[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 21, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4565-S4578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the time between 
now and noon is set aside for remarks regarding President Johnson; is 
that right?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, in the summer of 1908, a man named Sam Ealy 
Johnson, Sr., rode through the Texas hill country, announcing to 
whomever happened to pass by, ``A United States Senator was born this 
morning!''
  The name of his grandson--Lyndon Baines Johnson.
  I am pleased today to mark the beginning of the celebration for the 
100th birthday of that boy from Texas who would not only be Senator, 
but Senate majority leader, Vice-President, and President of the United 
States.
  There is a tradition on the floor of the Senate of which our 
colleagues but few Americans are aware.
  If you open any of the desks in the Senate Chamber, you will find 
carved the names of each Senator who was assigned the desk in years 
past.

[[Page S4566]]

  Among the names carved in my desk is Lyndon Baines Johnson.
  America and the world know Lyndon Johnson as the President with a 
steady hand that guided our country through a deeply troubled era--and 
was the guiding hand in creating the Great Society.
  But those of us in the Senate--and his family and dear friends who 
join us here today--know that it was this Senate Chamber--this Capitol 
Building--that was his home.
  Born in the Hill Country of Texas, Lyndon Baines Johnson came to the 
Senate in 1948 after prevailing in one of the closest Senate contests 
in American history.
  As my colleagues well know, most rookie Senators arrive in Washington 
resigned to spending a few years getting to know the rules and 
traditions of this body--biding their time and gaining seniority.
  Not Lyndon Johnson. His rise to power was laser-fast.
  He was appointed to the powerful Armed Services Committee within his 
first 2 years, and was elected assistant democratic leader--or majority 
whip--in 1951.
  No Senator ever rose to the leadership of the Senate faster.
  But Lyndon Johnson had good timing as well as talent as his allies.
  In the 1952 election, Dwight Eisenhower was elected in a landslide, 
sweeping Republicans into power in both the House and Senate.
  Among the defeated Democrats was Majority Leader Ernest McFarland of 
Arizona.
  With just 4 years tenure, 4 years in the U.S. Senate, Lyndon Johnson 
became the Democratic leader of the Senate.
  At the time, the positions of majority and minority leader took a 
backseat to the powerful committee chairmanships.
  Lyndon Johnson had a different vision, and it is no exaggeration to 
say that he singlehandedly made the job of leader what it is today.
  After establishing himself as the legislative and political leader of 
the Senate Democrats, Johnson was uniquely well-positioned in 1954, 
when Democrats regained the majority and he became majority leader.
  What followed is the stuff of legend.
  Based upon his philosophy that ``The only real power available to the 
leader is the power of persuasion,'' Lyndon Baines Johnson used that 
power to the fullest.
  In just 1 day in 1956, Lyndon Johnson's Senate confirmed two 
appointments and passed 90 bills a record that may stand for all time.
  The quantity of Johnson's Senate work was impressive, but so was the 
quality.
  As an exhibit at the LBJ library says:

       By working to find common ground uniting liberals and 
     conservatives alike, LBJ's Senate passed legislation to 
     increase the minimum wage, extend social security benefits, 
     increase public housing construction, create an interstate 
     highway system, create a national space agency and enact the 
     first civil rights legislation since 1875. The majority 
     leader's inspiration was the prophet Isaiah, who preached 
     ``Come now, and let us reason together,'' a philosophy--and a 
     result--that unquestionably and dramatically improved the 
     lives of all Americans.

  On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome members of Lyndon Johnson's 
family, his former staff, and friends of the Johnson family to the U.S. 
Senate to mark his 100th birthday and honor his life.
  This celebration is tinged with sadness that his beloved wife Lady 
Bird passed away last year and is not with us today.
  As President, Lyndon Johnson once said--``This nation, this 
generation, in this hour has man's first chance to build a Great 
Society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of 
man's labor.''
  Lyndon Baines Johnson's pursuit of a Great Society is a legacy that 
changed America forever and will last as long as our Republic stands.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am honored to rise today to speak on 
the life and legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson. He served his country as 
a teacher, naval officer, Congressman, Senator, Vice President, and 
finally President of the United States. In every stop along the way of 
his storied career, he blazed new boundaries of the possible in 
American politics.
  When Lyndon Johnson first came to this body in January 1949, he was 
teased by his fellow Senators with the nickname ``Landslide Lyndon,'' 
due to his victory in the Texas senatorial primary election by just 87 
votes. Within a few years he had taken the fastest path to being 
elected a floor leader in Senate history.
  Johnson went on to serve as both minority leader and majority leader 
during the 8 years of the Eisenhower administration, and shaped 
legislation dealing with the Cold War, agriculture, labor and civil 
rights.
  Lyndon Johnson showed the same compassion and courtesy to the Texas 
rancher or the destitute living in America's deepest pockets of poverty 
as he did to the powerful and the mighty. In fact, through his 
generosity of spirit, he made a friend out of one special Pakistani 
camel-cart driver.
  Some of my colleagues who are old enough may remember that in 1961, 
as Vice President, Johnson toured the country of Pakistan and at one 
point stopped to meet an illiterate camel-cart driver named Bashir 
Ahmad.
  Still displaying his Texan manners half a world away, the Vice 
President told the man, ``You all come to Washington and see us 
sometime.'' Imagine his surprise when Bashir Ahmad decided to take him 
up on his request.
  But the quick-thinking Johnson turned his unexpected guest's visit 
into a boon for American-Pakistani relations. He met Ahmad personally 
at the airport, to see the man at the end of his first-ever jet plane 
ride.
  Johnson treated his guest to a barbecue at the LBJ ranch in Texas, 
enabled him to step onto the floor of this U.S. Senate, and arranged 
for his visit to the Lincoln Memorial.
  He even brought together the camel-cart driver and the former U.S. 
President, Harry Truman, who was so taken with Ahmad's eloquence that 
he referred to the Pakistani visitor as ``His Excellency.''
  The final Johnson touch came just as Bashir Ahmad was about to board 
his plane for the ride home back to Pakistan. He opened a telegram from 
the Vice President which read: ``Since your return to Pakistan takes 
you so close to Mecca, arrangements have been made . . . for you to 
visit there.''
  This was just one example of many of the canny Texan's consummate 
political skills.
  Now just like Bashir Ahmad, I had the honor of being in Lyndon 
Johnson's presence once, and for a very momentous occasion. In August 
1965, I came here, to our Nation's Capitol, to visit Senator John 
Sherman Cooper.
  In 1964, after receiving my undergraduate degree from the University 
of Louisville, I worked as an intern for Senator Cooper and watched up 
close as he applied his wisdom and experience to the issues that 
gripped Kentucky and the Nation in the 1960s.
  After completing my first year in law school, I came back to 
Washington to visit the Senator who had become my mentor and friend.
  I was waiting to see Senator Cooper in his outer office when suddenly 
he emerged and motioned for me to follow him. We walked together from 
his office in Russell 125 to the Capitol Rotunda, where I saw more 
people, and more security, than I had ever seen before.
  Then Senator Cooper told me what was happening: President Johnson was 
about to sign the Voting Rights Act, an act that was the culmination of 
Lyndon Johnson's years of effort in support of civil rights that had 
begun when he still served in the Senate.
  Soon enough, the President emerged. Every good biography of President 
Johnson describes him as a larger- than-life man, with an imposing 
physical presence. Let me testify right now, from personal experience, 
that they are correct.
  President Johnson seemed to tower a head taller than anyone else in 
the room. He was a commanding figure that immediately filled the 
Rotunda.
  A journalist once described a typical Lyndon Johnson entrance as 
``the Western movie barging into the room''--it's hard to put it better 
than that.
  I was overwhelmed to witness such a moment in history. As he was 
about to sign the legislation that he would later point to as his 
greatest accomplishment, President Johnson said, ``Today is a triumph 
for freedom as huge as any

[[Page S4567]]

victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.''
  Although I am sure that if my good friend Phil Gramm, the former 
Senator from LBJ's own Lone Star State, were here, he would add one 
more honor that ranked above all the rest: Lyndon Baines Johnson, 
Texan.
  Today this U.S. Senate recognizes the legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson 
and his many achievements. I join with my colleagues today in asking 
all Americans to celebrate the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in the opening pages of his acclaimed 
biography, ``Master of the Senate,'' Robert Caro describes Lyndon 
Johnson in his prime, as majority leader. He recalls how LBJ would come 
barreling through those swinging double doors in the Democratic 
cloakroom and stride out onto this floor--all 6-feet 4-inches of him--
looking for that last vote he needed to carry his cause. He was, Caro 
said, like a force of nature.
  As the Democratic whip, I have the privilege of occupying an office 
in this building that LBJ used when he was majority leader of the 
Senate. This afternoon, I had the privilege of meeting in that office 
with a longtime assistant of LBJ's, Ashton Gonella.
  Mrs. Gonella regaled my staff and about how the office was arranged 
then, and what it was like to work for Lyndon Johnson.
  She said that her desk was located in an outer office, just outside 
LBJ's office. At 5 o'clock each evening is when the real negotiating 
began, she said.
  Part of her job was to spot a Senator as he walked down the hall, 
headed for an appointment with LBJ, and have that Senator's favorite 
drink mixed and ready for him by the time he reached her desk. The 
Senator would then walk in to see the majority leader and together, 
they would see if they couldn't find some way to reach an honorable 
compromise on the issue at hand.
  Those were different days in the Senate. If you come to my office 
today, the strongest drink you are likely to be offered is a cup of 
coffee or a soda.
  I tell that story about LBJ partly to illustrate a point: When it 
comes to negotiating compromises and finding that lost vote needed to 
pass a bill, few Senators in the history of this institution have ever 
come close to Lyndon Johnson.
  Stiff drinks were only one of the many means he employed.
  There is a famous series of photographs taken by a New York Times 
photographer. It shows LBJ as majority leader, trying to persuade 
Senator Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island to see things LBJ's way. 
The photos depict what journalists used to call ``the full Johnson 
treatment.''
  That experience was probably best described by the journalists Bob 
Novak and Rowland Evans in their book, ``Lyndon Johnson: The Exercise 
of Power.'' As they put it:

       The Treatment could last 10 minutes or four hours . . . Its 
     tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, 
     scorn, tears, complaint, the hint of threat. It was all of 
     these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its 
     velocity was breathtaking, and it was all in one direction . 
     . . He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his 
     target . . . his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows 
     rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, 
     statistics. Mimicry, humor and the genius of analogy made the 
     Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the 
     target stunned and helpless.

  Almost always, the ``treatment'' succeeded.
  He was a master of political power and persuasion. He knew how to 
accumulate power. More importantly, he knew how to use his political 
power to make government work. He believed that one of the purposes of 
government was to try to make America better and more just.
  When he was 21 years old, Lyndon Johnson had an experience that had a 
profound and lasting effect on him. He was studying at Southwest Texas 
State Teachers College and he took a year off to teach poor Latino 
children in the little town of Cotulla, TX, near the Mexican border.
  Nearly 40 years later, President Johnson spoke of those children and 
the impact they had on him. Proposing the Voting Rights Act to a joint 
session of Congress, then-President Johnson said, ``Somehow, you never 
forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see its scars on the 
hopeful face of a young child.''
  He added:

       I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing 
     here in 1965. It never even occurred to me in my fondest 
     dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and 
     daughters of those students and to help people like them all 
     over this country. But now I have that chance--and I'll let 
     you in on a secret--I mean to use it.

