Bobby Baker and Richard Russell (LBJ: Part One E)

 


Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
 

View entire film online (3 hours, 43 mins.)

Introduction

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LBJ

Written and Produced by David Grubin
Narrated by David McCullough

[Previously, in LBJ:

“LBJ: PBS Spins a Racial Fairy Tale About Lyndon Johnson, as His Reward for Signing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts” (Introduction);

“Beautiful Texas” (LBJ: Part One A);

“Bringing Power to the Hill Country” (LBJ: Part One B);

“Getting Paid: The 1941 Senate Campaign” (LBJ: Part One C); and

“Stealing the 1948 Election” (LBJ: Part One D).]
 

PBS Transcript

McCullough:[voice-over] When an exuberant Johnson entered the Senate, he was a powerless freshman joining a select club run by insiders very much his senior. He turned for help to a man who knew just how the club was run, Bobby Baker. Baker had come to the Senate as a teenaged page in the 1940s and knew, everyone said, where the bodies were buried.

Robert Baker, LBJ Senate Aide:And so he said, "Mr. Baker, I wanted to meet you." He said, "My spies tell me you're the smartest son of a bitch over there." And I said, "That's not true and the only reputation I have is that my word is my bond and I protect your privacy." He said, "Well, you're the kind of man I want to know."

So he said, "I want you to know that the National Democratic Party is much more liberal than Texas." He advised me in no uncertain terms that he was committed to the oil interests in Texas.

McCullough:[voice-over] Johnson always knew where the power was. In Texas, he cozied up to the oil barons. In the Senate, he attached himself to the southern conservatives and their influential leader, Richard Brevard Russell of Georgia.

Robert Baker, LBJ Senate Aide:Senator Russell was a lonely bachelor. He read probably 10 books a week. He was a loner. Well, Lyndon Johnson, at this time, knew where the power was and had Senator Russell been a woman, he would have married him because -- or married her.

McCullough:[voice-over] Under Russell's patronage, Johnson was given the job of Party Whip. He transformed what had been a minor post into a seat of power. Two years later, he was elected Democratic leader. "Landslide Lyndon" was now one of the most powerful men in the United States Senate.