Conversation 719-015

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He's over a comment.

Yeah.

As soon as he gets back, give me a buzz, OK?

He really is.

What did Harold Mendel go for at a funeral?

He drank about four, five, or six Mendels.

As a kid, when I got back, I said, why did he try to get the surgery?

Well, it started bad for him.

He has blue cross, and I can almost see whether that covers everything.

He mentioned the error that nobody involved the President of the United States.

It wasn't bad, he talked about it, everybody was saying he wanted to make a little speech, but I thought it was anticlimactic after, because I left it on a fairly high note.

It was, it was all, it was, that was the only, I thought the whole service was beautiful, and the Army Corps was so good and everything, but he didn't need to go in.

He wasn't really, it was, he wasn't trying to get on some national television, and yeah, it was,

He hasn't changed one bit.

We've got to have him over here.

Put it down.

I think we've just got to do it.

All right.

I took Bob King with me, and he thought it was just, he said, you know, the words were well chosen, and he was very, very pleased with how he delivered it.

Actually, some of the nickels as we were driving away, I didn't see him say hello.

I was like, oh, he looks awful.

He looks so thin, and he looks very bad.

Maybe he still had problems with that.

You know, he had a heart attack one time.

Maybe that's it.

Those that are all getting very old in their families, you know, they're all in their 70s now.

Is Lou that old too?

Sure.

Well, he's damn close to 70.

He's a little younger than me.

I was glad to be able to pick up why I had permissiveness.

I swear to God, I associate with the disruptors.

This and that.

I've never got a snub or got a go at it.

You know, these things, the eulogies are difficult.

I didn't want to rise in harm.

I'm not going to do any more.

There's nobody I can think of now that

But you can't say you'd never do it, because it might be someone you feel was, you know.

Well, I know, I know that I can do official positions.

I should, for a personal impression, never do it.

No, no.

But what I meant is there's nobody in official positions.

I can speak, or I don't know them that well.

Vice President, you know.

That's where you can't really do it.

I will see.

But as a general question.

Well, they're very difficult to do.

That was a nice point to make, too, the tragedy of the wife, which I thought .

The tragedy of the wife was that the greatest of men was only recognized after their death, but he was .

That's quite true.

It is .

Oh, he went the way he should have.

Oh, Rose, listen.

I'm so glad he went.

He didn't go a minute too soon.

They're nice.

Oh, this campaign would have been horrible for them.

And frankly, as you know, we have strong, strong recommendations from our own staff here that I'm trying to understand.

This last fall, when he was under terrible attack, life was at risk.

I called him in, and I had breakfast with him, and we chatted the whole thing over without being too direct.

I could see he wanted to hang tight, and I suppose he won't.

Well, God was good to him.

He took him by the hand.

Yeah.

But he lay.

He stayed on.

He'd become an issue.

He would have died a bitter old man.

As it is, he died in his sleep.

And by golly, there he is at the top.

And particularly, you remember in the press conference, too, they asked me about him.

I always stood up for him.

Yeah.

And it would be a shame to end the career like he's had.

with these harping critics tearing him to pulp reputation, you know.

Jack Anderson was actually starting after him again, I think, two days before he died.

Yeah, and the son of a picture of Franklin Tom after he died.

Well, he has said that.

He's such a hypocrite.

I don't think he even realizes what a hypocrite he is.

He's one of the most evil, evil, evil men I've ever heard.

Evil, just like Pearson.

But he was a good friend.

Yeah, that's right.

Of course, we all know his weaknesses and strengths of the old time.

He wasn't tired.

He was coming to the point that much of the air was being affected.

And we all know that.

But on the other hand, he had to go out this way.

He couldn't drive in on a bus.

No.

He didn't.

He just graciously found a way to go.

Now it's done.

And he went out with Homer, and that's the first thing I thought the other day.

And Miss Gandy knows that, didn't she?

I called her.

I talked with her shortly after he died, didn't I?

I know, sir.

She was a great man.

She had a great time with him.

She was broke out crying.

Oh, did she?

I don't know what she looked like.

Never seen her.

I didn't know where she was this morning.

It looks well.

It looks better.

I thought we'd have this, uh, some event she used to do, Lions International Saturday night.

You better hold it in.

I don't know what will happen.

I said, by Sunday, we will know.

We may not know until Monday, but that's what we want to know.

Well, I'll just, there's no problem.

I'll just tell them.

I'll come another time.

I think, actually, that you might give Deep the call.

You see, I, indeed, from time to time, I mean, I mean, not to be, because I only see it, frankly, I sort of feel guilty about it.

I only see it.

But that takes everybody.

But it's really what you don't like to

When would you like to see me come up Friday afternoon or Thursday?

When do you go on Friday afternoon?

I'll be up here.

And say he'd like to bring home a lot of work.

He always does.

He made a lot of calls last time.

He doesn't need to bring them up.

I guess he's a little too tired.

Well, you know, it's hard to find a good secretary at the crisis.

The kids who just play on tapas these days make fabulous sound.

And they get this exaggerated idea from schools these days that they don't really have to do it.

I can understand this problem.

It's difficult.

It's just part of the ages.

Not only secretaries now.

It's gotten to be where people really don't feel they have to produce much.

They just have to appear or something.

I bet a lot of people were watching that.

A lot will be on the news tonight.

Marge said that even Brian Utley, the one I don't like at all, was buried.

Brian Utley or something like that's his name.

And they say he was buried, though.

Seemed to be buried by, you know.

Maybe carried more than anything.