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Joey
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Re: The New and Improved Joey? thread
Reply #7973 - Aug 22nd, 2012 at 9:57pm
" For a time , these feelings -- on both sides -- not only were kept out of public view , but were layered over when the two men were dealing with each other . Knowing how much he needed " continuity " , Johnson did what he could to maintain a facade of cordiality with the living personification of the Kennedy legend , the man who had not only been the martyred President's most trusted counselor , but who reminded people of him in the similarity of their accents and gestures . But Lyndon Johnson had the power now . Fortune's reversal could not have been more complete . Two men hated each other to the depths of their beings . For a time -- three years -- one had had power over the other , and had used it , used it ruthlessly , used it beyond the bounds of policy , used it to insult and humiliate the other . And then , in an instant , in a gunshot , the world of the two men was turned upside down . Suddenly the other man had the power . " You are gonna get yours when the time comes , " Bobby Kennedy had vowed -- and then the time had come : three years of it . Now that time was over . The other man 's time -- the time for vengeance -- had not quite arrived . Lyndon Johnson could not afford to alienate the Kennedy faction yet ; his strategy must still be one of restraint . Conscious though Johnson was of that consideration , however , his feelings about Bobby Kennedy were always too strong to be concealed . He was , furthermore , becoming more secure in the Presidency , more euphoric from the adulation he was receiving , less guarded . Passion started to break through strategy's bounds . By mid - December , shortly before he left for the ranch , the rein he had kept on himself in his dealings with Bobby was starting to slip . "
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