Conversation 838-015

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I have one little brief comment I suppose you would like to make.

It would follow the names of all the Republicans that we are sure stood with us on that last council.

I know they were all there, but you know, you could check the list.

And all the Democrats, there were 75 House Democrats that stood with us, and then there were Jews.

We had Jesus, for example, on eight barriers, but that was actually, obviously it wasn't.

And then the Senators stood with us.

I've got to think of something, some kind of a future, you know, I don't know when it'll be.

Right.

I'm sorry, but, you know, I did this once before.

I think it was over in the back room.

I had a back room with the Democrats.

Remember, I had a reception for all of them after a vote once in the night.

That dining room, they all cheered.

Oh, that's right.

That was the veto over Ryan, I think.

The first thing, same kind of a thing.

One of the problems, Mr. President of the House, is that they took the votes in the Democratic caucus and the Republican conference by teller.

Well, can't you find out?

Yeah, I have some friends.

Sure.

Joe Wagner and others.

Yes.

Now, second point.

I need from you a list, a list which we may or may not have an opportunity to use, but I'd like to be prepared for it.

And either way, some time in the next couple of weeks, I'm sure Henry will finish his talks.

We've got to report him to the current meeting and report him to the committee.

Obviously, you've got the leaders.

I have decided under no circumstances will we have any kind of a bipartisan leadership meeting again because of what Dr. Moss did.

And I think we've got a perfect excuse for it.

On the other hand,

Yeah, that's fine.

And you could do some of those on an individual basis, would you not agree?

That's correct.

I would like for you to list in the leadership, the leaders that you've got to list the top four, and then add from that maybe Jake Bird.

Then I'd like to know from a foreign policy area, give me the

ranking Democrat and Republican on foreign relations defense.

Do we have appropriation?

We've always had appropriation.

It's fine.

Mainly because they're pretty good guys.

The other thing I need is that I'd like a list of about five or six wild cards.

For example, is Howard Reagan on defense?

No, Thurman.

But Towers, the wild card, for example, who's one of the kinds of degree he's good with, let's say, for example, as a matter of fact, in a case like this, I think Tad would have been pretty good.

Yes, he is.

Right?

You've got Tad.

I wouldn't put Percy on it.

You know what I mean.

If, for example, we had something we wanted to report in terms of action in a couple weeks, I'd like to know which holes would you say should be called.

And of course, you put the prayers.

If five leaders had to be called, you would say, here are the performers.

And then some wild cards that are very important.

The list cannot be too long, you understand.

But I'd like to see it.

You agree?

I do.

He's a caucus chairman, and really, we're stretching it down at that level anyway.

Son of a gun.

He broke through?

Sure he did.

I talked to Mike about it, too.

Mike really broke through?

Yeah, he sure did.

He said that, well, nobody said it.

He already made a very difficult call for us.

I did.

Even though it wasn't Saddam, I said, but how can I trust him on something?

See, that's right.

And I'm putting together a list of other things like that.

Helm's going to testify on Monday in a secret session of the, up there.

And Stu Simonson went out and blabbed the paper about the Chinese capability in nuclear weapons, you know.

My hand is never left.

That's right.

And Carl Howard has, then.

Of course he doesn't.

The thing is that Mike, he's in Dixie Griselle at the moment.

But take it over there to the Vietnam thing.

Once you go there together.

He just called this morning at 9.30 a meeting of the Democrats in the Senate, and then in a caucus.

And we can't tell you what it's about.

It wasn't planned.

It's a spur-of-the-moment caucus.

And we've talked to some chairmen, Russell Long and Steve Jackson.

much about they passed their silly resolution on vietnam i'm afraid they're going to try to hold hostage your nominees i mean that's the only thing i can think of that uh but it's very secret they won't we can't do that because of vietnam probably and testimony before the foreign relations committee for you know consultation and all that junk that may not be that problem

We can't testify before a relations committee who wants negotiations during the process.

They know better than that.

And the experience on that, that they do the negotiations during the process, you're going to go up and testify before the committees of what you're negotiating.

So they want to testify, why did we bomb?

They don't know why they had to be bombed.

We bombed because the enemy stopped, and that's why the enemy came back.

You know that.

Well, can we say that?

Hell no.

Now, we can't say that because they're the enemy.

I think that we forced them back.

We did force them back.

That's exactly what happened.

That's what I did to me.

Right?

Right.

Well, I may be overly alarmed about that, but I'm concerned because I don't know what they're up to.

And he is the chairman, so it's not Mike and one or two, maybe.

It could be something to do with Watergate.

I don't know.

We'll find out.

But it's them guys.

Well, they got out of Watergate, but...

I don't know, but the hunt already.

Well, they want Irving to take it, and Irving won't be back in town till tomorrow, and he's resisting it.

He doesn't really want it.

I think he recognizes it's kind of a cheap shot, really.

and why would they want to get in and mix it up?

And it's going to be before the car.

Sure.

At least, I hear four or five will be, you know, if one or two are going to, they're not going to leave.

By God, if they get into this thing, they're bound to break the central.

And that must worry a guy like her, you know.

All right, so I'll put together both of these lists, one for recognition at some time, and the big group.

The big group is for recognition, which I do not need to see.

You know who this is.

Recognition is basically, let's face it, the stand by the president's club.

