's portrait, you have something that's got to hang on a goddamn bank wall for five years, people stare at, and everything is going to be absolutely perfect.

Check it out, and we might have you, as a matter of fact, if you'd be willing.

I had a very good time with you being called on the weekend.

We'll just do it on a paid basis.

See, he doesn't work for Rook.

He works for Rook, but he's unstaffed, which is the case with most photographers.

I'd say he's pregnant.

I don't know, but one of the little guys on the page said it was somebody on Wall Street.

He said it was.

He's a nice guy.

Good non-political coming, by the way, he says.

He's a guy that's doing the story of me, and it's, it's, I, I, he's really running a gun job.

He's an old friend of Marty Henderson's.

And I want all the super-conservatives to be defensive outside.

You know, these look better from the top of the way.

I think they do, too.

And then pull it down.

I think they could find the strength, isn't it?

Good.

Now, now, they're ready to be praised.

The old man's on that.

Yeah, beautiful.

He was focused on the office more.

He was up to a little sprint time.

We've got to go deep.

We've got to catch up.

Yeah, we've got to get started.

I think that's sensational.

I like it.

Isn't that pretty?

I think it's beautiful.

Tell them to fix it so that they get that.

I like to get those white things.

The white things are miserable in many ways.

We get the white thing out of the way.

They don't know how.

And I just let people look out.

I get here and they get a chance to see.

Don't you think it's pretty?

It's good.

Of course, you come in and take pictures.

So now we're shooting that wall.

We're closing it.

We close the curtains if we want.

It may be too bright when it's sunset.

But this is not for me.

I like it.

And let's also enlighten some of the dead capitalists who are coming to see me.

They're honest.

You checked with Conant to see him just to have a chat with him.

I was here.

I want to say to the President that we'd like to get a dance for him.

But it must be.

I need to retrieve.

And it must be.

And I want him.

I want him.

I mean, this is no...

This is no...

I think he's just superb.

And we've got some of the most marvelous pictures that he's taken you've ever seen.

And I love it.

But I do think, I knew the portrait guy.

I don't think the guy in California is that good.

He's not.

He got one good one, though.

That one, everybody brings around for me to sign that one.

I know you say you can't use it, but everybody brings that goddamn picture to sign.

The one in the books, the one I like.

It doesn't do itself enough, but it has...

When you want to spread it out, it doesn't come out right, and then it has some flaws in it.

Your hands are all in there.

There are a number of flaws in it.

See if he does that kind of work, that kind of work.

We want to smile.

We've got enough seriousness.

Jesus Christ, everybody takes seriousness.

I don't know if he's got a good cover or not.

He's going to develop them tonight, and then I'm ready to look at them tomorrow.

So I think, well, whatever he does, I'm sure.

And anyway, he was smart.

He doesn't want me with a great big toothy smile and Trisha on the cover.

He's going to have more, a little serious.

He said Trisha looked great through the lens, too.

Well, she always looks great.

She takes the most magnificent pictures.

You see, he had a better picture.

He was, he was, he would actually, and then, you know, right, even without,

The position, she'd probably be the top pick model in the art community.

She's the right size.

She's thin, but she's the right size.

You see the models generally are tall.

That's sort of out now.

And they like the shirt, blonde, the tee types.

She's a special type.

And she's just a knockout.

You know, she really is.

Mad at herself and those magazines.

Oh, yeah.

Absolutely dead.

We have a... Oh.

Well, I just wanted you to know that if the subject came up, did you know that the Daniels Congress came up for legalizing homosexuals living together?

No, I didn't.

You're allowed to say it.

That's nice.

That's part of it.

It's not only Rudy got in it.

Anyway, if that comes up, my attitudes are well known.

I mean, I'm not against it, but homosexuals are just not going to legalize it.

I mean, I understand him.

I understand him.

I think there is somebody for him.

I'm trying to reflect the whole youth conversation to the various departments.

I just used you one quote where you said that the cabinet members didn't need to pass.

That's right.

Get that.

That's the place.

That's the place that I came from.

I didn't try not to, you know, be too...

Are you going to do a radio station out there?

If you want to, we'll have the farm thing, which is going to shoot on Sunday.

Are we going to try to do the seacoast?

Yeah, what you do is talk to the workers a little bit.

