Gun Control Lessons from Lyndon Johnson

[mrsadm]

"In the aftermath of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (just weeks after the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King Jr. and only a few years after President John F. Kennedy was shot), President Johnson pressed Congress to enact gun control legislation he had sent to Capitol Hill years earlier. LBJ ordered all of us on his staff — and urged allies in Congress — to act swiftly. “We have only two weeks, maybe only 10 days,” he said, “before the gun lobby gets organized.” He told Larry O’Brien and me, “We’ve got to beat the NRA [National Rifle Association] into the offices of members of Congress.”

Gun Control Lessons from Lyndon Johnson

[byeya]

1. On issues he cared about, LBJ was relentless. Pres. Obama could learn this lesson

from Lyndon.
LBJ played to win and used the full force of his office be it Senate majority leader or President.

[ananda]

3. Obama needs to "Lyndon" those legislators.

[Hoyt]

2. So true. NRA has been working overtime this weekend trying to shore up (intimidate) Congress.

For the hell of it, I checked the NRA Website. Found them pushing Ollie North's (an NRA board member) latest book. What a joke.

[UTUSN]

4. K&R #3 for, it takes 30 yrs of hands-on OJT to produce an LBJ, to know all the ins-outs

of how the clunky machine of the government does and does not work, how to work-around, develop the confidence to kick ass and to know when to do it and when to hold back on it.

On the opposite side, the NEFARIOUS side, what we saw with CHEENEE holding the reins as VP bypassing Shrub or string-pulling Shrub, it's the same OJT, the lifetime of learning the tricks and gimmicks and how to get around restrictions.

Until this government crumbles under its own weight of built-in obstruction (all the "checks and balances" that produce gridlock and defiance of the popular will for generations), that's what it takes: 30 yrs of some wiley jerk working around the clock while everybody else around is having a good time.