Lyndon Johnson Administrations - Johnson and Congress
Johnson and Congress
One of Johnson's great strengths as an activist president was his intimate familiarity both with the way that Congress worked and also with the representatives and senators who worked there. He knew who to intimidate and who to placate. He knew who owed him favors, and he knew how to reward those who cooperated. He presided over the astonishingly productive Eighty-eighth, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth Congresses, which all had diminishing Democratic majorities. But Johnson could have his way even with Republicans. The "Johnson treatment" consisted of having the president (who stood over 6 feet, 4 inches) harangue someone at close quarters, appealing to his or her vanity, patriotism, or any other motive in order to get his way.
Under Johnson's leadership these Congresses, especially the Eighty-ninth, were among the most active in history. They passed an amazing amount of domestic legislation, which was...
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