It has to be a thing where you have to be able to communicate with the program level.

That's a lot of jobs.

A lot of jobs.

Mean jobs.

Yeah, yeah.

It means a lot of underneath.

Is this America?

Yeah.

It's a very big program, and this is the biggest contract.

Plus it goes back to, you know, we have a great deal of material on your previous maritime messages and so forth that brought this about.

We've got to hold off on that as long as you're coming back on Monday.

You can do it from here.

That's right.

It's just, it really, it's, in a way, there's a key story there still.

I mean, he's mad as hell about it.

I know.

It would be a hell of a start in California, though, to just get it out there, and that's where it's needed.

I mean, cabinet, those charts, without realizing it, that's where we're going to find it.

We're going to get at it.

Not that cabinet's going to start shaping up.

Well, that's why the shipyard thing is good, too, because it's a different type of unemployment, but it's, that's the real reaction.

That's everything that's done in California.

We're not improving.

About two.

I want to do the shipyard and the Lockheed thing all at one time.

Well, you'd see the trouble.

Well, let's just do the Lockheed, and I've got to stay a little out of it, because it's going to be a non-sector, and too many of our friends are against it.

Well, but it's posture now that the recommendation's coming here.

Yeah.

But then, then, finally, you see an ask.

He's a great one to make, too.

Would he make it?

I told him a great job.

He was at the chamber yesterday.

He says, boy, I thought I laid a goddamn egg over there.

He said, I was at the cabaret meeting and I had to do something on the hill and I would roll over there.

I was late and I hadn't figured out what I was going to say or anything.

I got up there and just gave him hell.

God, they loved it.

He's got balls.

He says, they work.

Does he please slow them down?

But he knew he got them in.

They had two standing ovations, so they probably stood out in the middle of the speech.

He said, he said, that's exactly what that means.

Cranks a button, people jump up and cheer.

But he's just shrewd.

One of the Air Force officers didn't have any goddamn brains.

Some of them had little guts.

Well, all of them got brains, but none of them had that color.

If I know what Romney did say, did he know that there was no text, so I bet he would have taken it.

They're getting it taped or something.

Well, it won't do the painting, yes, it will.

Well, yes, it will.

It'll determine whether we're going to use it anymore in the future.

If he isn't up there, I'll leave it out.

We'll see whether he messages get it through the bell or something.

I'll let you know.

Bowlby has just considered too much of a joke, isn't he?

It's quite candidly done.

I don't know if he's a joke, but he just doesn't make much of a blip in what he says.

Well, that's my point about the press.

That's all.

Rich is one of the richest, and he just doesn't have a heart for giving anybody in the balls.

Good.

Stance.

Great.

Well, I hope he doesn't kick anybody except us.

Is that right?

Well, now he ought to kick the Democrats.

Doing all this little program.

That makes no sense.

He has a certain degree of color.

Yes, he has.

I'm just telling you, Martin won't kick anybody.

Martin's talking awful good again in the room.

But when he gets out there, he just loves to be loved.

He loves to be positive.

He's just a great, big, very tight-jacked drunk.

He just loves to say, you know, the nice things.

He doesn't like to hear, gee, isn't that great?

I agree with you.

That's not bad at all.

It's a lot of good on the positive side.

He does that.

So am I going to go and ask Powerful in his positive self.

And he says, Mr. President's doing this and that the other night, but I must say that it's, I don't agree with it.

But all cabinets are quite this bad.

We just haven't got anybody.

It's the ball that's up when they think it's going to be one time.

We were starting with the black ad, and all for Christ's sake, I don't mind that.

I don't think there's any place in that anyway.

Everybody's pressed for it, and the rest of the country, they don't want to see the black ad much.

It's true.

That's exactly true.

You're right in the end.

I surely wouldn't want to serve under a black captain.

I want to find out a little more about this Chappie James.

He's great.

Maybe we can pull him out of the Navy earlier than whatever he's in.

He's a pretty good man, but I deal with him because he's a public leader.

He's not real deep.

He's a good front man.

Fletcher.

You know, I'm comparing James and Fletcher.

Well, let me say, this guy can be put in as an assistant secretary of the Navy, Johnson, and isn't much.

He's a sweet guy.