  When he was told that his support for the Voting Rights Act might 
cause problems for his Administration, LBJ reportedly replied: Well, 
what the heck's the presidency for? Only he used a different word than 
``heck.''
  As a Senator and as President, Lyndon Baines Johnson used what power 
he had to help give our Nation some of the most important legislation 
of the second-half of the 20th century--including the Civil Rights Act 
of 1957--the first civil rights bill in nearly a century--the landmark 
Civil Rights Act of 1965, the Voting Rights Act, the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act, the Fair Housing Act--the list goes on and on.
  He was not perfect, by any means. But he helped move America forward 
in many important ways.
  Another phrase that Lyndon Johnson used often was a passage from the 
Book of Isaiah. It has been a favorite passage of his father's. ``Come, 
let us reason together.''
  He believed that in a democracy, people could usually find an 
honorable compromise if they would just talk to each other and ``reason 
together.''
  In this year of the centennial of his birth, our Nation would be well 
served if we would all take that lesson to heart.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about one of the 
most significant Presidents of the 20th century, Lyndon Baines Johnson. 
Of course, I am especially proud that he is a Texan, my home State, and 
was the first President to be elected from Texas.
  This is the 100th anniversary year of the birth of President Johnson. 
We all know, during his 6 years as President, he was a passionate 
advocate for equal rights and expanded opportunities for all Americans.
  I did not know President Johnson personally because I was a freshman 
member, very new member of the Texas legislature, when he died in 1973.
  But the gracious family, Lady Bird Johnson, that ever wonderful 
hospitable wife whom we all loved, wanted to make sure all the 
legislators in Texas were invited to his funeral. So I was able to 
attend at the Texas ranch, which of course was a beautiful tribute to 
his life in the place he loved the most.
  Though I did not know him, I will certainly say that since I came to 
the Senate, I have heard story after story after story about his 
service in this body. The book about his life, called ``Master of the 
Senate,'' is considered required reading for all of us here.
  Because, in fact, he was a master of this Senate. He did things as 
majority leader that had never been done before. I have been privileged 
to know his wonderful wife Lady Bird Johnson, who is one of our most 
loved First Ladies in the history of our country.
  Lady Bird died last year, as was mentioned before. She, in her own 
light, left a legacy. He worked with her on many of the things she did. 
The beautification efforts Lady Bird contributed to our country are a 
part of the overall LBJ legacy. Of course, Head Start, which is one of 
the major accomplishments of the LBJ administration, giving every child 
that head start before they enter the first grade so there would be a 
more level playing field, was also a Lady Bird Johnson initiative.
  They worked together to make sure the children of our country had 
that opportunity. I wish to talk a little bit more about that in a few 
minutes. But I do wish to mention two of the people I now consider 
among my real friends, Linda and Luci.
  Linda and I went to the University of Texas together. We became 
friends there. She is a wonderful person. I have become friends with 
Luci as I have worked for the LBJ Library.
  I will never forget, as long as I live, that I was in Austin and was 
promoting giving blood for one of the disasters,

[[Page S4568]]

and they needed more blood at the blood bank. I heard on the radio that 
Luci Johnson had gone to give blood after she heard I was there and 
promoting the giving of blood. That is the kind of person she is.
  She and Linda truly carry on the legacy of their mother, Lady Bird 
who was a gracious, thoughtful, wonderful person.
  Linda and Luci take after their mother, and, of course, the President 
whom we all appreciated so much for the leadership he gave. They had a 
wonderful partnership, where they filled in for what the other did not 
have.
  Lyndon Johnson was born in Stonewall, TX, in 1908. After graduating 
from high school and spending a year as an elevator operator, he began 
his career in the field of education.
  In 1927, he borrowed $75 and started attending Southwest Texas State 
Teachers College in San Marcos, which today is Texas State University. 
After graduating in 1930, he devoted a year to teaching Hispanic 
children at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, which is 90 miles south of 
San Antonio.
  Decades later, when he was in the White House, President Johnson 
reminisced:

  I shall never forget the faces of the boys and girls in that little 
Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing 
and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of 
those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that 
I made up his mind, that this Nation could never rest while the door to 
knowledge remained closed to any American.

  Lyndon Johnson never did rest. After serving as a teacher and 
principal in 1935, he was appointed head of the Texas National Youth 
Administration. Then 2 years later, he ran for, and won, a seat in the 
U.S. House of Representatives. He was subsequently reelected to the 
House in every election until 1948 when he was elected to the Senate. 
He later went on the ticket with President John Kennedy. It was on 
November 22, 1963, that fateful day that none of us will ever forget, 
that Lyndon Johnson became the 36th President of the United States. 
During his Presidency, Lyndon Johnson moved aggressively to confront 
the problems that plagued America, especially the extraordinary 
challenge that had vexed our country since its very beginning, the 
challenge of racism.
  In 1964, Lyndon Johnson used his formidable legislative skills, honed 
from his days right here in this Chamber as majority leader, to pass 
the Civil Rights Act. Then, in 1965, he pushed Congress to pass the 
Voting Rights Act.
  The Civil Rights Act was the culmination of a decade-long civil 
rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But in a real sense, 
it was the fulfillment of a two-century struggle to give life to the 
words in our Declaration of Independence, ``that all men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable 
rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness.''
  During his term in office, President Johnson also embarked on a war 
on poverty, creating government programs such as food stamps, the Job 
Corps, the Community Action Program, and Vista, among others. The war 
on poverty was a part of a larger initiative that President Johnson 
called the Great Society. One of the most important aspects of the 
Great Society was improving American education. President Johnson 
believed that every American needed a solid public education to turn 
the aspirations of the Great Society into reality. In his words:

  We must open the doors of opportunity, but we must also equip our 
people to walk through those doors.

  From 1963 to 1969, President Johnson signed over 60 education bills, 
including a pair of landmark achievements: the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act and the Higher Education Act. He also launched Project 
Head Start. In a very real sense, he was America's first education 
President.
  As President, Lyndon Johnson opened the doors of opportunity for 
millions of Americans, but he would be the first to acknowledge that we 
still have a long way to go. As a former teacher, he knew how important 
education was to the competitiveness of our country. Because of his 
achievements in the field of education, I worked with all of my 
colleagues to pass a bill last year naming the Department of Education 
headquarters after President Johnson. This is the only building in the 
District of Columbia that bears the name of our 36th President. While 
attending the naming ceremony last year, I couldn't help but think of 
Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson looking down on us and smiling with pride.
  I want to also mention something that my colleague, Senator Bill 
Nelson, mentioned because another of his legacies, of course, is NASA. 
We all remember when President Kennedy renewed our space initiative, 
but it was President Johnson who took that initiative--the wonderful 
words we all remember of President Kennedy, that we would put a man on 
the Moon--and implemented that vision and made sure that we had the 
wherewithal to do it. We needed the money. We needed to encourage 
scientists to propel us into space and put us eventually on the Moon. 
It was President Johnson, and we now have the Johnson Space Center near 
Houston, Texas, where we still remember the words: Houston, the Eagle 
has landed. When we did land on the Moon, it was the first words back 
to the Johnson Space Center that people heard Neil Armstrong say on 
that wonderful day.
  As a Texan and an American, I am certainly proud of the achievements 
of President Lyndon Johnson. In his farewell speech, President Johnson 
said:

  I hope it may be said, a hundred years from now, that by working 
together we helped make our country more just, more just for all its 
people, as well as to ensure and guarantee the blessings of liberty for 
all of our posterity.

  It has been almost 40 years since that speech and 100 years since his 
birth. Looking back, I think we can safely say that our country is more 
just, and it is more prosperous, thanks in part to the leadership of 
President Johnson.
  On this LBJ day in our Nation's Capital, let's remember a man who 
helped our country reach the promise of her founding document and gave 
us a vision of a better America that even now is worthy of our 
commitment. I am a cosponsor of the resolution honoring President 
Johnson's service and his positive legacy for our country.
  I am pleased to note that in the gallery we have the President's 
family, and we have the President's extended family. He always 
considered the Members of his Cabinet, the members of his staff, his 
extended family. We have the people who are carrying on his legacy, the 
people who run the LBJ library and the LBJ school, which is such an 
important part of my alma mater, the University of Texas. It is such a 
wonderful place for students to come and learn about his era in office, 
public service. We are in the process of expanding and renovating the 
library, making sure the library stays the wonderful edifice that it 
is, with all of the wonderful artifacts in it. There will be a plaza 
called the Lady Bird Johnson Plaza that will also celebrate the 
beautification she gave to our country right there on the campus of the 
University of Texas. The people who are keeping that legacy alive are 
also with us today. The LBJ ranch that he loved so much, where he and 
Mrs. Johnson are buried, is also now a park. It is a State park and a 
national park where people can come and have the freedom to roam. They 
will be able to walk on trails. They will be able to see a great part 
of the State that I love so much and he loved so much. The fact that we 
are preserving that as a park will be one more way to show the love 
that he and Lady Bird Johnson had for our country.
  This is a great day for us in the Capitol. I am proud to be a part of 
the resolution honoring this wonderful family.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I am pleased to come to the floor today to 
honor one of Texas' most famous leaders, President Lyndon B. Johnson. 
This year will mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, and the LBJ 
Foundation has chosen this week to honor his service to America in 
Washington, DC.
  Texas has a rich history of men and women--often from humble 
beginnings--who work to accomplish great things. Lyndon Johnson was no 
exception. Johnson was born near Stonewall,

[[Page S4569]]

TX, nearly 100 years ago, to Texas legislator and poor farmer Samuel 
Johnson, Jr., and Rebekah Baines.
  Johnson was a natural public servant. In his early days he studied at 
then Southwest Texas University's teaching college. One of his first 
teaching jobs was at a small school in Cotulla Texas for Mexican-
American children. His work with those students would forever shape his 
dedication to those in need.
  ``[They] had so little and needed so much,'' he once remarked. ``I 
was determined to spark something inside them, to fill their souls with 
ambition and interest and belief in the future.'' This eagerness to 
help others would be a noble and defining characteristic of Lyndon B. 
Johnson.
  While he spent time teaching at several schools across Texas, it was 
not long before Lyndon Johnson took his first foray into public 
politics.
  Johnson quickly worked his way through the Texas State Legislature 
and into the U.S. House of Representatives, and eventually into the 
U.S. Senate.
  The seat he took, I should note, is the same seat once held by 
another very famous Texan, Sam Houston. That same seat now carries a 
long and honored lineage, and it is my privilege to now serve in this 
esteemed seat.
  Early on, Senator Johnson made a name for himself as a man of action, 
who would work across the aisle to pass important legislation, and who 
held an incredible power of persuasion. He quickly became majority 
whip, and eventually majority leader of the Senate.
  I know that one of his greatest accomplishments in the U.S. Senate 
was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957--a landmark bill to 
help ensure the right of all people to vote. Of course, Johnson's 
legacy as a staunch defender of civil rights would not end there.
  Of course, Lyndon Johnson's presidency would come in the wake of 
national tragedy. Despite the conditions under which he took office, 
President Johnson helped console a nation in mourning, and ensure that 
America would recover--both physically and emotionally.
  President Johnson continued the same fervent defense of Civil Rights 
in America that he had begun early in his life. He helped enact the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the famous Voting Rights Act.
  At the same time, Johnson worked tirelessly to ensure a better 
education for all American children, and was a key proponent of NASA 
and the space race.
  Despite the turbulent times under which he served this country, 
President Johnson did his best to unite our country and promote a 
freer, more equal society. He will long be remembered for his great 
advances for the sciences, education, and civil rights--to name just a 
few accomplishments.
  It is my pleasure to stand today and honor President Johnson for his 
service, not only to Texas, but to our Nation as a whole. In his 
service to our country he never forgot the many Texas values with which 
he was raised, and as such he and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, became 
iconic figures in Texas History.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, this year we celebrate the centennial of 
the birth of a man who dedicated his life to the proposition that all 
of us are created equal. A legislator, a president of the Senate, a 
President of the United States: Lyndon Baines Johnson.
  It wasn't just that Lyndon Johnson was one of the first Presidents to 
care deeply about the well-being of people of color. It was that he was 
uniquely capable of turning that desire to help into results.
  It is almost impossible to overstate the impact of the legislation he 
pushed through Congress, impossible to overstate how much better off we 
are as a nation thanks to his heroic efforts to guarantee civil rights 
voting rights and educational opportunity for all.
  Whatever else people will note about Johnson's life, whatever 
disagreements anyone had with him, whatever brush historians will use 
to paint him, there is no one who can convincingly cast doubt on his 
very real devotion to the interests of the less fortunate.
  In 1928, Johnson took time off from teacher's college to teach at a 
small school for young Mexican Americans in Cotulla, TX. Right before 
he signed the Higher Education Act in 1965, Johnson thought back on his 
time in the classroom.
  He said:

       I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in 
     that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet 
     the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was 
     closed to practically every one of those children because 
     they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my 
     mind that this nation could never rest while the door to 
     knowledge remained closed to any American.

