A Senator's Lament
MORGAN, EDWARD P.
WASHINGTON U.S.A. A Senator's Lament By Edward P. Morgan Senator Confucius K. Cornball, one of my unimpeachable Congressional sources, has written a letter to President Johnson, a copy of...
...Sincerely yours, (signed) "Corny" Edward P. Morgan's program on the American Broadcasting network is sponsored by the AFL-CIO...
...I declare without fear of contradiction that that decision—if it can be called a decision—is completely unsupportable, simply does not square with the facts as furnished by the local civic organizations, and is a blow to a faithful supporter of good sound government in general and this Administration in particular...
...I fully realize there must be reductions in spending, but in a defense budget of nearly $54 billion you can't tell me some other place can't be found for economizing that is outside my state...
...Of course I'd never try to deceive you...
...I speak frankly...
...What does he think I'm doing...
...Like Barry Goldwater, who managed to get into print with his reaction, I was particularly gratified with your four-square pledge for strict economy in government...
...Don't get me wrong, Mr...
...He visits you today, says he's impressed with your economy efforts and then counsels businessmen to consider the national interest ahead of everything else...
...We simply cannot have brash civilian bureaucrats tinkering irresponsibly with our national security, especially when the votes of our constituents are involved...
...President," the letter begins, respectfully enough, over an erasure which only partially obliterates the salutation, "Dear Lyndon": "I have been meaning to write you for many days to tell you how deeply impressed I was with your address to the joint session of Congress a couple of weeks ago, but you have been pushing your old colleagues so hard to pass some bills lately that I have hardly had any time to call my own...
...I yield to no man in my passionate commitment to, and indeed my unyielding demand for, government economy but there is, surely, a limit, and those arrogant so-called whiz kids in the Pentagon have trespassed it...
...I'll admit candidly that I have raised such complaints from time to time myself, though I don't mind telling you I resent the label of 'extreme conservative' that reporters have tried to pin on me for my unswerving devotion to the integrity of our monetary system...
...What I mean is, I'd hate to see all the confidence already inspired by your sure-footed takeover of executive power in this sad hour undermined by extreme action in the wrong direction, or, for that matter, even in the right direction, too precipitately...
...President, because I so much admire the direct approach you used when you were twisting our arms up here as majority leader...
...What do they really know about global strategy anyway...
...President, I keenly understand and appreciate the crushing load that you are carrying on those broad Texas shoulders and I want to share the burden as best I can in my humble way...
...President, what sort of tricks does that new president of the U.S...
...But in the name of all that is holy, and as a practical politician, I ask you how I can be expected to do that when these smart alecs in the Pentagon stab me in the back by closing down the rifle range at Toonerville...
...Since it is not marked as classified information, I hope both the White House and the Senator will forgive me if I judge its contents to be in the public domain...
...President, that word 'extreme' is a two-edged sword, if I may coin a phrase...
...Chamber of Commerce, Ed Neelan, have up his sleeve...
...There is a nice, sound all-American ring to that phrase you used about the 'utmost thrift and frugality.' And the Republican speechwriters must have been biting their nails over their inability to coin, during the Eisenhower regime, that incisive sentence of yours which I found most penetrating: I will insist that government get a dollar's value for a dollar spent.' That's what I call the 'retort positive' to those constant complaints about deficit spending...
...I want to call to your attention the announcement this morning attributed to that cold IBM machine fronting as head of the Defense Department, that included in the cutback of military installations is the rifle range outside of Toonerville in my own state...
...And while we're on the subject of strategy, Mr...
...But Mr...
...Dear Mr...
...A Senator's Lament By Edward P. Morgan Senator Confucius K. Cornball, one of my unimpeachable Congressional sources, has written a letter to President Johnson, a copy of which has come into my possession...
Vol. 47 • January 1964 • No. 1