He was the first chief war officer in the Marine Corps, and he's the first member of the governor's cabinet in California, and the first black member of the John Birch Society, and the first black member of the John Birch Society, and so on down the line.

But Johnson is an awful nice guy who doesn't have much to follow.

But who the hell cares how I think the secretary of the Navy doesn't have much to follow, but we care.

And he's a pleasant fellow.

He's the governor of that one.

Actually, he's got more than some of the government reserves armed against us.

I don't care who the Air Force is.

I don't know.

He doesn't matter.

See, they don't matter.

They don't do anything.

They don't say anything against us.

They don't say anything for us.

That's the point.

And maybe, maybe something better happens.

I mean, Mike.

But it could be a war.

It could be.

Let's have a secretary named Charlie Thomas as secretary, because he was one of the most productive advocates of ISA.

And they don't seem to stop fighting all the time.

And they can have a lot of pizzazz.

They can go around with, you know, Naval Aids, they can make a speech.

You just put this down.

What about the Secretary of the Navy?

When we get a new Secretary of the Army, by God, we want somebody that's going to talk with him and give some jackass, or we haven't promised that to somebody, or...

Laird is pushing hard for Bob Prokey.

We told him now that we have Bob Prokey, this guy from Wisconsin.

He's a very nice, very inside guy.

Hell of a nice guy.

He's an excellent man.

But he's a Laird man.

First, he's a Laird political hack.

I remember when I was advancing in Wisconsin, we did that Salute to Mel Laird dinner in 1958.

.

We'd ask her if it would have cost him, Secretary, then maybe he was making some news.

You can do it.

Good job.

You can do it.

I don't know.

J.D.

played that game.

J.D.

's trying to be nice to everybody, you know, and telling the boys to grow beards and all that.

Well, that's the one day he let them give it in on this from Ristie's side, and then from then on they tell him to eat him alive.

That's his own fault.

Well, it's his own fault.

J.D.

and his own fault together, Bob.

I don't think that's the way to make any points for our side.

He got a lot of help from the... Maybe late.

Well, not the maybe late as much as the other admirals in the service.

They were, you know, came down hard on him.

Good.

They didn't buy some of this.

What are you, like, too far?

With God, I'm telling you, they had girls in and all that sort of stuff.

I mean, that was yesterday.

He was thinking about having an all-girl naval vessel.

An all-girl naval vessel?

Now, for Christ's sakes, what in the hell do we want that for?

He must be nuts.

He's one of the world's little things.

He's a little nuts.

He's infected today.

Don't worry.

He's not going to be on my list.

He was thinking about having an altar.

He must have subconsciously overlooked the conflict.

What's the problem here?

What he's doing is he's pandering to the liberals and everything.

Just, they'll eat him alive.

They'll build a baby that way.

They'll build it that way.

You build it to the likes of Rattler and Moore and people like that.

Some probably know the Zumwaltz.

Which is weird.

I think he's still a two-parter, yeah.

There's some reason to drop some of the chicken and shit stuff.

Oh, of course.

Just some of it really was really good.

They'll bomb heads, whatever they did.

I don't know.

But they could.

They dropped the 13-button scan.

I used to do that every day.

There were 13 buttons to pick a week.

Those ants had 13 buttons across about one bridge to the original college.

That's great.

They had to unbutton all black to get it to pick the roof, and then you have to button it all back up again all the way around the symbolic.

Are the members of the press getting more room for these bastards on the Long Park?

I suppose they are.

I suspect some of them would be willing to do it.

Sure.

Let them get their final.

The spark is not out there.

The most suppressed core, though.

The rest of the 200 of them are sparking at the selective surface.

Why?

They're blocking the entrance.

Good.

That's correct.

Thank you.

Like the Supreme Court's actions, right?

They cannot block the image of the Supreme Court, that's right.

The advantage of these people not to do that, they're not going to stop this government.

Several services have been asked

Now, if we're going to have a liberal elite policy on Monday, our plan is to have Hampton answer that question to any agency that asks them.

If they said no, Monday will be business as usual.

It will not be a liberal elite policy.

Absolutely.

That's what they're doing is they're handing out leaflets at these blockade points that they plan to block on Monday to government workers saying, join with us in protesting the war.

You won't be able to get to work anyway, so don't go to work on Monday.

