National Affairs: Go West, Lyndon

Like most other Texas Senators before him. Lyndon Baines Johnson for nine years attended the Southern caucus of senators, was the Southerners’ strong choice for Democratic floor leader in 1953. But a couple of years ago, other duties began to keep him busy at caucus time, even as the Southerners were meeting in vital civil rights strategy sessions. This year, to their discomfiture, he opened the 86th Congress with a quick drive to weaken the filibuster-fostering Rule 22, followed up a fortnight later with his own civil rights bill.

Last week Johnson formally severed his Southern connections by joining the Western regional conference of Democrats—enlarged by last November’s Western Democratic victories to 23. Rancher Johnson found himself right at home backing water-resource bills rather than lost Dixie causes.

Political geographers, noting that the road to the White House is impassable from the South but wide open from the West, suspect that Johnson might have more than one reason for his westward shift in thinking. Cracked the New York Daily News: “We’d say it’s at least a 100-to-1 shot that, for all his coy disclaimers, Senator Johnson hopes to be President Johnson some fine day.”