Tag Archives: Lady Bird Johnson

The Grande Dame of Texas Democrat politics, though she rarely took any but a cheerleader’s part, will be the subject of eulogies for days to come. Here’s an early obit. The daily is hiding its main story behind free registration, which is too bad, but the sidebars are available. I suppose one is expected to be nice about the dead until the body, or the ashes, are in the ground, and I expect the media will do that, in large measure. But there are many ways to look at Lady Bird, some of them not at all complimentary. A few things she did and more that her deceased husband, LBJ, did to her and in her name. Remains to be seen if they’ll see the light.

UPDATE  Jau, at Just Muttering, wonders what I am implying. She might well ask. Mostly I’m referring to details in Robert A. Caro’s "The Path to Power, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 1" about LBJ’s political rise. He is known in Texas as the pol who stole an election to the US Senate. Caro shows how he and Lady Bird got rich, by using his position to barge ahead of others in getting radio and television licenses–the basis of their wealth. She acquiesced in this, making her a co-conspirator, if you will. Nobody ever charged them with wrongdoing, but it seems clear that he would never have received the licenses if he wasn’t in Congress at the time. What he later did to her is also in the book, cuckolding her (if that term can be applied to a woman) and generally treating her badly in front of others, all of which she again tacitly approved by not leaving him. Sort of a Hillary character without the political ambition. Shyer, though. But you’re not likely to see any of this in the MSM, even after her funeral. So, if you’re interested, read Caro’s book.