Our policy has got to be that if there is a traffic jam, we'll be liberal on being lazy.

You've got to play it the other way, or they'll all sit in their asses alone.

I mean, I know these government workers just sit in their asses in the office.

It'd be like a snow alert for them.

It'd be like a snow alert for them to say hello.

I know, I know.

That's our thing.

Everybody else is going to sit in their pants.

You give them the opportunity to do what the kids do.

You know, gee, we've got recess today.

Earthquake alarm.

Fire alarm.

Oh, ain't it great?

It's a cool bird now.

We don't do anything against on White House tours.

We don't do that.

That poses a security problem.

Fortunately, they don't have tours on Monday anyway.

If they jam things up on Monday, we can, as a reaction, close the White House tours.

If we do, we have to.

Or Tuesday.

But we sure as hell don't have tours on Monday.

So as of now, we just say that White House tours are open as usual.

I'm changing that shirt.

I just love to keep on.

I don't know.

I agree.

I'd say that's my feeling, too.

I think he's absolutely right in closing his office.

He's trying to tell them.

He's saying, if you're going to let them throw red paint in my place and terrorize my secretaries and ruffle through my papers, I'm not going to sit here and leave it open.

Good point.

Well, he isn't blaming us.

No, no.

The thing I like to see is a guy going like Hart, out before those fellows on the Capitol steps, with the people giving him a rough time.

Did they?

Yes.

And he, I don't think he came off very well.

He started giving them a rough time.

He said, you keep this up, and we'll be able to get a vote through, and you've got to cooperate with us here.

And then they keep saying, why don't you go about it?

Why don't you stop the work of the Senate?

And I think that they should go through it.

In other words, they're looking.

That's exactly right.

Because they're looking.

They're looking at exactly what they're looking for.

That's right.

Because they're looking.

All they have to do is say,

In terms of the press, Lois, I met with the president today and talked about it, and bang, the news thrust us to the White House immediately.

Have we had enough for a couple of years?

Yes, we did.

I'm just going to say, I'm not going to discuss this matter.

It's a matter for me to discuss with the Attorney General.

Don't you think that's a good idea?

Yes.

Absolutely.

And don't have the Attorney General there to discuss it.

Don't allow him to discuss it.

If you want to have a meeting with the Attorney General, fine.

But why else stay anonymous?

It's probably the Congress for each department.

Because if you say anything, then if you will run out and say, we're working this out with the president, he won't throw it up to us.

By Tuesday, the fat will be in the fire.

Whatever is going to happen will have happened enough on Monday that we'll know where we truly are.

Well, you look outside and you see what they've been able to do up to this point.

I don't.

Well, I don't know how much you're going to be able to do.

I've never been proud of a weekend.

There are not many here, that's my point.

Not now.

We've got to get up here.

It's cold as hell.

It's a little warm up, too.

I don't know if it's safe to go.

I'm going to be facing the message.

There's a bunch of Atlanta staff.

Some of them died.

Some of them died this morning.

Somebody did die yesterday.

Yes, sir.

And he walked in right out of the ring and said, that's just a rumor.

He said, you can't say that.

They don't have that.

So my neighbor's got one in his morgue.

In his morgue?

In his morgue.

Where they built it.

They took it out and stripped it.

Well, they think there's some stricken under there.

You only see the camera crews stay away from down there.

Why couldn't they take pictures of that?

They took pictures of veterans in that fair treatment.

I think some of them are down there.

I just think it's getting a lot...

They're beginning to...

and the editors and so forth are beginning to feel a little guilty about coming around on the thing, I think.

The film's being put on.

Well, I mean, they know they have to put it on, and they know they can't.

Well, maybe just a little bit.

I don't know.

No, no, I think it's going to be a lot better.

I think they put it on because it's a legitimate story.

I'll tell you, there's a feeling, however, that the Benner's thing was overplayed and the

And the demonstration, particularly carried in the mind of Seiden, who was talking all over about it.

For example, well, we went down to North Carolina with Radin, Helen Thomas, Doug Cornell.

Well, they all went.

Oh, yeah.

Well, this is a similar time.

Right.

On a panel on this.

And Seiden, we were looking at the paper on the thing, and Seiden took the paper.

It was a Sunday paper.