  I was 11-years old when he spoke those words. Seven years later, when 
it was time for a Latino kid from a working-class family to go to 
college, I could do it, because of educational assistance from the 
federal government, assistance Johnson had championed.
  Because of him, I could go on to law school. Because of him, I felt 
that no door in public service could legitimately be closed to me. It 
is a powerful truth, and it is very clear: I would not be standing here 
today if it weren't for Lyndon Johnson.
  If he were still standing here today himself, still a U.S. Senator, 
it is hard to believe there would be an atmosphere of 
hyperpartisanship. It is hard to believe that he would allow compassion 
to lose out to suspicion in guiding the business of our Nation.
  If only he could be with us today, each time we are on the verge of a 
crucial vote that will test our conscience, if only all Senators could 
see Johnson's figure towering over them, feel his hand on their lapel, 
hear his voice in their ear, pushing the legislative process toward a 
just conclusion.
  So as we remember his life this year, there is no better time to 
rededicate ourselves to the greatest of the principles for which he 
lived.
  There is no better time to make sure that when we sit in the 
presiding chair, we swing the gavel for justice; that when we speak, we 
raise our voices for equality; that when we vote, we vote for 
compassion for fellow human beings regardless of the color of their 
skin, the language that they speak, or the country in which they were 
born.
  Even in his absence, let us remember his conscience. Let us allow his 
memory to shame the shadows of bigotry out of this Chamber. And let us 
fill our hearts with his spirit, so in our Nation, the spirit of 
progress will endure.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, in 1960, when I was a young Member of the 
United States House of Representatives, I had the high privilege and 
the great honor of seconding the nomination of Lyndon Baines Johnson 
for President of the United States at the Democratic National 
Convention in Los Angeles. But, as we all know, Senator John F. Kennedy 
was nominated. However, before the convention adjourned, Senator 
Johnson was selected as Senator Kennedy's running mate. In November of 
that year, the Kennedy-Johnson team prevailed by a very close margin. 
But in 1963, the tragedy of Dallas brought this winning combination to 
an abrupt and sad halt.
  Lyndon Johnson succeeded President Kennedy, but it was sadly clear to 
all of Lyndon Johnson's friends that this was not the way he wanted to 
become President. Nonetheless, Lyndon Johnson assumed the awesome 
responsibilities of the Presidency and carried forward the unfinished 
work of President Kennedy.
  A year after the assassination, Lyndon Johnson guided the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964 into becoming our Nation's landmark law on civil 
rights. It was a great step forward in the rights of men and women. It 
was also a great step forward for our Nation. But Lyndon Johnson did 
not stop. In 1965, he secured passage of the Voting Rights Act, opening 
polling places to all African Americans in the South. Two years later, 
he nominated the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. 
His nominee, Thurgood Marshall, became recognized as one of the High 
Court's finest Justices. In fact, it was Lyndon Johnson who, during the 
11-year period from 1957 to 1968, was behind the first five civil 
rights laws in our history, either as author or chief architect or 
primary sponsor.
  For a southerner like Lyndon Johnson, taking such a leading role on 
civil rights took a special sort of courage. Yet he knew he was doing 
the right thing. He transformed the Emancipation Proclamation of more 
than 100

[[Page S4570]]

years ago into becoming a reality. Civil rights was one of the building 
blocks that President Johnson envisioned for the Great Society of 
America. His Great Society Program, which the Congress embraced, 
provided greater support for education, especially of poor children. 
From 1963 to 1968, Congress followed his lead and enacted more than 40 
major laws to foster education. He also supported the arts and 
humanities by establishing the national endowments.
  His Great Society declared war on poverty. He aided millions of older 
Americans with passage of the 1965 Medicare amendment through the 
Social Security Act. He also championed older Americans with the 
passage of legislation in 1967 against age discrimination in the 
workplace.
  As President, Lyndon Johnson also worked for peace and the survival 
of mankind. In 1967, he secured the ban on atomic weapons in space, and 
this is the universal law at the moment. The following year, the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed, and it still stands. 
Unfortunately, Lyndon Johnson did not seek reelection in 1968 because 
of the war in Vietnam. But his legacy of leadership in both the Senate 
and the White House continues to this day.
  The man from Texas will always loom large in the history of the 
United States. For me, it was a most special privilege and a great 
honor to have known and worked with Lyndon Baines Johnson.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I first came to the Senate in 1967 as a 
young aide to Senator Howard Baker and was here during the last two 
years of the Johnson Presidency. So, I heard firsthand stories about 
Lyndon Johnson, the Senator, and his larger-than-life, in-your-face 
personality with other Senators. I felt, in the elections of 1966 and 
1968--which were my first in politics--how his support for civil rights 
legislation had made him a controversial President. I felt, also, at my 
age, the agony of the war in Vietnam. And I watched, with surprise, on 
television in 1968 when he said he would not run for another term in 
the Presidency.
  Now, today, 40 years later, I see him as I think most Americans 
clearly see him: as one of our most consequential Presidents and public 
figures.
  Every January or February, my youngest son and I go to Cotulla, TX. 
Senator Hutchison spoke of Cotulla, TX as the place where Lyndon 
Johnson taught in the elementary grades. I never cease to go to 
Cotulla, TX without thinking of what a remarkable comment it is upon 
our country to think that a graduate of San Marcos State could go to 
Cotulla, TX, and be teaching in an elementary school, and then 13 years 
later be in the Senate and on his way to being the Minority leader, the 
Majority leader, the Vice President, and then President of the United 
States.
  There are many examples of how in our country anything is possible. I 
know of no better example than the life of Lyndon Johnson.
  Others will say more about President Johnson and his contribution to 
the Senate and to our country, but today I want to say a few words 
about his family. My contemporaries were the Johnson children, Luci and 
Lynda, and especially Lynda and Chuck Robb. Chuck was Governor of 
Virginia when I was Governor of Tennessee. We have known each other 
well since that time.
  I saw their daughter, Jennifer, this morning, and I can remember when 
she had our youngest son Will in a headlock one time at a Governors 
Conference. I can remember learning, either from Lynda or perhaps it 
was from Luci, lessons about how children--and the Presiding Officer 
will appreciate this, especially since his father was a distinguished 
Governor of Pennsylvania--about how to grow up in a family where your 
parents are public officials, as Senators or Governors or even 
Presidents, in their case.
  One of the Johnson girls told me she did not like very much going to 
political events--our children were much the same--until one day their 
father, President Johnson, said: Let me make a suggestion to you. I 
want you to find one interesting thing about three people at the event 
you go to, and then come back to me afterwards and tell me what you 
found out. Lynda told me that changed the way she thought about going 
to those events. It gave her a way to go to them and make them more 
interesting. I told all of our children that, and they did it as well. 
It was good advice for children of parents in public life.
  But in speaking of the family, I want to especially speak of Mrs. 
Johnson, Lady Bird, and her contribution to preserving the natural 
beauty of America.
  Mrs. Johnson convened the first White House Conference on Natural 
Beauty, saying:

       Surely a civilization that can send a man to the moon can 
     also find ways to maintain a clean and pleasant earth.

  She became the de facto leader of the scenic conservation movement. 
She raised our consciousness about the natural world in our lives. It 
is fair to say she is probably the most influential conservationist in 
America since Teddy Roosevelt.
  When I visit my wife's home in the State of Texas in the spring, 
there are bluebonnets everywhere. Texans are immensely proud of those 
flowers. In Austin--and Luci Baines reminded me today it is still going 
stronger than ever--is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
  Many States copied Texas' idea of planting wildflowers in the 
interstate medians. Lady Bird and Lyndon passed the Highway 
Beautification Act to free us from highway billboard blight and rampant 
ugliness.
  With her encouragement, President Johnson also persuaded Congress to 
pass the Wilderness Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, and 
the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. She became the first woman to serve on 
the National Geographic Society's board of trustees.
  President Johnson used to joke about how he would turn around and 
there would be Laurence Rockefeller and Lady Bird in the East Room of 
the White House cooking up some new conservation agenda for him to pass 
in the Congress.
  Her legacy of natural beauty is secure, but because she is now gone, 
America's legacy of natural beauty is not so secure. We seem to have 
forgotten how much natural beauty is an essential part of our national 
character. Someone once said: Egypt has its Pyramids, Italy its Art, 
and our country the Great American Outdoors. Or, to put it less 
grandly, when I am at home in Tennessee, I see the streets named Scenic 
Drive and Blue Bird Lane, and I read the real estate ads describing the 
beautiful mountain views. And, if you ask Tennesseans why they live in 
Tennessee, even the most grizzled will say: Because there is not a more 
beautiful place in the world.
  Many Americans feel that way about our hometowns. After Lady Bird, 
there have come a number of stronger and more outstanding environmental 
organizations devoted to clean air, clean water, and climate change, 
and more recently, other conservation causes. But most of them seem to 
have diminished interest in scenic beauty.
  There was recently on the Senate floor an effort that nearly 
succeeded to gut Lady Bird's Highway Beautification Act. It would have 
allowed hundreds of illegal billboards to become legal. There has been 
almost no organized outcry about the profusion of thousands of cell 
towers along the same interstates and in the same communities that Lady 
Bird sought to protect from junkyards and billboards. These cell towers 
have replaced almost every available scenic view in America with a tall 
tower, usually ugly, always with blinking lights. And, most of it is 
unnecessary because they could have been co-located, or be smaller, or 
they could have been put below the ridge tops, or even camouflaged. And 
we still could have had access to our cell phones and our blackberries. 
The National Park Service even erected a cell tower in clear view of 
Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

  In our enthusiasm to deal with climate change, we are spending 
billions of dollars to encourage Americans to erect thousands of giant 
wind turbines that are twice as tall as football stadiums and can be 
seen for 20 miles, without thinking to pass legislation that would keep 
them away from our most scenic views, beaches, and mountaintops.
  If Ansel Adams were alive today, he would probably be distraught 
because

[[Page S4571]]

he would have fewer and fewer beautiful places in America at which to 
aim his camera.
  Lady Bird left America a legacy that honors an essential aspect of 
the American character, one that today is, unfortunately, too often 
ignored. If it continues to be ignored, it will never be undone. It is 
almost impossible to unclutter a highway or renew a view scape once 
that has been obliterated by ugliness.
  So, I would hope that one result of this commemoration of Lyndon 
Johnson's birthday would be to encourage someone among us--or more 
among us--to revive in us Lady Bird's passion for the natural beauty of 
America, to encourage once again the planting of wildflowers, to 
preserve the view scapes, and to remind American communities of how 
satisfying it can be to live in one of the most beautiful places in the 
world.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, Lyndon Johnson has always been a personal 
hero to me. Every time I find myself in Austin, TX, I make a visit to 
the LBJ Library. Only for me, it is not a trip, it is more of a 
pilgrimage. I have been to that library so many times I think I could 
conduct a blindfolded tour by now.
  I was just there a couple months ago. My favorite place in that 
library, of course, is the Great Society Room, with the plaques on the 
wall listing the incredible array of legislation and programs that 
Lyndon Johnson passed into law. You go down it and you read them all: 
the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Job Corps, VISTA, Upward 
Bound, the Food Stamp Program, legal services for the poor, the 
Community Action Program, Community Health Centers, Head Start, the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, 
Medicare, Medicaid, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, 
public broadcasting, the National Mass Transportation Act, the 
Cigarette Labeling Act, the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act--Mr. 
President, it takes your breath away when you look at what this one 
person, with a Congress, was able to accomplish.
  So, Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the 
``failure'' of the Great Society. Yes, the ``failure'' of the Great 
Society. At least that is what I have been hearing ever since I first 
started running for office in 1972 and 1974, coming to the House, and 
then to the Senate. All those years I have heard from most of my 
friends on the other side of the aisle and the conservatives what a 
great ``failure'' the Great Society was. In fact, this supposed 
``failure'' has become an article of faith among conservatives.
  As President Reagan said on May 9, 1983:

       The great expansion of government programs that took place 
     under the aegis of the Great Society coincided with an end to 
     economic progress for America's poor people.

