Free Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro Page B

of the little circle after she was elected to Congress in 1944, but who had been invited to its parties whenever, in the years before that, she came to Washington, “Hemade fun of those who refused to
     bend.…”
    When he was with the other, conservative, side—mostly in Texas, but with ultra-conservative Texas lobbyists in Washington and big businessmen visiting the capital—Johnson was just as eloquent on that side; “He [Johnson] gave the impression of being much, much more liberal than he actually was,” conservative lobbyistDale Miller was able to assure his friends. “He gave a lot more impression of
     being with the New Deal” than was actually the case. As for the Brown brothers, ultra-reactionaries both, their opinion is expressed by George: “Basically, Lyndon was more conservative, more practical than people understand. You get right down to the nut-cutting, he was practical.He was for the Niggers, he was for labor, he was for the little boys, but by God … he was as practical as anyone.”
     Brown—who saw him with both sides since both Corcoran and Wirtz were on his payroll and Fortas was helpingBrown & Root obtain a dam authorization (and whenever Brown visited Washington, Johnson made the suave contractor part of the circle)—marveled at Johnson’s ability to make liberals think he was one of them and conservatives think he was one of
them:
“That was his leadership,
     that was his knack,” he was to say. The more perceptive of the little circle saw this. “I was never sure whether some of Lyndon Johnson’s votes were cast out of conviction or out of judging what Texas politics required,” Mrs. Douglas was to write. “It washard to tell; he never gave any indication. He was willing to make thecompromises necessary, I believe, to stay in Congress.…” Johnson, she saw, used his homey anecdotes to avoid having to take stands on issues. “Heprotected himself by not being serious,” she said. “He waswitty, he would tell stories, he was humorous. But … he was loose, so he could go either way.… He was always aware that what he said might be repeated or remembered—even years later. And he didn’t want someone to come
     back years later and say, ‘I remember when you said.…’ ” Watching him talk so much—and say so little—Mrs. Douglas began to realize, she says, that Lyndon Johnson was “strong.” In Washington, she says, “everyone tried to find out where you stood. But he had great inner control, He could talk so much—and no one ever knew exactly where he stood.” Although he talked so much, she says,
     “he was one of the mostclose-mouthed men I ever knew.” But these practical men excused his refusal to be pinned down on issues. “It’s a defensible position in politics,” Rowe says. And most of the little circle were convinced that, at heart, Lyndon Johnson was liberal like them, and those who believed differently excused him anyway; his refusal to take stands made those of them who were tied to Lyndon Johnson by ambition as well
     as affection feel more certain than ever that he was going far—and they wanted to go along with him. Before his defeat in 1941, this young Congressman had become not merely one of this little circle of remarkable young men on the rise, but its center. Now, back in Washington, he was, despite his defeat, its center again.
    T HE SUPPORT he needed most in Texas was in place, too. During the campaign, Johnson had used money on a scale that Texas had never seen, trying, in the words of local observers, to “buy a state,” and much of the money—hundreds of thousands of dollars—had been generated by one man,Herman Brown, the ruler ofBrown & Root. Through federal contracts, Johnson had made
     Brown rich, and given him the chance to build the huge projects of which he had long dreamed, and Brown had ordered up contributions from dozens of subcontractors on Brown & Root dams and highways and had, in giving from his own firm’s