He threw it down on the place.

Now, this is irresponsible news.

This is overplayed.

No reason why this thing should be here.

Why does he write that?

He may.

Siding may write this now.

I mean, you know.

He sometimes does.

Yeah, he does.

But a guy like Siding says...

I remember, too, that he's got some eventual editor who might just burn his ass.

He's got to look.

He's got to run.

Let's forget the top two, you know.

He must be edited one day.

and the head of the government sitting out there with his half-assed attitude.

I mean, Seide gets in as much as he does.

I'm not being one of his defenders, but I understand now that the editorial control of my time is so rough.

It's a fair amount of pretty good stuff.

What's that with Alex?

He has influence on others.

Well, when he talks about it, you know, it gets him jittery.

It doesn't affect really what gets on the network news, but it affects him jittery.

You know, of course, the audience is going to think it's time to learn.

Dave Holtz said, you know, he was the one that suggested going out and looking at marine fishing.

I was delighted to do it.

I thought it was a wonderful idea.

I thought it was a great idea.

They never have.

Whenever I've done anything on the Patriotic side.

Oh, they may do it.

They may get hurt.

Maybe that's it.

I think the last marine division coming home, the colors arriving, your remarks, I think it'll be good.

I think it'll be good.

They're going to have it.

They're going to electronically, you know, put it down.

So they'll have it.

I think the color of it is the President of the United States there in that setting.

I think that, you know, it's a certain amount in that there's the strength of the nation and the commander-in-chief and so forth that in itself provides the color.

I think more so than, you know, moving amongst them.

All right.

Let's... You know, actually, Ron, I was thinking in terms of the...

It actually...

The six hours I mentioned to you, the more than six hours, was the

Not the private interview.

I told them, I reminded them of the additional two, but you're right if you include, which I did suggest to them, the private.

I even talked about the 15 others who were coming.

There's a hell of a lot of questioning, and I don't know how the hell we get time for anything else.

I don't think we're going to make the issue.

That's not an issue, really.

They're still riding on the too much exposure issue.

Oh, well.

I haven't gotten the question.

I haven't gotten the question in the briefing on the press conferences or any of that type thing for three and a half months.

Since the first year.

As long as we pay this thing.

We just got to get used to not having as many things.

It's true.

It's all doing it our own way.

I know that there are problems, too.

When we talked about that, I remember all that editor said, you know, if you're just kicking a woman, but you decide to be able to trade that for contact, you know, he's literally like a good spy, you know what I'm saying?

He wouldn't survive, not five minutes.

He just barely does anything.

He doesn't get on very much.

Well, that's because when they see him.

You know, Rather's an interesting personality because Rather looks at himself.

First of all, Rather, from his personal standpoint, is building his own career.

He's building his own image.

He's trying to build an image of being blunt and outspoken.

No question about it.

He told me that.

I talked to him yesterday.

I said, now, Dan, I know you have that style.

He said, that's right.

But he, I think philosophically, is pretty balanced and attuned to the president.

He doesn't come off that way, because he's trying to be on this other side, and that's the example of the way he knows what many might care about you, but I don't know the way you make wishes to be a goddamn fool.

Amen.

You don't detect somebody, and that's what Brad is doing.

He's getting us all to detect somebody, or be positive.

Well, he goes running out with a star story and gets on the air.

He says the reason this is happening is so-and-so-and-so-and-so.

He explains it all.

He doesn't have the following assumption, what he's talking about.

He makes it up.

I think he makes a great deal of it up.

There's a mess in my mind about it.

A lot of these guys would like to source it up and make a good deal of it up.

Brad has got the guts to make it up and put it on the air.

Most people are afraid to.

You had a talk with the, did you talk to Ron about the three-network coverage of Pierce's tour in Washington?

Yes.

That was, they had discussed that over there.

That's where, do you think we can get that done?

Or can you get one to understand?

It has to be either NBC or CBS.

My guess is that, as much as I hate CBS, the problem is they did the other thing to this one.

But it's a hell of a half-hour show, and they'll have half-hour shows.

We already have started pulling out of the archives.

I will not do it on a news basis.

It will not be done.

It will not be on the morning show.

And it will not be done on purpose as well.

Here, boys, we'll give you an hour.

You can use two minutes of news.

