LBJ on George Wallace: "You're dealing with a very treacherous guy..."

[book_worm]

Date: 1965-03-18
Participant: Lyndon Johnson
Participant: Buford Ellington
Time: 21:13
Location: Unspecified

President Johnson: [to Ellington, regarding Wallace] You're dealing with a very treacherous guy, and you all just must not even come in quoting him anymore. . . . Because he's a no-good son of a bitch. And I think you know it.

Excerpt.

President Johnson: [responding to Ellington’s statement that he will not accept any more phone calls from Wallace] I'd answer one and just tell him, “Now, listen, George, I offered you . . . I went over to the President today and told the President that I had talked to you and you wanted help. . . . He called you and offered to give it to you. . . . You ran like a goddamn rabbit! Then you ran down to the television and told them that we had created it, therefore, you were going to ask it. Now, why in the hell didn't you stand up like a man and say what you were going to do to begin with?”

[hobbit709]

1. After the police riot on the bridge when LBJ called George and he was trying to explain

"Don't be shitting me George"

[saltpoint]

2. The steady impression I have is that

LBJ's assessment of George Wallace is a bullseye.

LBJ could play hardball with the best of them, and if he assessed Wallace as treacherous, by god that's good enough for me.