Read The Passage of Power Online

Authors: Robert A. Caro

The Passage of Power (145 page)

“Trading out”
;
“lived in fear”
:
Deathe interview.
Reynolds was telling the senator about campaign contributions:
For example, one from North American’s Fred Black, who, Reynolds said, handed [Bobby Baker] an envelope containing money and said: “Here’s $10,000 for our next President, our boy Lyndon” (“Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium and Matters Relating Thereto—Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration,” United States Senate, Part 2, Testimony of Don B. Reynolds, Dec. 1, 1964, p. 162).

“The important point”
:
“Statement by U.S. Senator Tom McIntyre (D-N.H.),” Oct. 7, 1963 (in author’s possession); Pearson and Anderson,
The Case against Congress,
p. 139.
“The exchange”
:
Newsweek,
Oct. 14, 1963.
These funds had been raised and dispensed at Johnson’s direction:
Caro,
Master,
pp. 403–13.
Had not been asked:
WP,
Oct. 5, 7, 1963.

“Bobby’s work”
:
NYHT, NYT, WP,
Oct. 5, 1963.
“Not entirely”
;
“for once with the united”
:
Kempton, “The Vender.”

“baker called”
:
WP,
Oct. 7, 1963.
“Many senators”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
pp. 271–72.
Shortly before:
Sen. Williams was later to tell the Senate that Mansfield had reported to him that “Mr. Baker had tendered his resignation rather than meet with us” (
CR,
May 18, 1965), p. 10,845.
“Baker is a protégé”
:
WP,
Oct. 8, 1963.
“Theirs was a close”
:
WES,
Oct. 9, 1963.

“Magically disappear”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 180.

“The integrity”
:
NYT, Oct. 11, 1963.
“Had old Senate hands”
:
Newsweek,
Oct. 21, 1963.
“Something of”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 184.
“Too soft-hearted”
;
“He is as hard”
:
George Dixon,
WP,
Nov. 13, 1963.
“Oh, I went over”
; removing autographed picture:
Rowe,
Bobby Baker Story,
p. 61.
Postponing:
CCC–T,
Oct. 29, 1963.
“The logical”
:
Chicago Daily News,
Oct. 29, 1963.

A drumfire:
For a summary,
WES,
Oct.25, 1963.
“Near the home”
:
Time,
Nov. 8, 1963.
“A Chinese houseboy”
:
CDN,
Oct. 29, 1963.

His mistress:
“Carole was my lover,” Baker said in
Wheeling
(p. 177).
Discovered townhouse:
Des Moines Register,
Oct. 23, 1963.
“Chain-smoking”
:
Time,
Nov. 8, 1963.
“dwell and entertain”
:
Life,
Nov. 8, 1963.
“Baker’s high-flying”
:
Time,
Nov. 8, 1963.
“party house”
:
Des Moines Register,
Oct. 23, 1963. It was also termed a “high-style hideaway for the advise-and-consent set” (Ben H. Bagdikian and Don Oberdorfer, “Bobby Was the Boy to See,”
SEP,
Dec. 7, 1963).

“Just an ice cube’s”
;
“romantic caucuses”
:
“A Senate Inquiry into Sugar & Spice,”
Newsweek,
Nov. 11, 1963.
“Intimate”
;
“smoky”
:
WP,
Oct. 26, 1963.
“Discreet”
:
WES,
Oct. 27, 1963.
“The ceiling is red”
:
NYT,
Nov. 1, 1963.

“Clad”; had worked at; “associating with”
:
Des Moines Register,
Oct. 26, 1963;
Time,
Nov. 8, 1963; Smith,
Grace and Power,
p. 410.
“Expelled”
:
Clark Mollenhoff broke the story in the
Des Moines Register,
Oct. 26, 1963. See also his Oct. 29, 1963, story. “At the direction of the Attorney General, Rometsch was quietly deported to West Germany,” Thomas says (
Robert Kennedy,
p. 256).

The official with whom:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 255.
“Fueled”
:
Smith,
Grace and Power,
p. 386.
“Expensive lifestyle”
:
Smith,
Grace and Power,
p. 386.
“Investigation has not substantiated”
:
Wannall to Sullivan, July 12, 1963, quoted in Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 244;
Des Moines Register,
Oct. 31, 1963.

“From the outset”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 256.

“Elizabeth Taylor”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 255.
“Lesbian prostitute”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 265.
“somewhat nymphomaniacal”
:
Newsweek,
Nov. 11, 1963.
“She would do anything”
:
Life,
Nov. 22, 1963.

Robert Kennedy asked:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 267, 268.
the bobby baker bombshell:
Life,
Nov. 8, 1963.

Tom Connally funeral:
NYHT,
Oct. 31, 1963; Oltorf interview.
As a newly elected; never to antagonize:
Caro,
Master
, pp. 132–33, 151.

Baker told McCloskey:
“Testimony of Don. B. Reynolds,
Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration,
United States Senate, Part I,” Jan. 9, 17, 1964, pp. 3–8, 112. Baker himself said flatly that Reynolds “told the truth with respect to … the D.C. Stadium deal” (Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 194).
McCloskey won—and selected Reynolds:
“Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium, and Matters Related Thereto,”
Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration,
United States Senate, Part 2, Testimony of Don B. Reynolds,” Dec. 1, 1964, p. 139.

$73,631; $10,000; $4,000:
“Testimony of Reynolds,” p. 112. “Bobby had indicated that by having produced Senator Johnson, that he had access to top clients for me, that he would introduce me around,” Reynolds testified. “And when I met Mr. McCloskey, sir, and I got this performance bond, it was prima facie evidence of his ability to get and produce for me, and it was for services rendered, sir” (“Testimony,” p. 115). See also
WES,
Sept. 1, 1964.