  So I thought I would come to the floor today to discuss the 
``failures'' of the Great Society. Well, I wonder where to start. But I 
suppose a good place to start is with the great Civil Rights Act of 
1964.
  Think about it. Prior to that act, African Americans faced brazen 
discrimination and segregation--the American version of apartheid. In 
many parts of our country, African Americans could not eat in the same 
restaurants or at the same lunch counters as Whites. They could not use 
the same bathrooms, the same swimming pools, the same water fountains, 
the same motels, the same hotels. They literally were consigned, as we 
know, to the back of the bus.
  Well, because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Lyndon Johnson's 
championship of it, those Jim Crow laws and practices were ended in the 
United States of America. It became illegal to discriminate based on 
race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. Now we take it for 
granted that people of color, different nationalities, different 
religions are seen in our parks and playgrounds, our libraries, our 
swimming pools, our sports arenas, our motels and hotels, but it was 
not so long ago that this was not so. Hardly a ``failure.''
  Another ``failure'' of the Great Society, of course, the Medicare 
Program. Let's take a look at that. At the bill signing ceremony on 
July 30, 1965, President Johnson enrolled former President Harry Truman 
as the first Medicare beneficiary and presented him with the first 
Medicare card.
  We always talk about life after age 65 as the ``golden years.'' For 
many, prior to Medicare, life at 65 used to be the ``nightmare 
years''--with tens of millions of Americans unable to even afford basic 
medical care, condemned to living out their senior years in the misery 
of untreated or poorly treated illnesses or diseases.
  Here, Mr. President, I want to get personal. See, my father, Patrick 
Harkin, was 54 years old when I was born. My father had an eighth grade 
education. Most of it he spent as a coal miner. Now, most people don't 
think there are coal mines outside of Pennsylvania or West Virginia, 
but Iowa at one time was the second largest coal-producing State in the 
Nation. Young kids who didn't go to school went to the coal mines. So 
my father worked for the greater part of more than 20 years in the coal 
mines. Later on in life, he suffered what they called then the miner's 
cough, which we now know is black lung disease.

  My mother died when I was 10. My father was just about 65, and he had 
paid enough in, in the 1940s, to qualify for Social Security. So he had 
Social Security. He had three kids under the age of 18 and no money. He 
lived in this little two-bedroom house out in the middle of smalltown 
Iowa. But we had Social Security that kept us together. But I can 
remember it was like clockwork: Every year, every winter, my father 
would get sick. He had this miner's cough, and usually in the winter it 
would get worse and he would come down with pneumonia or something like 
that. Since we didn't have a car, one of my cousins or someone--and my 
father did not want to go to the hospital because we didn't have any 
money. He wouldn't see a doctor because we didn't have money. So one of 
my cousins or somebody would come over, and he would finally get so 
sick he couldn't stand it, and they would rush him to Mercy Hospital in 
Des Moines. Thank God for the sisters of mercy at Mercy Hospital. They 
would nurse him back to health, get him OK, send him back home. This 
happened like clockwork every winter. My father was always bothered by 
it. He was proud. He didn't like to accept charity. Heck, if left to 
his own devices, he probably would have died a long time before then 
because he just wouldn't have accepted that kind of medical care.
  I can remember coming home on leave from the Navy for Christmas 1965. 
Now, I hadn't been paying too much attention--I was just trying to keep 
alive, so I wasn't paying too much attention to legislation and things 
such as that. I didn't mark the passage of the Medicare bill. I didn't 
know it even happened. As I said, I was just in the military doing my 
thing. But I can remember coming home on that Christmas break and 
seeing my dad, and he showed me his Medicare card. Now he could get 
medical care. He could go to the doctor. He could go and get taken care 
of before he got so sick he had to go to the hospital every time. You 
can't imagine what this was like for him. You see, he felt he had 
earned this through a lifetime of hard work, working for our country, 
raising a family. This was not charity. He had earned this. It was part 
of his Social Security.
  So when someone tells me about Medicare, part of the ``failures'' of 
a great society--hardly a ``failure.'' I wonder why there aren't more 
people out here rushing to introduce bills to repeal it if it is such a 
great ``failure.'' It has saved so many people in our country, such as 
my father, who lived out the remainder of his years in a little bit 
better health because of Medicare. So it is very personal with me.
  Another ``failure'' of the Great Society was the Higher Education 
Act. In 1965, it was rare for young people from disadvantaged and low-
income backgrounds to go to college. The only way I got there is I had 
an NROTC scholarship because of the Navy. That was the only way I was 
able to go to college. So President Johnson passed the Higher Education 
Act, creating work-study programs, loans with reduced interest rates, 
scholarships, opening the door to college for tens of millions of 
Americans to have access to the American dream--again, hardly a 
``failure''.

[[Page S4572]]

  In August 1964, Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Food Stamp Act. 
Prior to that act, hunger was shockingly widespread in America, 
especially in Appalachia and rural parts of our country and in our 
inner cities. Thanks to the Food Stamp Program, hunger in America is 
rare. Tens of millions of Americans--more than half of them children--
are ensured a basic nutritional minimum thanks to this program. The 
farm bill we just passed, with the Presiding Officer's help in getting 
it passed, expanded the Food Stamp Program. It took out some of the 
barriers to access, so families in America can get more access for 
their families and their kids.
  In the State of the Union Address in 1988, President Reagan said that 
the Great Society ``declared war on poverty and poverty won.'' He said 
this in the State of the Union Address. It is another Reagan myth. Look 
at the facts. Look at the data. From 1963 until 1970, during the impact 
of the Great Society programs, the number of Americans living below the 
poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent. The poverty 
rate for African Americans fell from 55 percent to 27 percent. The 
poverty rate among the elderly fell by two-thirds. This is an amazing 
success.
  What is unfortunate is that the poverty rate has not fallen 
significantly since 1970. Our progress has been stalled. Indeed, in the 
last few years, the gap between the rich and the poor in this country 
has grown dramatically. So we need a new generation of American leaders 
committed to reducing the gap. We need a new generation of leaders with 
Lyndon Johnson's passion and commitment to fighting poverty and hunger 
and homelessness and inequality and discrimination.
  Any fairminded observer would say that LBJ's Great Society was far 
from a ``failure;'' it was a monumental success. The Great Society 
programs defined the modern United States of America as a 
compassionate, inclusive society, a genuine opportunistic society where 
everyone can contribute their talents and abilities. The Great Society 
is very much the living legacy of our 36th President. We see the Great 
Society today in cleaner air and water, young people from poor 
backgrounds going to college, seniors and poor people having access to 
decent medical care, and people of color exercising their right to vote 
and live in the neighborhood of their choice. We see the Great Society 
in Head Start, quality public schools, vocational education, college 
grants and loans--all those rungs on the ladder that people need to 
achieve the American dream, even those from humble, hardscrabble 
backgrounds, such as Lyndon Johnson himself or this Senator from Iowa.
  Americans have a tendency to take for granted the achievements of the 
Great Society. But just imagine an America without Medicare, without 
the Civil Rights Act, without the Voting Rights Act, without title I of 
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, without Head Start, without 
community health centers, without vocational education. I could go on 
and on. It would truly be a greatly diminished America, a less secure 
America, a less just America. And without the great companionship of 
Lady Bird Johnson, it would be a less beautiful America.
  I know the Johnson family is here today, including Linda Bird, Lucy 
Baines, and their families, and many close friends and colleagues of 
President Johnson and members of his administration. I thank them for 
keeping the LBJ legacy alive and not letting it become invisible.
  Before I close, let me quote from a small part of a speech that was 
given by Joseph Califano just this Monday at a luncheon here in 
Washington commemorating the legacy of Lyndon Johnson. Obviously we all 
remember Joe Califano being Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Health, 
Education, and Welfare. Listen to what he said:

       Of even greater danger to our Nation, by making the 
     presidency of Lyndon Johnson invisible, we lose key lessons 
     for our democracy--courage counts and government can work--
     and it can work to the benefit of the least among us in ways 
     that enhance the well-being of all of us.

  I can think of no sentence that sums up the legacy of Lyndon Baines 
Johnson better than that.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have the full speech of 
Joseph Califano printed in the Record immediately following my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, as every truly great leader in our 
Nation's history, Lyndon Johnson brought us a giant step closer to 
achieving our highest ideals. He fought passionately for social and 
economic justice for all Americans. He fought to put the American dream 
within reach of every citizen. That is the legacy we salute today. That 
is truly the success--and not the ``failure''--of the Great Society.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

                          Seeing Is Believing:

                 The Enduring Legacy of Lyndon Johnson

       (Keynote Address by Joseph A. Califano, Jr., May 19, 2008)

       For many in this room, Lyndon Johnson's Centennial is a 
     time for personal memories. We remember how LBJ drove 
     himself--and many of us--to use every second of his 
     presidency. We remember his five a.m. wake-up calls asking 
     about a front page story in the New York Times--the edition 
     that had not yet been delivered to our home; his insatiable 
     appetite for a program to cure every ill he saw; his 
     insistence that every call from a member of Congress be 
     returned on the day it was received--even if it meant running 
     the member down in a barroom, bathroom or bedroom; his 
     insistence that hearings begin one day after we sent a bill 
     to Congress; his pressure to get more seniors enrolled in 
     Medicare, more blacks registered to vote, more schools 
     desegregated, more kids signed up for Head Start, more 
     Mexican-Americans taking college scholarships or loans; more 
     billboards torn down faster--for the country, and for Lady 
     Bird.
       And we remember his signature admonition: ``Do it now. Not 
     next week. Not tomorrow. Not later today. Now.''
       We who served him saw that Lyndon Johnson could be brave 
     and brutal, compassionate and cruel, incredibly intelligent 
     and infuriatingly stubborn. We came to know his shrewd and 
     uncanny instinct for the jugular of both allies and 
     adversaries. We learned he could be altruistic and petty, 
     caring and crude, generous and petulant, bluntly honest and 
     calculatingly devious--all within the same few minutes. We 
     saw his determination to succeed run over or around whoever 
     or whatever got in his way.
       As allies and enemies alike slumped in exhaustion, we saw 
     how LBJ's relentless zeal produced second, third and fourth 
     bursts of energy--to mount a massive social revolution that 
     gave new hope to the disadvantaged. As he did so, he often 
     created a record that Machiavelli might not only recognize, 
     but also envy. To him, the enormous popularity of his 
     unprecedented landslide victory, and every event during his 
     presidency--triumphant or tragic--were opportunities to give 
     the most vulnerable among us a fair shot of the nation's 
     abundant blessings.
       We saw these things. But somehow the world beyond--and even 
     the people of his own party--seem not to see.
       Throughout this year, and last week in endorsing Barack 
     Obama, John Edwards made reducing poverty a centerpiece of 
     his presidential campaign. Yet he never mentioned Lyndon 
     Johnson, the first--and only--President ever to declare war 
     on poverty and sharply reduce it.
       A few weeks ago in his eloquent victory speech in Raleigh, 
     North Carolina, Barack Obama followed a familiar pattern of 
     omission. In recounting the achievements of previous 
     Democratic presidents, he mentioned the pantheon of FDR, 
     Harry Truman, JFK--but not LBJ. Not Lyndon Johnson--not the 
     man who would be proudest of Barack Obama's candidacy and 
     what it says about America, the president uniquely 
     responsible for the laws that gave this man (and millions of 
     others) the opportunity to develop and display his talents 
     and gave this nation the opportunity to benefit from them.
       Earlier in the campaign, when Hillary Clinton publicly 
     noted that ``it took a President'' to translate Martin Luther 
     King's moral protests into public laws, she broke the taboo 
     and mentioned President Johnson. The New York Times promptly 
     rebuked her in an editorial for daring to speak that name--
     and instantly things went back to normal: Lyndon Johnson was 
     put back in his place as the invisible President of the 
     twentieth century.
       The reason, of course, goes back to Vietnam. The tragedy of 
     Vietnam has created a dark cloud obscuring the full picture 
     of Lyndon Johnson's presidency.
       Without downplaying in any way the tragedy of the Vietnam 
     war, I am convinced that to make Lyndon Johnson the invisible 
     President--particularly for Democrats to indulge such amnesia 
     as politically correct--is unfair not so much to him, but to 
     our nation and its future.
       Why? Because if we make Lyndon Johnson's whole presidency 
     invisible--if we are unable or unwilling to speak his name--
     we become less able to talk about the lasting achievements of 
     this nation's progressive tradition--a tradition that spans 
     both parties over the last century. If we are unable or 
     unwilling to see this President, we break the chain of 
     history and deny our people an understanding of the 
     remarkable resilience of