They want a special.

They can have it.

They want an hour special.

That's the way we're going to put it to them.

And we'll put it to all three of them.

And then I'm going to put it to them on the basis of either all three of you can have it for a prime time thing or the first would go then to the worst hitter.

I understand.

I'll be in control of this.

Well, I'm sorry.

You don't need to worry about your control.

First, they're assuming that the time slot model is acceptable, obviously.

Oh, sure.

Oh, no.

We'd put it to them on their own.

She's going to do this.

See, there's some great things, too, that can go into that.

The old pictures from the, which they could work into it, which the people are already pulling out of when wrote in this.

I'll explain that.

You've got the back of the gray arrow, and I'll be on it anyway.

We mentioned this to Trisha.

She loved it.

She was good.

But I told her, but only, only, only if it's your old marvelous.

There's no crap.

We'll be doing it, but then we shouldn't know.

where you really don't know.

You can have prime time.

It's a, several expresses the interest of what you want.

One boy can have either a half hour or an hour.

You can have an hour and a half, and we will, we're in the whole, all the White House, the White House people are going to cooperate in terms of pictures and commentary and all that sort of thing.

It's a hell of a show.

I think probably one member has to do it because I don't see how freedom would be, because we've got a freedom of commentators.

Well, there's maybe a way we can work that.

Maybe we'll do it without any competition.

That's right.

And then let them fill.

Just Trisha.

Kind of let them do their own show.

In other words, use the entire Trisha segment, but then fill it either end with, you know, a person.

It's not a necessity.

It's a high-signature segment.

The great thing, too, would be Trisha in the blow room, and then as she's talking about it, then they would, you know, put on the screen the photograph of the, you know, briefly of the wedding.

There's a good story of White House weddings.

There's a book on White House weddings.

You see, this makes the book really comfortable.

And people love it.

Having Alice on would be a hell of a good thing.

She'd sing it around, all the old folks.

And she said she cared.

And then show her, show a picture of her.

She didn't have any money.

She had this terrible list of people in her life.

That's the...

Terrible.

She'd be marvelous.

That's the spark in me.

I mean, the other is good, too, but with her, there'd be...

Okay.

The White House photographer's dinner is tonight, you know.

And you're not going, of course.

That's no problem.

We're preparing a message for you, which will be read.

Right.

It would be, if you have a chance, when you're walking over to EOB...

if you could stop by the Roosevelt Room, the Cancellary, and some of the guys who submitted things, if you could have your picture taken, it would take just a few minutes.

It would mean a lot to them.

I may be able to round them up now, if we could.

Oh, no, no, no.

I'll do it whenever you want.

Well, let me check.

I will have all of them.

I mean, can I see the picture?

No, I'll be glad to do it.

I understand that I'm going to do it next year.

I'm told that.

And if you want, when you, this is what we had in the winter, Sandra.

All right.

I had a recommendation.

When you go to the Johnson Library, you probably will want to give Johnson a gift.

And they got a hell of a good recommendation that comes out rather deeply.

When he was in office, there was an 18 by 18 portrait of Andrew Jackson hung here in the Oval Office, which the story is that he and Mrs. Johnson both were very much, he loved, thought this was such a great portrait and all.

which would make it an appropriate gift.

Now, you can't give it because it belongs to the Mellons.

It was donated to the National Art Gallery who loaned it to the White House.

But Clint Conker feels that he can maneuver the loan from the White House to the LBJ Library so that you, in effect, it's like the Steinway piano that you gave Truman.

But we have another Jackson, so it doesn't make any difference if we give this one away.

Yeah, this is 18 by 18.

It's not a big one.

It's a small Jackson that was hanging in the office.

It's great.

Go for it.

And Clint will have to do some maneuvering to bring it about.

But if you want to do it, we'll get you started.

All right.

I think it's a really good idea, Steve.

Makes it personal.

I want to have you on the news conference tomorrow so that you won't have to let anybody come in.

You've already told us I want to use the podium this time, right?

I think it's better.

I mean, let's try it for a change.

I mean, I just like the idea of a seal for a change.

What do you think?

And they'll ask why, and just see if you're used to the ASNE, and a number of people suggested that it really looked better than the microphone, so we thought we'd do it.

How do you say the sounds right here?

believable now.

