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How did LBJ get away with such outrageous behavior and was he scandalized for them?
The more I find out about Lyndon Johnson, the more shocked I become. One documentary mentioned him making people rub his feet in the white house. Also see that he supposedly Held Meetings On The Toilet. I came across this article about his shower nozzles
His preferred shower in his Elms mansion had several nozzles that shot out water with "needle-like intensity" and had water pressure "the equivalent of a fire hose."
One nozzle was positioned to shoot up the president's rear while another was aimed directly at his penis — he nicknamed that showerhead sprayer "Jumbo."
One webpage states;
Lyndon Johnson had so many extramarital affairs while in office that his male aides referred to the girls he met with as his harem.
while another mentions;
LBJ wasn't scared to show off his, err, Johnson — he nicknamed his penis "Jumbo." According to biographer Robert Dallek, Johnson met with a reporter who asked him multiple times why American troops were in Vietnam. In response, Johnson unzipped his pants, pulled out "Jumbo," and yelled, "This is why!"
Are these things really true? How did he get away with such ribald behavior in a time when people were just not ok with such things? Was there anything else this man did? Were these things all public at the time or did most come out after his presidency? Did he lock horns with anyone else in DC over these things? How did he get away with acting this way as the President of the United States?
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LBJ had many affairs. One in particular was with Helen Gahagan Douglas, a congresswoman. Now this affair took place in the 40's and early fifties, but I think it is instructive of the media and political environment of that era. This affair went on for years, and was an open secret. They would hold hands in public, even on Capitol Hill. As far as I can recall, there was no contemporary media coverage of this affair.
LBJ's habit of taking meetings while on the toilet go back to when he was a congressional secretary. It was not just an intimidation tactic but also a method of control. If you were willing to take dictation while your boss is on the toilet, what else were you willing to do?
Many of the details of LBJ's behavior were published in Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson; the first volume was published in the early 80s.
I just started reading Robert Caro's The Path to Power, which details Johnson's early life. I am both horrified and fascinated by some of his behavior as a child and young man. The book displays Johnson as having an obsessive need for power and respect from a very early age. Johnson is shown in such an unflattering light that I am curious if the author, Robert Caro, has ever been accused by other historians of any sort of bias against Johnson, or is his account of Johnson generally accepted/respected?
Was the stall door at least closed during these meetings?
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Damn I've never been able to enunciate my feelings about that. I'll save this for future reference.
Did you save it? What did it say?
ah fuck I saved it in Reddit not downloaded. It's gone.
The first guy said it's because there wasn't political correctness back then. OP replied saying there was, but it was conservative political correctness. It governed the showing of things like nudity ad sex. He went on to talk about different groups that were against it and what they were critisized for.
This comment has been removed because it is soapboxing, promoting a political agenda, or moralizing. We don't allow content that does these things because they are detrimental to unbiased and academic discussion of history.