[[Page S4573]]

     progressive tradition from Theodore Roosevelt, through 
     Woodrow Wilson. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Harry Truman's 
     Fair Deal and John Kennedy's New Frontier, to Lyndon 
     Johnson's Great Society.
       Of even greater danger to our nation, by making the 
     presidency of Lyndon Johnson invisible, we lose key lessons 
     for our democracy: courage counts and government can work--
     and it can work to the benefit of the least among us in ways 
     that enhance the well-being of all of us. Think about this: 
     Americans under 40 have seen in Washington only governments 
     that were anti-government, corrupt, mired in scandal, inept, 
     gridlocked, driven by polls, favored the rich and powerful, 
     or tied in knots by Lilliputian lobbyists and partisan 
     bickering.
       Talk to many Americans today about Washington and they're 
     likely to say: it doesn't work; it doesn't care; it doesn't 
     understand my problems; the special interests control it. 
     Tell an American that Washington can work, it can help them, 
     and they react like doubting Thomas: I won't believe it till 
     I see it.
       That's the political reality of our skeptical times: seeing 
     is believing.
       So as we begin our observance of this centennial in this 
     critical political year, here is the question: Do we want to 
     rekindle support for progressive ideas, for a modem 
     progressive movement? If so, if we hope to restore belief in 
     a government that serves and lifts up the many as well as the 
     few, if we want to make government work again, then we must 
     see our history more clearly and tell it more completely. We 
     must see the full vision and achievement of Lyndon Johnson's 
     presidency, the domestic revolution that he not only 
     conceived, but carried out. Failure to do so not only 
     distorts our past, it short changes our future. For there is 
     a connection between seeing and believing--and also between 
     seeing and achieving.
       We live in an era of political micro-achievement. In recent 
     years, it is considered an accomplishment when a President 
     persuades Congress to pass one bill, or a few, over an entire 
     administration: one welfare reform; one No Child Left Behind. 
     Partisan attacks and political ambition choke our airways, 
     not reports of legislation passed or problems solved.
       What a contrast. In those tumultuous Great Society years, 
     the President submitted, and Congress enacted, more than one 
     hundred major proposals in each of the 89th and 90th 
     Congresses. In those years of do-it-now optimism, 
     presidential speeches were about distributing prosperity more 
     fairly, reshaping the balance between the consumer and big 
     business, rebuilding entire cities, eliminating poverty, 
     hunger and discrimination in our nation. And when the 
     speeches ended, action followed, problems were 
     tackled, ameliorated and solved. This nation did reduce 
     poverty. We did broaden opportunity for college and jobs. 
     We did outlaw segregation and discrimination in housing. 
     We did guarantee the right to vote to all. We did improve 
     health and prosperity for older Americans. We did put the 
     environment on the national agenda.
       When Lyndon Johnson took office, only eight percent of 
     Americans held college degrees; by the end of 2006, twenty-
     eight percent had completed college. His Higher Education 
     legislation with its scholarships, grants and work-study 
     programs opened college to any American with the necessary 
     brains and ambition, however empty the family purse. Since 
     1965 the federal government has provided more than 360 
     billion dollars to provide 166 million grants, loans and work 
     study awards to college students. Today six out of ten 
     college students receive federal financial aid under Great 
     Society programs and their progeny.
       Below the college level, LBJ passed the Elementary and 
     Secondary Education Act, for the first time committing the 
     federal government to help local schools. By last year, that 
     program had infused 552 billion dollars into elementary and 
     high schools. He anticipated the needs of Hispanics and other 
     immigrants with bilingual education, which today serves four 
     million children in some 40 languages. His special education 
     law has helped millions of children with learning 
     disabilities.
       Then there is Head Start, To date, more than 24 million 
     pre-schoolers have been through Head Start programs in nearly 
     every city and county in the nation. Head Start today serves 
     one million children a year.
       If LBJ had not established the federal government's 
     responsibility to finance this educational surge, would we 
     have the trained human resources today to function in a 
     fiercely competitive global economy? Would we have developed 
     the technology that leads the world's computing and 
     communications revolution?
       Seeing is believing.
       In 1964, most elderly Americans had no health insurance. 
     Few retirement plans provided any such coverage. The poor had 
     little access to medical treatment until they were in 
     critical condition, Only wealthier Americans could get the 
     finest care, and then only by traveling to a few big cities 
     like Boston or New York.
       Consider the changes Johnson wrought. Since 1965, some 112 
     million Americans have been covered by Medicare; in 2006, 43 
     million were enrolled. In 1967, Medicaid served 10 million 
     poor citizens; in 2006, it served 63 million people. The 
     program is widely regarded as the key factor in reducing 
     infant mortality by seventy-five percent--from 26 deaths for 
     each 1,000 live births when Johnson took office to less than 
     seven per 1,000 live births in 2004.
       The Heart, Cancer and Stroke legislation has provided funds 
     to create centers of medical excellence in just about every 
     major city--from Seattle to Houston, Miami to Cleveland, 
     Atlanta to Minneapolis. To staff these centers, the Health 
     Professions Educational Assistance Act provided resources to 
     double the number of doctors graduating from medical schools 
     and increase the pool of specialists, researchers, nurses and 
     paramedics.
       Without these programs and Great Society investments in the 
     National Institutes of Health, would our nation be the 
     world's leader in medical research? In pharmaceutical 
     invention? In creation of surgical procedures and medical 
     machinery to diagnose our diseases, breathe for us, clean our 
     blood, transplant our organs, scan our brains? In the 
     discovery of ingenious prosthetic devices that enable so many 
     of our severely wounded soldiers to function independently?
       Seeing is believing.
       Closely related to LBJ's Great Society health programs were 
     his initiatives to reduce malnutrition and hunger. Today, the 
     Food Stamp program helps feed some 27 million men, women and 
     children in 12 million households. The School Breakfast 
     program has served more than 30 billion breakfasts to needy 
     children.
       Seeing is believing.
       It is not too much to say that Lyndon Johnson's programs 
     created a stunning recasting of America's demographic 
     profile. When President Johnson took office, life expectancy 
     was 66.6 years for men and 73.1 years for women. Forty years 
     later, by 2004, life expectancy had stretched to 75 years for 
     men and 80 years for women. The jump was most dramatic among 
     poor citizens--suggesting that better nutrition and access to 
     health care have played an even larger role than medical 
     advances.
       For almost half a century, the nation's immigration laws 
     established restrictive and discriminatory quotas that 
     favored blond and blue-eyed Western Europeans. With the 
     Immigration Reform Act of 1965, LBJ scrapped that quota 
     system and put substance behind the Statue of Liberty's 
     welcoming words, ``Give me your tired your poor, your huddled 
     masses yearning to breathe free.'' This Great Society 
     legislation refreshed our nation with the revitalizing 
     energies of immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe, 
     south of the border, Asia and Africa, converting America into 
     the most multi-cultural nation in the history of the world 
     and uniquely positioning our population for the Twenty-First 
     century world of new economic powers. In the year before 
     Immigration reform was passed, only 2,600 immigrants were 
     admitted from Africa, less than 25,000 from Asia and 105,000 
     from Central and South America. With the lifting of the 
     quotas, in 2006, 110,000 immigrants were admitted from 
     Africa, more than 400,000 from Asia and 525,000 from Central 
     and South America. I can't see LBJ eating at an Ethiopian or 
     Sushi restaurant, but I can see him tapping into the 
     intellectual acumen, diversity and energy of this new wave of 
     immigrants.
       Seeing is believing.
       Lyndon Johnson put civil rights and social justice squarely 
     before the nation as a moral issue. Recalling his year as a 
     teacher of poor Mexican children in Cotulla, Texas, he once 
     told Congress, ``It never even occurred to me in my fondest 
     dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and 
     daughters of those students and to help people like them all 
     over this country. But now I do have that chance--and I'll 
     let you in on a secret--I mean to use it.''
       And use it he did. He used it to make Washington confront 
     the needs of the nation as no president before or since has. 
     With the 1964 Civil Rights Act Johnson tore down, all at 
     once, the ``Whites only'' signs and social system that 
     featured segregated hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, 
     toilets and water fountains, and rampant job discrimination.
       The following year he proposed the Voting Rights Act. When 
     it passed in the summer of 1965, Martin Luther King told 
     Johnson, ``You have created a second emancipation.'' The 
     President replied, ``The real hero is the American Negro.''
       How I wish that Lyndon Johnson were alive today to see what 
     his laws have wrought--especially the Voting Rights Act that 
     he considered the most precious gem among the Great Society 
     jewels.
       In 1964 there were 79 black elected officials in the South 
     and 300 in the entire nation. By 2001 (the latest information 
     available) there were some 10,000 elected black officials 
     across the nation, more than 6,000 of them in the South. In 
     1965 there were five black members of the House; today 
     there are 42 and the black member of the Senate is headed 
     for the Democratic presidential nomination.
       Seeing is believing.
       But LBJ knew that laws were not enough. Thus was born the 
     concept of affirmative action. Johnson's conviction that it 
     is essential as a matter of social justice to provide the 
     tutoring, the extra help, even the preference if necessary, 
     to those who had suffered generations of discrimination in 
     order to give them a fair chance to share in the American 
     dream.
       LBJ set the pace personally. He appointed the first black 
     Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall), the first black 
     cabinet officer (Robert Weaver) and the first black member of 
     the Federal Reserve Board (Andrew Britmmer). He knew that if 
     executives