And sometimes I just want, maybe a month or two from now, maybe just get them all in and say, I have nothing on the line for asking, but you folks over four years have stood with us, and I'll get something to do with you.

in other words it's the development of our majority you see which we have got to do we gotta quit simon asked uh bill i mean we gotta of course see though that the leadership in our side of the blood space the man scales uh

I'm doing a master for Rosemary Woods on invitation for events in the future and giving her some guidance on the guys that have set up over four years.

When it comes time for St. Henderson's worship services and that stuff, we can have an overall list.

people bring their kids or their relatives or their in-laws anymore because that's what happens.

Somebody brings ten, another brings two.

And so you can just bite the cubs, that's all.

We're just doing it for the cubs.

And as word gets out that the guys that stand up in the county to be taken care of on personnel things, on social demand, it'll move around.

And I think a lot of them will fall in line.

I'm very pleased with Bennett Johnson.

I saw that.

You saw your memo.

Yeah.

I think that's going to be a real addition.

I have also arranged that they take it to the memory hall and have briefings of the new people.

But the one I thought that should be with Henry is

And I directed him as an extra assignment for six days to be available to read.

You see, he'll do so much better job than Rogers will, as Rogers will sort of limit himself in state department check, I guess.

But don't you agree?

I do.

You've heard it all.

Oh, he's marvelous.

I mean, he's better than Henry.

Well, I do, too.

Basically, Henry's...

Henry's trying to impress the intellectuals, and Al's trying to get the point across to the folks.

That's right, yeah.

And so you've got Al.

Al is your big gun, and he'll just go over there and breathe.

And I agree.

I'd like to have you breathe all of the freshness of Republicans.

I'd like to get some of our Democrats, like Bennett Johnson and others, and get them to agree when I'm asked questions.

As I said, to cover the Nixon doctrine, to cover China, Russia, and Europe, national security,

sort of a feeling of what this is all about.

What do you think?

I think it's a good idea.

Good idea.

Sam Nunn of Georgia, I think it's going to be all right, too.

He voted against the Kennedy resolution in the caucus, as did Johnson.

And how about the others?

No, he went the other way.

Oh, I heard him.

I don't know.

He went the other way.

I'll double-check that.

He went the way of Johnson.

Well, I think it's the Kennedy people.

You've got, in other words, on the ideological journey, for sure you've got two, Eleanor would have been up against this, right?

So you've got, you've picked up two there.

of the Democratic side.

And if Huddleston swings, well, that's great.

Well, you'll get Huddleston more often than Cooper.

I think so.

Do you think so?

I think so.

On the war issue, on domestic stuff, who knows yet.

Oh, yeah, they're all there.

Yeah.

Okay, Mr. President, on the other side, too, we've got to realize that ours is definitely looking at the ideological.

He picked up, uh, he picked up, obviously, in Oklahoma.

He picked up in Mexico.

No, Anderson.

Anderson was on our island.

He waited.

That's right.

Scoop had to sit with him in voting virtually all the time.

Scott and Fong, that's the... Scott.

Scott voted better.

And, and, and... Helms.

Helms was the right-winger from APAC.

He was the majority of it, straight on, and not too often.

He was a little better there.

Or you lose, obviously.

I think so.

She was pretty good when it really came down to it.

Pretty good when it really came down to it.

Not eating him.

But pretty good on him.

Gordon Allen.

Jack Miller.

He was good with us on this.

So you lose one, two, three, four there.

But on the other hand, you pick up probably one, two, three, four.

you may pick up through them before it's about the same better watch i think it's better watch

We've got people like Saxby and that little crowd, too, that are...

True, true.

They're just mavericks.

We always had that kind of... Saxby went beyond the pale, though, I think.

It wasn't necessary.

There's no personal attack.

You take a pro.

A pro always has answers.

Cooper was always the answer.

Cooper and Cooper were never personal.

Even that asshole Percy is not personal.

Right?

That's right.

You don't get personal in such things.

I think he's told people that he realizes when his foot goes in the mouth, according to what he did, I just got out of the mouth.

Foot in the mouth, he said.

Don't worry.

Keep it in mind.

Don't let it come right back.

No, we've got him on the list now.

And these jokers are...

Telling the reporter about their mail flow this morning.

I don't know if you saw that in the paper.

They have mail counts, you know.

For goodness sakes.

They get Republicans who would tell these guys what the... You mean the war?

The war, yeah.

Bombing.

The mail count's going to be against the bombing, because we aren't stipulating anything for it.

All those crazy groups out there are writing in, and they shouldn't wait in the mail.

You know, who...

200 letters to 10, what difference does it make?

It doesn't make any difference.

Oh, God, not a day or a week, right?

That's no chance, though, to be able to borrow history.

I've had a chance to see in the cartoons that have been written or drawn in the last week or so about Congress and how out of step it is and dilapidated and aged and yack, yack, yack.

Who put up the mail count?

Scott?

Oh, there's a big list.

I think there's 20 or something members, Democrats and Republicans.

A Post reporter went around and called.

I guess the assist AAs probably gave them, you know, estimates, 10 to 1, and some actual counts.

Of course, they were all head-to-head against us, but I can't see why...

They were head-to-head against us.

Yeah.

Well, no, this is time for us, and why they would give the mail count, I don't know.

Oh, I see.

Totally predictable.

Who the hell's stirring up mail with me in here?

These groups always, always, uh, right.

I was on a weak bunch.

All right, okay.