That's what I was going to say.

I think we just saved a lot of people, but it looked great.

We should try it.

It won't sell as a big news story, but we've got to satisfy them somehow to get an answer.

That's right.

No, I think it is.

I don't think it's a big thing.

It's too easy for me.

I can sit there and I can stand on my feet or put my hands in my pocket or everybody else can slumber around and all that sort of thing.

And everybody will love each other.

We proved the thing in my thing.

We proved it.

But it is that I'm not going to.

I don't want anything of it.

I want to do it my own way this time, the way I have previously.

You understand, for any, for anything that I do at the desk, or any that's close to work, like something with commentators, then I have to have, and I understand that.

But at the press conference, with the longer shot, and the...

They've got a dang good argument for using it.

Go in as light as you want.

And, you know, I don't trust them.

They aren't going to use it because it's 15 minutes of my time just before I go home.

It doesn't help.

Or the doctor said, put it here now.

Oh, fine, now you're right.

Here's the thing.

See, I have my own makeup email.

And I put that up.

I know how to do it.

And it's looked damn good.

Those news conferences have looked fine.

Anybody complain about it?

One, where the eyes were not .

So we'll see.

We'll see.

I don't think it makes so much of a difference.

What I mean is that I think it's better.

See, when I read speeches, I ain't got nothing to respond to even before it because I'm ready to read speech.

When I go on to, when I go on to a Q&A, I just don't like the interruption of having to have somebody in there and curators and

and other people standing around, they're making the makeup and so forth, so we have nobody around to do this.

They, and they should, they'll argue that it's not doing it the best way you can.

I just heard, I understand they all tend to, they usually look fine.

I mean, they have.

Well, what the hell are we doing?

Why not do it?

Another thing, I don't perspire especially when I don't have makeup.

That's another thing.

Yeah, but it really makes me perspire more.

I think that's extremely non-tragic.

I mean, I have to wipe my lips and so forth.

Let me try it my way this time, okay?

At the press conferences, I hardly learn.

But I put that tan makeup on.

I perspire.

So I'll do it that way this time.

Sure.

All right.

Let's try it.

You see, I perspire anyway.

We'll do the other one.

And I'll put on, I'll put a beard stick on.

And I'll cover the eyes with something else.

I think I just tried that.

Tom, that's right on the perspiration.

Tom and I just noticed that perspiration.

I don't think it's all that important.

The reason I raise these subjects, Ted,

It is.

We've got to shake ourselves up a bit on that.

The whole business of doing everything well, being very business-like, being very cool, being very perfect, and God damn, take some cheap shots.

That's what I'm really saying.

We've got a demodox image, Bob.

Now, the catcher in this one, I know, as I said, I really feel that we have to move around sometimes in other positions.

Cole's probably the man in the community.

You're right.

He's awfully good.

But on the other hand, he's a good worker of mine.

He's a good insider.

I don't know.

We don't need to think about him now.

He's a good guy.

I just really feel that they're throwing the whole cancer thing down in two by putting it in the goddamn NIH.

That's really true.

They can tell me all they want when I bring in this asshole doctor from Stanford.

No, sir.

He'll be a blind, probably anti-war, anti-Nexus man in the beginning who doesn't get one damn what we do politically.

I want a man that's for us in that thing.

So I'll have a force who'll work with the private sector, who'll push this thing, kick the doctor's ass, and frankly get us some credit for it.

I want us to have, I want the cancer thing to be ours.

And the same resembles the park thing.

It really, you know, there's a big project on the Rembrandt Parkway East and Gateway West line, that's fine.

But these are an obscene one.

We go on it.

We've got to find a way to get, you know, to be identified with it.

To just say, well, even like the beach, as I said, what I think we should have been able to do was go on the beach.

I'd find some way to name a pavilion or a circle or something.

We, uh...

The whole thing about public relations, but we really aren't ready for that, are we?

Not in that kind of stuff.

I hope.

I'm really not ready for that.

We don't.

Here we sit.

Far, far away.

I know those are the predominant things to be coming.

But these things are also the entertainment that's there all the time.

And as we go further up the line, they will come up, you see.

What the hell do we got else to do?

Don't let it go down to the point where it's going to happen.

No, really.

That's part of the reason.

I'm sorry.