[[Page S4574]]

     and institutions across the private sector saw qualified 
     blacks succeeding in positions of high responsibility, 
     barriers across America would fall--because for them, he 
     knew, seeing was believing.
       Less known, and largely ignored, was Johnson's similar 
     campaign to place women in top government positions. The 
     tapes reveal him hectoring cabinet officers to place women in 
     top jobs. He created what one feminist researcher called in 
     her book, Women, Work and National Policy, ``An affirmative 
     action reporting system for women, surely the first of its 
     kind . . . in the White House. . . .'' LBJ proposed and 
     signed legislation to provide, for the first time, equal 
     opportunity in promotions for women in the Armed Forces. 
     Signing the bill in 1967, Johnson noted, ``The bill does not 
     create any female generals or female admirals--but it does 
     make that possible. There is no reason why we should not 
     someday have a female chief of staff or even a female 
     Commander in Chief.''
       LBJ had his heart in his War on Poverty. Though he found 
     the opposition too strong to pass an income maintenance law, 
     he took advantage of the biggest ATM around: Social Security. 
     He proposed, and Congress enacted, whopping increases in the 
     minimum benefit. That change alone lifted 2.5 million 
     Americans 65 and over above the poverty line. Today, Social 
     Security keeps some thirteen million senior citizens above 
     the poverty line. Many scholars look at Social Security and 
     that increase. Medicare and the coverage of nursing home care 
     under Medicaid (which funds care for more than 64 percent of 
     nursing home residents) as the most significant social 
     programs of the Twentieth Century.
       Seeing is believing.
       Johnson's relationship with his pet project--the Office of 
     Economic Opportunity--was that of a proud father often 
     irritated by an obstreperous child- For years conservatives 
     have ranted about the OEO programs. Yet Johnson's War on 
     Poverty was founded on the most conservative principle: put 
     the power in the local community, not in Washington; give 
     people at the grassroots the ability to walk off the public 
     dole.
       Today, as we celebrate LBJ's 100th anniversary some forty 
     years after he left office, eleven of the twelve programs 
     that OEO launched are alive, well and funded at an annual 
     rate exceeding eleven billion dollars. Head Stan, Job Corps, 
     Community Health Centers, Foster Grandparents. Upward Bound 
     (now part of the Trio Program in the Department of 
     Education), Green Thumb (now Senior Community Service 
     Employment), Indian Opportunities (now in the Labor 
     Department), and Migrant Opportunities (now Seasonal Worker 
     Training and Migrant Education) are all helping people stand 
     on their own two feet.
       Community Action (now the Community Service Block Grant 
     program), VISTA Volunteers and Legal Services are putting 
     power in the hands of individuals--down at the grassroots. 
     The grassroots that these programs fertilize just don't 
     produce the manicured laws that conservatives prefer. Of all 
     the Great Society programs started in the Office of Economic 
     Opportunity, only the Neighborhood Youth Corps has been 
     abandoned--in 1974, after enrolling more than 5 million 
     individuals.
       Ronald Reagan quipped that Lyndon Johnson declared war on 
     poverty and poverty won. He was wrong. When LBJ took office, 
     22.2 percent of Americans were living in poverty. When he 
     left five years later, only 13 percent were living below the 
     poverty line--the greatest one-time reduction in poverty in 
     our nation's history.
       Seeing is believing.
       Since Lyndon Johnson left the White House, no president has 
     been able to effect any significant reductions in poverty. In 
     2006 the poverty level stood at 12.3 percent. Hillary Clinton 
     in her presidential campaign has promised to create a cabinet 
     level poverty czar in her administration. In the 
     administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the President was 
     the poverty czar.
       Theodore Roosevelt launched the modern environmental 
     movement by setting aside public lands and national parks and 
     giving voice to conservation leaders like Gifford Pinchot. If 
     Teddy Roosevelt launched the movement, Lyndon Johnson drove 
     it forward more than any later President--and in the process, 
     in 1965, he introduced an entirely new concept of 
     conservation:
       ``We must not only protect the countryside and save it from 
     destruction;'' he said, ``we must restore what has been 
     destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities. Our 
     conservation must be not just the classic conservation of 
     protection and development, but a creative conservation of 
     restoration and innovation.''
       That new environmental commandment spelled out the first 
     inconvenient truth: that those who reap the rewards of modem 
     technology must also pay the price of their industrial 
     pollution. It inspired a legion of Great Society laws: the 
     Clean Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts and 
     Amendments, the 1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act, the 1965 Motor 
     Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, the 1968 Aircraft Noise 
     Abatement Act. It also provided the rationale for later laws 
     creating the Environmental Protection Agency and the 
     Superfund.
       Johnson created 35 National Parks, 32 within easy driving 
     distance of large cities. The 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act 
     today protects 165 river segments in 38 states and Puerto 
     Rico. The 1968 National Trail System Act has established more 
     than 1,000 recreation, scenic and historic trails covering 
     close to 55,000 miles. No wonder National Geographic calls 
     Lyndon Johnson ``our greatest conservation president.''
       Seeing is believing.
       These were major areas of concentration for Lyndon 
     Johnson's Great Society, but there were many others. Indeed, 
     looking back, the sweep of this President's achievements is 
     breathtaking.
       Those of us who worked with Lyndon Johnson would hardly 
     consider him a patron of the arts. I can't even remember him 
     sitting through more than ten or fifteen minutes of a movie 
     in the White House theatre, much less listening to an 
     operatic aria or classical symphony.
       Yet the historian Irving Bernstein. in his book on The 
     Presidency of Lyndon Johnson, titles a chapter. ``Lyndon 
     Johnson, Patron of the Arts.'' Think about it. What would 
     cultural life in America be like without the Kennedy Center 
     for the Performing Arts, where each year two million visitors 
     view performances that millions more watch on television, or 
     without the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden that 
     attracts 750,000 visitors annually? Both are Great Society 
     initiatives.
       The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities are 
     fulfilling a dream Johnson expressed when he asked Congress 
     to establish them and, for the first time, to provide federal 
     financial support for the Arts to increase ``the access of 
     our people to the works of our artists, and [recognize] the 
     arts as part of the pursuit of American greatness.''
       LBJ used to say that he wanted fine theater and music 
     available throughout the nation and not just on Broadway and 
     at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In awarding more than 
     130,000 grants totaling more than four billion dollars since 
     1965, the Endowment for the Arts has spawned art councils in 
     all 50 states and more than 1,400 professional theater 
     companies, 120 opera companies, 600 dance companies and 1,800 
     professional orchestras. Since 1965, the Endowment for the 
     Humanities has awarded 65,000 fellowships and grants totaling 
     more than four billion dollars.
       Johnson established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting 
     to create public television and public radio which have given 
     the nation countless hours of fine arts, superb in-depth news 
     coverage, and programs like ``Sesame Street'' and 
     ``Masterpiece Theater.'' Now some say there is no need for 
     public radio and television, with so many cable channels and 
     radio stations. But as often as you surf with your TV remote 
     or twist your radio dial, you are not likely to find the kind 
     of quality broadcasting that marks the more than 350 public 
     television and nearly 700 public radio stations that the 
     Corporation for Public Broadcasting supports today. They, as 
     well as the rest of the media, have been helped by the 
     Freedom of Information Act, the Great Society's contribution 
     to greater transparency in government.
       Seeing is believing. So is listening.
       For urban America, LBJ drove through Congress the Urban 
     Mass Transit Act, which gave San Franciscans BART, 
     Washingtonians Metro, Atlantans MARTA, and cities across 
     America thousands of buses and modernized transit systems. 
     His 1968 Housing Act, creation of Ginnie Mae, privatization 
     of Fannie Mae and establishment of the Department of Housing 
     and Urban Development have helped some 75 million families 
     gain access to affordable housing.
       In the progressive tradition in which Theodore Roosevelt 
     and Franklin Roosevelt confronted huge financial and 
     corporate enterprises, Johnson faced a nationalization of 
     commercial power that had the potential to disadvantage the 
     individual American consumer. Super-corporations were shoving 
     aside the corner grocer, local banker, independent drug store 
     and family farmer. Automobiles were complex and dangerous, 
     manufactured by giant corporations with deep pockets to 
     protect themselves. Banks had the most sophisticated 
     accountants and lawyers to draft their loan agreements. 
     Sellers of everyday products--soaps, produce, meats, 
     appliances, clothing, cereal and canned and frozen foods--
     packaged their products with the help of the shrewdest 
     marketers and designers. The individual was outflanked at 
     every position.
       Seeing that mismatch, Johnson pushed through Congress a 
     bevy of laws to level the playing filed for consumers: Auto 
     and highway safety for the motorist a Department of 
     Transportation and National Transportation Safety Board; 
     truth in packaging for the housewife; truth in lending for 
     the homebuyer, small businessman and individual borrower; 
     wholesome meat and wholesome poultry laws to enhance food 
     safety; the Flammable Fabrics Act to reduce the incendiary 
     characteristics of clothing and blankets. He created the 
     Product Safety Commission to assure that toys and other 
     products would be safe for users. When he got over his 
     annoyance that it took him five minutes to find me in the 
     emergency room of George Washington University Hospital, with 
     my three year old son Joe who had swallowed a bottle of 
     aspirin, he proposed the Child Safety Act which is why we all 
     have such difficulty opening up medicine bottles.
       Seeing is believing.
       By the numbers the legacy of Lyndon Johnson is monumental. 
     It exceeds in domestic impact even the New Deal of his idol 
     Franklin Roosevelt. It sets him at the cutting edge of the 
     nation's progressive tradition. But there is also an 
     important story behind these programs that speaks to the 
     future--that offers the lessons of what it takes

[[Page S4575]]

