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But the younger man was having none of it. Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy brushed past Lyndon Baines Johnson as if he
169
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170 GREAT FEUDS IN HISTORY
didn t exist, intent only on reaching his newly widowed sister-
in-law as she mourned beside the casket that contained her mur-
dered husband s body.
 [Bobby] ran, said Johnson later,  so that he would not have
to pause and recognize the new president. 2
In all honesty, no one was surprised.
For seven years the two men had fought the nastiest turf war
that anyone in Washington could remember.  There was some-
thing about the personality of Bobby that irritated the devil out
of Johnson, and something about Johnson s personality that
obviously irritated Bobby, 3 recalled LBJ s press secretary,
George Reedy.
In every respect save one ambition they were polar oppo-
sites. Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy, the austere Ivy League multi-
millionaire who frowned on ostentation, a poetry buff weighed
down by a sense of noblesse oblige, groomed to perpetuate and
extend the family s influence into every corner of public life. Con-
trast that with Johnson s dust bowl background: the southwest
Texas farm boy who never forgot the numbing poverty of his
childhood, yet grew into a regular hill country dandy with a han-
kering for fine suits and chunky diamond rings, the good ol boy
who could turn the air blue with his locker room ribaldry.
Only politics could have brought together two such disparate
personalities. Each had been weaned on the stuff. Johnson s
father had served five terms in the Texas Legislature, while
Joseph Kennedy, former bootlegger and failed movie mogul, had
been ambassador to Britain under Franklin Roosevelt.
And unintentionally it was Joe Kennedy who sparked all the
trouble. It began in the fall of 1955, when the Democratic party
was scrambling for a candidate to field against President Eisen-
hower the following year. Among those sniffing the political wind
was John F. Kennedy, senator from Massachusetts, oldest sur-
viving Kennedy son and America s first made-for-TV politician.
With his youthful vigor and dazzling smile, Kennedy could light
up those television pixels in a way that made his rivals appear
comatose, as if they had been dipped in formaldehyde. But there
were drawbacks. First, his age: he was just thirty-eight. And
there was his religion: no Catholic had ever been president.
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Johnson versus Kennedy 171
Neither handicap was insurmountable, reasoned Joe, but,
pragmatic as always, he deemed it best if this time around John
positioned himself for a tilt at the vice presidency. That way he
could make the transition from regional to national figure, while
any damage incurred in the anticipated November massacre
could be mended in time for the 1960 election. Such a strategy
required a sacrificial lamb, someone prepared to tackle Eisen-
hower for the presidency. Given the incumbent s enormous pop-
ularity, the field of potential Democratic candidates was not
exactly overstocked, but Joe, a keen spotter of political horse-
flesh, had isolated one possibility from the herd Senate Major-
ity Leader Lyndon Johnson.
Nobody knew Washington better than the big guy from Texas,
and with his broad power base among southern Dixiecrats and
matchless negotiating skills, he was, Joe figured, sure to give a
good account of himself.
After enlisting the assistance of his favorite son, Bobby, who
was running JFK s campaign, Joe huddled with Johnson s close
friend Tommy Corcoran. Joe offered a deal: if Johnson would
announce his candidacy for president and privately pledge to
take John as his running mate, Joe promised to bankroll the
ticket. Corcoran relayed the offer to the LBJ Ranch, on the Ped-
ernales River in Texas. Johnson turned him down flat, fobbing
him off with the excuse that he had no interest in pursuing the
Oval Office. In reality, he, too, had his eye firmly fixed on 1960,
and he wasn t about to be Eisenhower s punching bag for Joe
Kennedy or anyone else, no matter how well stuffed the cam-
paign war chest.
Reaction among the Kennedys was mixed: Joe was disap-
pointed, John was unsurprised, Bobby was livid. Inexplicably, he
took Johnson s refusal as understandable as it was predictable
as a grievous personal insult to his father, whom he thought had
made a generous offer. As a result, Bobby turned on Johnson with
the ferocity of a Rottweiler.
 When Bobby hates you, you stay hated, 4 Joe Kennedy once
proudly boasted.
Sure enough, Johnson stayed hated.
The feeling was entirely mutual. To Johnson s way of thinking,
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172 GREAT FEUDS IN HISTORY
Bobby was  a grandstanding little runt 5 who was riding the fam-
ily coattails to fame. Neither could stand to be in the same room
as the other.
But for now there was an election to fight. As in 1952, Adlai
Stevenson led the Democratic ticket, this time with Estes Kefau-
ver as running mate, and as expected, they were buried. Eisen- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]