Still master of the Senate better LBJ JFK relationship

Is it imaginable ThatJohn Kennedy could have worked more effectively and closely with his vp. cOULD LBJ have used the Presidency of the Senate and hsi well known political skiles to help get JFK's stuff through
 
LBJ ticked off lot of the senate democrats when he tried to get to keep his majority leader power and senate offices at the start of the JFK Presidency. He thought he could have his cake and eat it too. JFK used LBJ in many cases. (NASA) But not many Presidents before Carter used them at all.
 
JFK and LBJ had an OK personal relationship, but LBJ either never realized or never believed that the brothers were playing a good/bad cop routine as usual. That said, LBJ lost most of his clout on the Hill because he no longer had chits to trade. He could help with negotiations or try and persuade old friends like Biden does now, but not much more.
 
JFK and LBJ had an OK personal relationship, but LBJ either never realized or never believed that the brothers were playing a good/bad cop routine as usual. That said, LBJ lost most of his clout on the Hill because he no longer had chits to trade. He could help with negotiations or try and persuade old friends like Biden does now, but not much more.

A similar thing could be said for Cactus Jack Garner. He went from being Speaker of the House to practically nothing. JFK and LBJ had a fine relationship. Like any other VP, LBJ wasn't privy to a lot of the very private conversations that the President, his brother, and other cabinet members were.
 
A similar thing could be said for Cactus Jack Garner. He went from being Speaker of the House to practically nothing. JFK and LBJ had a fine relationship. Like any other VP, LBJ wasn't privy to a lot of the very private conversations that the President, his brother, and other cabinet members were.

Which caused a lot of interpersonal tension in itself. Part of the problem we saw on a much more covert scale during the Clinton years: Deputy President and Vice President were not the same individual, and certainly not at the same level of influence. Also the Kennedys were horrible legislative managers and had passed the point where they could have learned those skills even if they wanted to. Both had the wrong personalities, and unlike Obama (who also has the wrong personality for that) they didn't have an ideologically cohesive Congressional caucus with an iron-fisted parliamentarian like Pelosi or DeLay in charge to do the heavy lifting for them. As Dallek notes, while technically there was a high pass rate of administration legislation it was mostly routine or fairly uncontroversial.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
It wasn't about being dumb. It was about if you give Lyndon an inch, he'll take the width of the White House lawn.
Or whatever's left of your personal space
nytjohnson02.jpg
 
Smart was a bad word, but it was foolish not to take advantage of LBJ's legislative abilities.

But as I argued, all he can do is play the Biden role, which won't pass anything. You need an ideologically cohesive Congressional wing with an iron-fisted leader like Pelosi or DeLay, or another wave of liberal frosh in 1964. The logjam probably breaks once the liberal frosh get washed in come November 1964.
 
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