     to be an effective President. What lessons does this 
     President have for our nation and his successors, especially 
     those who value the progressive tradition?
       First, Lyndon Johnson was a genuine, true believing 
     revolutionary.
       His Texas constituency and the tactical constraints of his 
     earlier offices reined him in before he became President. But 
     his experiences--teaching poor Mexican American children in 
     Corolla, Texas, working as Texas director of Roosevelt's 
     National Youth Administration, witnessing the indignities 
     that his black cook, Zephyr Wright, and her husband Gene 
     Williams, suffered during his senate years when they drove 
     from Washington to Texas through the segregated south--fueled 
     his revolutionary spirit.
       He saw racial justice as a moral issue. He refused to 
     accept pockets of poverty in the richest nation in history. 
     He saw a nation so hell bent on industrial growth and 
     amassing wealth that greed threatened to destroy its natural 
     resources. He saw cities deteriorating and municipal 
     political machines unresponsive to the early migration of 
     Hispanics and the masses of blacks moving north. To him 
     government was neither a bad man to be tarred and feathered 
     nor a bag man to collect campaign contributions. To him 
     government was not a bystander, hoping wealth and opportunity 
     might trickle down to the least among us. To LBJ, government 
     was a mighty wrench to open the fountain of opportunity so 
     that everyone could bathe in the shower of our nation's 
     blessings. He wanted his government to provide the poor with 
     the kind of education, health and social support that most of 
     us get from our parents.
       Second, Lyndon Johnson was perpetually impatient, 
     relentlessly restless, always in a hurry.
       Andrew Marvell's words could have been written for him: 
     ``But at my back I always hear/Time's winged chariot, 
     hurrying near.'' Lyndon Johnson saw himself in a desperate 
     race against time as he fought to remedy the damage slavery 
     and generations of prejudice had inflicted on black 
     Americans. Why? Because he feared that, once black Americans 
     sensed the prospect of a better life, the discrimination they 
     had once accepted as inevitable would become intolerable; 
     they would erupt--and, subvert their own cause. ``Hell,'' he 
     said to me during some of those eruptions, ``Sometimes when I 
     think of what they've been through, I don't blame them.''
       He saw himself in a race against time as he sized up 
     Congress, political reality and attitudes of affluent 
     Americans. LBJ knew that he must use--now!--the sympathy 
     generated by John Kennedy's assassination and the huge margin 
     of his own election victory in 1964. He knew that his 
     political capital--no matter how gigantic in the early days 
     of his presidency--was a dwindling asset.
       Third, Lyndon Johnson was a man of extraordinary courage.
       For me the greatest price our nation pays for our 
     collective blindness is this: By rendering LBJ invisible we 
     lose sight, for the future, of how much a truly courageous 
     political leader can accomplish.
       Sure, LBJ had the politician's hunger to be loved. But, 
     more than that, he had the courage to fall on his sword if 
     that's what it took to move the nation forward. He did just 
     that when, in an extraordinary act of abnegation, he withdrew 
     from the political arena to calm the roiling seas of strife 
     and end the war in Vietnam.
       To me no greater example of Presidential political courage 
     exists than Lyndon Johnson's commitment in the area of civil 
     rights. He fought for racial equality even when it hurt him 
     and clobbered his party in the South.
       After signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Johnson was 
     defeated in five southern states, four of them states that 
     Democrats had not lost for 80 years.
       Still he kept on. In 1965 he drove the Voting Rights Act 
     through Congress. In 1966, he proposed the Fair Housing Act 
     to end discrimination in housing. His proposal prompted the 
     most vitriolic mail we received at the White House, and 
     Congress refused to act on the bill that year.
       In the November 1966 mid-term elections, the Democrats lost 
     a whopping forty-seven seats in the House and three in the 
     Senate. Border and southern state governors met with the 
     President at his ranch in December. In a nasty assault on his 
     civil rights policies, they demanded that he withdraw his 
     fair housing proposal and curb his efforts to desegregate 
     schools.
       Undeterred, in 1968, he drove the Fair Housing Act through 
     the senate--tragically it took Dr. King's assassination to 
     give Johnson the leverage he needed to convince the House to 
     pass it.
       You have to see political courage like that to believe it. 
     I was fortunate to see it close up. I want our people and 
     future leaders to be able to see it.
       Fourth, Lyndon Johnson knew how to use power.
       Johnson married his revolutionary zeal, impatience and 
     courage to a phenomenal sense of how to use power 
     skillfully--to exploit a mandate, to corral votes, to reach 
     across the aisle in order to move this nation, its people and 
     the Congress forward.
       Lyndon Johnson felt entitled to every lever, to help from 
     every person, every branch of government, every business, 
     labor and religious leader. After all. as he often reminded 
     us, he was the only President we had. He had no inhibitions 
     in reaching out for advice, ideas, talent, power, support. He 
     often saw traditions of separation of powers. or an 
     independent press, or a profit-minded corporate executive, as 
     obstacles, to be put aside in deference to the greater 
     national interest as he defined it. He was brilliantly 
     opportunistic, calling upon the nation and the Congress in 
     the wake of even the most horrific tragedies--the 
     assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King--to 
     bring a new measure of social justice to all Americans.
       He knew how to harness the power of the protestors and the 
     media to tap into the inherent fairness of the American 
     people. He asked Martin Luther King in January 1965 to help 
     with the Voting Rights Act by ``getting your leaders and you 
     yourself . . . . to find the worst condition [of voting 
     discrimination] that you run into in Alabama . . . . and get 
     it on radio, get it on television, get it on--in the pulpits, 
     get it in the meetings, get it every place you can . . . . 
     and then that will help us on what we are going to shove 
     through in the end.'' He loved King's choice of Selma, 
     Alabama. He knew, as he told Dr. King, that when the American 
     people saw the unfairness of the voting practices there, they 
     would come around to supporting his bill. And they did.
       He offers a defining lesson in the importance of mustering 
     bipartisan support. These Great Society proposals were 
     cutting edge, controversial initiatives and LBJ assiduously 
     courted Republican members of congress to support them. His 
     instructions to us on the White House staff were to accord 
     Senate Republican minority leader Everett Dirksen and House 
     minority leader Gerald Ford the same courtesies we extended 
     to Senate Majority leader Mike Mansfield and House Speaker 
     John McCormack. It was not only that he needed Republican 
     votes to pass bills like the civil rights, health, education 
     and consumer laws: he saw bipartisan support as an essential 
     foundation on which to build lasting commitment among the 
     American people. He knew that the endurance of his 
     legislative achievements, and their enthusiastic 
     acceptance by state and local governments, powerful 
     private interests and individual citizens across the 
     nation, required such bipartisan support.
       He didn't accomplish all he wanted. He called ``the welfare 
     system in America outmoded and in need of major change'' and 
     pressed Congress to create ``a work incentive program, 
     incentives for earning, day care for children, child and 
     maternal health and family planning services.''
       He saw the threat posed by the spread of guns and proposed 
     national registration of all gulls and national licensing of 
     all gun owners. Congress rejected his proposals. But he did 
     convince Capitol Hill to close the loophole of mail order 
     guns, prohibit sales to minors, and end the import of 
     Saturday night specials.
       He tried, unsuccessfully, to get expand Medicare to cover 
     pre-natal care and children through age six, and used to say, 
     ``If we can get that, future presidents and Congresses can 
     close the gap between six and sixty-five.''
       He spotted the ``for sale'' signs of political corruption 
     going up in the nation's capital and called for public 
     financing of campaigns.
       Our nation and its leaders pay a heavy price when such a 
     towering figure--among the most towering political figures of 
     American history--becomes at the same time America's 
     invisible president. In this year, when for the first time in 
     our history a black American is a leading candidate for the 
     Presidency, when so many domestic issues dominating the 
     campaign--access to health care, persistent poverty amidst 
     such plenty, affordable higher education, effective public 
     schools, environmental protection--are issues LBJ put on the 
     national government's agenda, it is time to see the full 
     measure of this President. Too many lessons of his presidency 
     have been ignored because the Democratic party, the academic 
     elite, political analysts and the mainstream media have made 
     him the invisible president.
       In this troubled time, when political pollsters and 
     consultants parse the positions of candidates for public 
     office, Johnson's exceptional courage on civil rights should 
     be a shining example for a new generation of political 
     leaders. His recognition of the significance of bipartisan 
     support for controversial--but needed--domestic initiatives, 
     and his ability to muster such support, should be studied by 
     politicians and citizens who seek to change the world. His 
     unique ability to make Washington work. to nourish and 
     maintain partnerships between the Executive and the Congress, 
     the public and private sectors, and to focus the people on 
     critical needs like racial justice and eliminating poverty 
     demonstrate ``Yes, we can!'' to skeptical citizens who have 
     never seen Washington get it done.
       It's time to take off the Vietnam blinders and let our eyes 
     look at and learn from the domestic dimension of this 
     presidency. Let everyone think what they will about Vietnam. 
     But let us--especially Democrats--also recognize the reality 
     of this revolutionary's remarkable achievements.
       It is encouraging to me that some of Johnson's severest 
     anti-war critics have begun the call for recognition of the 
     greatness of his presidency.
       Listen to the words of George McGovern who ran for 
     president in 1972 on an anti-war platform and maintains that 
     ``The Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations were all 
     wrong on Vietnam:''
       ``It would be a historic tragedy if [LBJ's] outstanding 
     domestic record remained forever obscured by his involvement 
     in a war he did not begin and did not know how to

[[Page S4576]]

     stop.. . . . Johnson did more than any other president to 
     advance civil rights, education and housing, to name just 
     three of his concerns. . . . ''
       `` The late John Kenneth Galbraith, another leading critic 
     of the Vietnam War, has called for ``historical 
     reconsideration'' of the Johnson presidency:
       ``In the New Deal ethnic equality was only on the public 
     conscience; in the Kennedy presidency it was strongly urged 
     by Martin Luther King and many others. . . . It was with 
     Lyndon Johnson, however, that citizenship for all Americans 
     in all its aspects became a reality. . . . On civil rights 
     and on poverty, the two truly urgent issues of the time, we 
     had with Johnson the greatest changes of our time. . . . The 
     initiatives of Lyndon Johnson on civil rights, voting rights 
     and on economic and social deprivation. . . . must no longer 
     be enshrouded by that [Vietnam] war.''
       And listen to Robert Caro, LBJ's most meticulous and 
     demanding biographer:
       ``In the twentieth century, with its eighteen American 
     presidents, Lyndon Johnson was the greatest champion that 
     black Americans and Mexican Americans, and indeed all 
     Americans of color, had in the White House, the greatest 
     champion they had in all the halls of government. With the 
     single exception of Lincoln, he was the greatest champion 
     with a white skin that they had in the history of the 
     Republic. He was . . . the lawmaker for the poor and the 
     downtrodden and the oppressed . . . . the President who wrote 
     mercy and justice into the statute books by which America was 
     governed.''
       Historian David McCullough has said that the threshold test 
     of greatness in a president is whether he is willing to risk 
     his presidency for what he believes. LBJ passes that test 
     with flying colors. It's time for all of us to give his 
     presidency the high marks it deserves.
       Lyndon Johnson died 36 years ago in 1972. But his legacy 
     endures. It endures in the children in Head Start programs in 
     hamlets across our nation, in the expanded opportunities for 
     millions of blacks, Hispanics and other minorities. It 
     endures in the scholarships and loans that enable the poorest 
     students to attend the finest universities. His legacy 
     endures in the health care for the poor and the elderly that 
     are woven into the fabric of American life. It endures in the 
     public radio stations millions of drivers listen to as they 
     drive to and from work. It endures in the cleaner air we 
     breathe, in the local theatres and symphonies supported by 
     the National Endowments, in the safer cars we drive and safer 
     toys our children play with.
       Seeing is believing.
       That legacy also endures--let us remember--in the 
     unfinished business of our nation's long progressive movement 
     that he pressed so impatiently for us to finish. LBJ knew 
     that movement could be stalled, but he knew that it must 
     never be stopped.
       So, over these few days, as we look back and celebrate this 
     centennial, let us also look forward and let us inspire 
     others to see clearly and fully.
       Because seeing is not only believing; seeing has everything 
     to do with achieving.
                                  ____


            Seeing Is Believing: The Enduring Legacy of LBJ


 With these acts President Johnson and Congress wrote a record of hope 
                      and opportunity for America