“Bag man”
:
“Investigations—Parties & Payments,”
Time,
Dec. 11, 1964.
Instructed to deliver:
Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 364.
no more than $5,000:
“Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium,” Part 2, p. 145.
Three such deliveries:
“Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium,” Part 2, pp. 145, 161.

Violated:
WES,
March 11, 1964.
Reynolds told; Williams obtained a photostat:
“Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium,” Part 2, p. 146.
“I was the man”
; Reynolds
“told the truth”
:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 194.

“An expert”
:
O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
p. 386.
The main topic:
White,
The Making of the President, 1964,
p. 28. White also says, “They discussed television possibilities” for the Convention, “decided that the renomination of Lyndon Johnson would be staged on Wednesday evening.…” But the discussants may not have included John Kennedy. “The President, sitting cross-legged on a cushion in his customary place, was more observer than participant.”
“Led to”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times,
p. 604.
“The non-existence”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 605.

“Because everyone”
:
Lincoln,
Kennedy and Johnson,
pp. 199, 200.
“To do this”
;
“verbatim”
:
Lincoln,
Kennedy and Johnson,
pp. 204, 205.
“Alerted”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 605.
“In eleven”
;
“unruffled”
: Sorensen,
Kennedy,
pp. 55, 263.
“Welcoming”
:
Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days,
p. 687.
She was described as a rattlebrained woman:
Schlesinger, Sorensen interviews.
“The ammunition”
:
Lincoln interview.

Young and Burdick called in:
Sen. Clark said Baker had announced that Burdick and Young had “withdrawn their candidacies.” The
WP
reported Young as saying: “I wanted very much to be on Judiciary. I wrote to everyone on the Steering Committee.” Blakley and Long had less seniority. Humphrey said Baker told the Steering Committee that Burdick and Young “weren’t interested” in Judiciary Committee seats” (
DMN,
Nov. 15, 1963). Ted Lewis, “Capital Stuff,”
NYDN,
Nov. 19, 1963. Yarborough was also to say that Baker kept him off Judiciary:
WP,
Nov. 17, 1963.
“In the peculiar”
;
“tambourine”
:
Keith Wheeler, “Scandal Grows and Grows in Washington,”
Life,
Nov. 22, 1963.
Paul Douglas; Moss:
WP,
Nov. 17, 1963.

One word:
Reedy interview.

“I began to pick up”
; went to Hunt’s office:
Lambert interview.
“The deeper”
:
Sackett interview.
No fewer than nine:
In addition to Wheeler, Lambert, and Sackett, they were Mike Durham, Mike Silva, Bill Wise,
Audrey Jewett, Kenneth Reich, and Hal Wingo.
A meeting was scheduled:
Lambert, Sackett interviews.

Reynolds began testifying:
“Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium,” Part 2, Testimony of Don B. Reynolds, p. 192. Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 295.

Lyndon Johnson had flown:
Pre-Presidential Daily Diary, Box 3.
“You two guys”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 20.
“This was”
:
Fehmer OH II.
“Much cleaning”
;
“many telephone”
:
Carpenter, “Liz Carpenter’s Recollections of President Kennedy’s Assassination,” Box 4, Special Files–Assassination.
Horseflesh influx:
Carpenter, “Recollections.”
“Tepid”; hand towels
:
“Breakfast … in room,” “President Kennedy’s Trip to Texas,” The President’s Appointment File [Diary Backup], Box 1, LBJL.
“This is how”
;
“Will he”
;
“that was still”
;
“If you don’t”
:
Abell OH I.

“A real flavor”
:
Carpenter, “Recollections.”
“On one”
;
“The image”
:
Russell,
Lady Bird,
pp. 215–16.

“In a rage”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 20.
“I’m not surprised”
:
Reston,
The Lone Star,
p. 264.
“What Connally and Johnson are trying”
; Yarborough had been assigned:
Manchester,
The Death of a President,
p. 73; O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 21.
When Youngblood:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 73.
“Henry, can I”
;
“Awkward”
; When a reporter;
“Well, I told him”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
pp. 73, 74.

“I’ve bugged him enough”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 79.

“There definitely was not”
:
Johnson, quoted in Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 82.
The waiters heard;
“What was that all about?”
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 82.
“There was all of this”
:
Jacqueline Kennedy, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 311.

Kennedy had asked Thomas:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 78.
“Like a pistol”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 82.
Jones shared with him:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 86.

11. The Cubicle

Moments at the Love Field reception and the motorcade that are not footnoted are from the author’s watching of newsreels of the events.

Johnson telephoned:
Reedy interview.
“Twice at San Antonio”
:
LAT,
Nov. 22, 1963.
“Curt”
:
Chicago Tribune,
Nov. 22, 1963.
“Mrs. Kennedy”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 114.
Johnson had had to ask:
Manchester,
The Death of a President,
p. 121–22. The depth of Johnson’s pain was hinted at when during his retirement he was reminiscing about the trip. Saying that Yarborough had not ridden with us, he maintained, “I didn’t care, but the newspaper boys went wild. It was the biggest ever since de Gaulle farted. There were headlines the next morning and all kinds of queries … ‘Was it true that Yarborough would not ride with the Vice President?’ ” (Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” Aug. 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, p. 4, LBJL).
Brace and bandage:
Dennis Breo, JFK’s dean, and John K. Lattimer,
Lincoln and Kennedy: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations.
New York: Harcourt, 1980, quoted in Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
p. 59. Lattimer writes that after Oswald’s first shot, the “corset prevented him from crumpling down out of the line of fire, as Governor Connally did. Because the President remained upright, with his head exposed, Oswald was able to draw a careful bead on the back of his head” (Lattimer,
Kennedy and Lincoln,
p. 171, quoted in Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History,
p. 59).
“All right, let’s go”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 117.

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