Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Lady Bird Johnson died today. I was in a bookstore in Madison Monday and decided not to get her journal of the White House years for $20. I did get "The Vantage Point" by LBJ for $10, and probably would have liked Lady Bird's book better, but I'm cheap.
Lyndon was a crook, a drunk, an adulterer, a monomaniac, and possibly a great American. Lady Bird was humble, a hard worker, a good person, except that she was Lyndon's number one enabler. She was what Hillary Clinton isn't.
She was a strong capable woman. She ran his congressional office while he was off on WWII junkets. She ran the radio and TV stations that LBJ funneled his millions through. She ran the ranch, and drove a station wagon a few times a year between DC and Texas while Lyndon flew. My father's mother, and my father's sisters, are from that kind of Texas pioneer stock - my father was born in Wichita Falls in 1929 while his father worked for oil wildcatters. My uncle Bob lives out somewhere not too far from the LBJ ranch. The mixed feelings that I have about LBJ are related to the mixed feelings I have about my father. Everything from Texas is a little bit larger than life.
Lyndon was a crook, a drunk, an adulterer, a monomaniac, and possibly a great American. Lady Bird was humble, a hard worker, a good person, except that she was Lyndon's number one enabler. She was what Hillary Clinton isn't.
She was a strong capable woman. She ran his congressional office while he was off on WWII junkets. She ran the radio and TV stations that LBJ funneled his millions through. She ran the ranch, and drove a station wagon a few times a year between DC and Texas while Lyndon flew. My father's mother, and my father's sisters, are from that kind of Texas pioneer stock - my father was born in Wichita Falls in 1929 while his father worked for oil wildcatters. My uncle Bob lives out somewhere not too far from the LBJ ranch. The mixed feelings that I have about LBJ are related to the mixed feelings I have about my father. Everything from Texas is a little bit larger than life.
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