     1963
       College Facilities, Clean Air, Vocational Education, Indian 
     Vocational Training, Manpower Training.
     1964
       Inter-American Development Bank, Kennedy Cultural Center, 
     Tax Reduction, Farm Program, Pesticide Controls, 
     International Development Association, Civil Rights Act of 
     1964, Water Resources Research.
       War on Poverty, Criminal Justice, Truth-in-Securities, Food 
     Stamps, Housing Act, Wilderness Areas, Nurse Training, 
     Library Services.
     1965
       Medicare, Medicaid, Elementary and Secondary Education, 
     Higher Education, Bilingual Education, Departent of Housing 
     and Urban Development, Housing Act, Voting Rights.
       Immigration Reform Law, Older Americans, Heart, Cancer, 
     Stroke Program, Law Enforcement Assistance, Drug Controls, 
     Mental Health Facilities, Health Professions, Medical 
     Libraries.
       Vocational Rehabilitation, Anti-Poverty Program, Arts and 
     Humanities Foundation, Aid to Appalachia, Highway Beauty, 
     Clean Air, Water Pollution Control, High Speed Transit.
       Manpower Training, Child Health, Community Health Services, 
     Water Resources Council, Water Desalting, Juvenile 
     Delinquency Control, Arms Control, Affirmative Action.
     1966
       Child Nutrition, Department of Transportaton, Truth in 
     Packaging, Model Cities, Rent Supplements, Teahers Corp, 
     Asian Development Bank, Clean Rivers.
       Food for Freedom, Child Safety, Narcotics Rehabilitation, 
     Traffic Safety, Highway Safety, Mine Safety, International 
     Education, Bail Reform.
       Auto Safety, Tire Safety, New GI Bill, Minimum Wage 
     Increase, Urban Mass Transit, Civil Procedure Reform, Fish-
     Wildlife Preservation, Water for Peace.
       Anti-Inflation Program, Scientific Knowledge Exchange, 
     Protection for Savings, Freedom of Information, Hirshhorn 
     Museum.
     1967
       Education Professions, Education Act, Air Pollution 
     Control, Partnership for Health, Social Security Increases, 
     Age Discrimination, Wholesome Meat, Flammable Fabrics.
       Urban Reserch, Public Broadcasting, Outer Space Treaty, 
     Modern D.C. Government, Federal Judicial Center, Deaf-Blind 
     Center, College Work Study, Summer Youth Programs.
       Food Stamps, Urban Fellowships, Safety at Sea Treaty, 
     Narcotics Treaty, Anti-Racketeering, Product Safety 
     Commission, Inter-American Bank.
     1968
       Fair Housing, Indian Bill of Rights, Safe Streets, 
     Wholesome Poultry, Community Exchange Rules, School 
     Breakfasts, Truth-in-Lending, Aircraft Noise Abatement.
       New Narcotics Bureau, Gas Pipeline Safety, Fire Safety, Sea 
     Grant Colleges, Tax Surcharge, Housing Act, International 
     Monetary Reform, Fair Federal Juries.
       Juvenile Delinquency Prevention, Guaranteed Student Loans, 
     Health Manpower, Gun Controls, Aid-to-Handicapped Children, 
     Heart, Cancer and Stroke Programs, Hazardous Radiation 
     Protection, Scenic Rivers.
       Scenic Trails, National Water Commission, Vocational 
     Education, Dangerous Drug Control, Military Justics Code, Tax 
     Surcharge.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I see the arrival of my seatmate, a great 
friend, Robert C. Byrd, and with permission, I would like to speak for 
about 2 minutes, if that is all right. I know he has some important 
words.
  Before he leaves the floor, I wish to commend my colleague from Iowa, 
Tom Harkin. Tom and I arrived in the Congress together 34 years ago in 
January of 1973. I have listened to him give eloquent speeches but none 
better than the one he just gave regarding Lyndon Johnson--not only the 
importance of the man but the importance of his work and what a better 
country we are today. We are not that more perfect union yet, but we 
are getting there. One major step in that direction was created by 
Lyndon Johnson and a guy by the name of Tom Harkin who has carried on 
that tradition as well. So he would be very proud of you. I thank the 
Senator from Iowa for his remarks this morning.
  I have some brief thoughts before deferring to my seatmate and dear 
friend, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.
  Let me just say to all, we often reflect on the impact this 
institution has had on the United States, on our beloved country. But 
on this day, I think we cannot help but consider the impact certain 
Americans have had on this institution and on our great Republic. At 
this moment, we reflect not on legislative accomplishments, which are 
Herculean, as Senator Harkin has identified--appropriately so, and with 
great eloquence--or even how that might have changed the fabric of our 
country--it certainly did--but, rather, on the strength of character 
required by those who made such achievements possible.
  I wish to join my colleagues and others here today reflecting upon 
and paying tribute to one of this great institution's most revered 
figures on this centennial anniversary of his birth: the former Senate 
majority leader, the 35th President of this body and the 36th President 
of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
  Emerson wrote that:

       None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or 
     commanding except when he listens to this whisper, which is 
     heard by him alone.

  If that is true, then when the whisper traveled through the winds 
sweeping across the Pedernales River in the plains of central Texas, 
Lyndon Johnson must have been listening carefully, indeed.
  I think we all believe that a society such as ours should aspire to 
greatness, aspire to that more perfect union our forefathers 
envisioned. But Lyndon Johnson understood something else of what was 
required of leaders to get us there: the importance of building 
alliances, however unorthodox; the ability to find agreement, even with 
those whom we most disagree with; and perhaps most importantly, Lyndon 
Baines Johnson recognized that this institution could achieve the most 
remarkable of things if its Members were willing to do the kind of work 
that more often than not was decidedly unremarkable.
  It was his Herculean skills in the legislative arena, of course, 
honed on this very floor and in these Halls, that proved such a 
complement to the wonderful rhetorical flourishes of those

[[Page S4577]]

who identified the great goals we must achieve. But armed with his 
skills--his maneuvering, his understanding of his fellow Members, of 
what they could tolerate, what they could agree with, how far they 
could move--Lyndon Johnson was able, in his very hands, to mold the 
successful results of which Tom Harkin spoke so eloquently. In the 
absence of that ability, a lot of these achievements would have been 
nothing more than rhetorical flourishes. It took the brilliance of a 
legislator--not unlike the skills of the gentleman who sits next to me 
here this morning, Robert C. Byrd--to be able to fashion and create the 
very legislative achievements we talk about. Indeed, it is often said 
that it took the hardscrabble southerner from Texas to broker a Civil 
Rights Act. I don't know of anyone who would disagree with that or with 
the long litany of legislative achievements Tom Harkin has identified. 
But I think it does in a sense a disservice to just identify what was 
perhaps Lyndon Johnson's greatest skill, and that was moving a 
political body reluctant to change, as most political bodies are.
  To be sure, I would be remiss if I were not to mention my father's 
relationship with Lyndon Johnson as well. I sit at the desk my father 
occupied in this body for the more than 10 years he served here. But 
that relationship went back a lot longer than their years here. My 
father, as a young law school graduate at the outset of the New Deal, 
became the first State Director of the National Youth Administration in 
1933, and Lyndon Johnson was a young man beginning his career in Texas 
politics and was running a similar program in that State.
  Their relationship started in the 1930s and blossomed during their 
years in public service in this very institution. I am sort of a 
creature of this place, in many ways, having grown up here. I was a 
mere child of 8 when my father came to Congress in 1952, and then to 
the Senate in 1959, with my seat-mate, Senator Byrd. I sat in the 
family gallery in 1959 and watched him take the oath of office. Three 
years later, I sat on the floor, dressed like these young men and 
women, as a Senate page and watched Lyndon Johnson maneuver through 
this building. In those days, there were no television cameras or 
microphones that can carry your voice through the halls of this room 
and beyond. I would watch Lyndon Johnson at this table in front of me 
here. Members would gather around because you could not hear everything 
he said--intentionally, I might add, as he was careful that not 
everything he said was necessarily heard by everyone about the schedule 
of the Senate, or he may have been talking about achievements that were 
made. I was here for some of the all-night sessions when the civil 
rights debates were going on. I developed friendships, which I still 
hold today, with the other young pages I worked with in those early 
days.
  Lyndon Johnson and my father and Lady Bird and my mother had a great 
relationship. I have shared with Lynda, Luci, and their families that I 
remember vividly Mrs. Johnson being at our home. My mother and she 
would meet with Mercedes Douglas, Justice Douglas's wife, to practice 
Spanish together. They had a great relationship over the years. I 
remember vividly, as well, President Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson 
hosting a surprise wedding anniversary party for my parents at a 
restaurant here in Washington one evening, as they celebrated their 
35th wedding anniversary. So there are family ties that run long and 
deep.
  I remember in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson very graciously invited my 
father and Hubert Humphrey to come to the White House on the eve of the 
Vice Presidential nomination in Atlantic City. There was no doubt that 
Humphrey would be the choice, but it was the gracious act of a 
President to recognize a friendship he had with this young man from 
Connecticut, going back to the 1930s, that he invited him to be part of 
that raising the expectation that he might be chosen as a Vice 
Presidential running mate for Lyndon Johnson. My father seconded 
Johnson's nomination in 1960 when I was a page, as well, and watching 
history unfold.
  So it is with great joy that I come to the floor this morning to 
celebrate a remarkable life that made a huge difference. When students 
ask us--as they oftentimes do--``can any one person make a difference 
in the life of other people?'' you need look no further than the 
initials LBJ. It is a story of how one individual, as Tom Harkin said, 
born in the hardscrabble territory of central Texas, grew up and served 
in this body, managed this institution, produced the results he did, 
and became President of a country that allowed us to achieve the great 
achievements of the 1960s.
  We are all beneficiaries of Lyndon Johnson's legacy. It is highly 
appropriate, not only today, this week, or in the year of this 
centennial anniversary, and with great frequency, to remind the young 
people sitting here today as pages that these great achievements didn't 
happen miraculously. They weren't given out with a gracious heart of 
those who fought. They were won in hard-fought battles that produced 
these results. Our generation, your generation, will have to fight 
hard, too, to make sure we are going to achieve good things and learn 
the lessons of Lyndon Johnson--how hard he fought to make a difference 
in his country and in the world in which we live.
  I am honored to be joining those who today celebrate the life, 
celebrate an achievement our country benefited from, and as long as we 
survive as a republic, the legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson. It is a 
great moment that we ought to remember and cherish for years and years 
to come.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from West Virginia is 
recognized.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, today the Senate marks the 100th anniversary 
of the birth of Lyndon Baines Johnson. The Senate has changed much, in 
a sense; in another sense, it has changed little since the days when 
Senator and Majority Leader Johnson strode through these halls and 
presided over this great body.
  I was fortunate to serve with Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson. I 
was fortunate to serve with President Lyndon B. Johnson. And although 
most Americans remember Lyndon B. Johnson in his role as President of 
the United States, it is as majority leader and Senator that I 
especially recall Lyndon B. Johnson.
  As I noted upon his death in 1973:

       In his heart, [he] was a man of the Senate. He had a deep 
     and abiding faith in this body, and its place in the past and 
     the future history of this Republic.

  It is, therefore, most fitting on the centennial of Lyndon Johnson's 
birth that he be remembered here in this Senate that he loved.
  Lyndon Baines Johnson was the majority leader when I came to the 
Senate in 1959, and from my first day in the Senate, and for the next 2 
years, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was a mentor and friend, 
as well as a leader, to me. At that time, my colleagues, the Senate had 
a long tradition that a newcomer to the Senate would not be assigned to 
the more important Senate committees. Yet--hear this, my colleagues--
Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson placed me on the Appropriations 
Committee, even though there were several other more senior Members who 
coveted a position on that prestigious committee. The rest, as they 
say, is history, still in the making, because I, Robert C. Byrd, am 
still on the Appropriations Committee.
  Whenever I went to Lyndon B. Johnson with problems concerning my 
State of West Virginia, in every instance Majority Leader Johnson was 
considerate and, in every instance, Majority Leader Johnson tried to be 
helpful to me. I acknowledged that support and leadership, not only to 
me but to the Senate, the Democratic Party, and to our Nation, in an 
address that I titled ``The Role of the Majority Leader in the 
Senate,'' given at the end of my first year in the Senate. I pointed 
out that Senator Johnson was ``the cohesive, the centrifugal force by 
which the majority is held together.''
  When he became Vice President of the United States, I again paid 
tribute to my former colleague and mentor, declaring that his 
``political leadership in the Senate [was] a guide and an inspiration 
to all of us.''
  Amidst tragedy, on November 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson became President 
of these United States. His administration achieved many 
accomplishments, especially in the areas of civil rights and social 
policy.

[[Page S4578]]

  I believe, however, in the observation I made at the time of Lyndon 
B. Johnson's death:

       The years Lyndon Johnson spent in the Senate might well 
     have been the happiest and the most satisfying of his life.

  Lyndon B. Johnson will long be remembered here 100, even 200, years 
and more after his birth, for his leadership, his sagacity, his wit, 
for the sheer enjoyment he derived from working in the Senate, and his 
obvious love for this body and the great Nation it serves.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Menendez). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, this is an opportunity for me to speak about 
the supplemental appropriations bill, but I would be remiss if I did 
not recognize the extraordinary life and service of President Lyndon 
Baines Johnson.
  I can remember graphically, as a high school student at La Salle 
Academy in Providence, RI, going down to, at that time recently named, 
Kennedy Plaza in Providence to see President Johnson in a motorcade on 
his way to Brown University to deliver a major policy address with, at 
that time, the senior Senator John O. Pastore. They were both 
celebrating tremendous legislative accomplishments in education, health 
care, and civil rights, none of which would have been wrought except by 
the vision and work of Lyndon Johnson.
  We are commemorating an extraordinary President, an extraordinary 
gentleman, someone truly larger than life whose contribution and whose 
influence is with us today. In fact, many days on this Senate floor, I 
think our tact is to live up to his ideals and his accomplishments and 
to make them fresh again in both the heart and spirit of America. I 
hope on our best days we do that.

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