Reply #25: Texas Radio & Deer Hunting .... [View All]

[H2O Man]

"Johnson, Kearns noted, liked to impose tests of manhood, of which his most notorious was bringing politicians to his ranch and insisting they kill deer. John Kennedy, filled with deep distaste, had killed his deer after the 1960 election. I never heard that Robert Kennedy killed a deer at the LBJ ranch.* But Johnson imagined he had, or at least said so for the purpose of tormenting Hubert Humphrey: 'Bobby Kennedy got of of them. You're not going to let Bobby get the best of you, are you?' At the same time Kennedy read books, quoted poetry, and was (so Johnson thought) the darling of intellectuals.

* Nor has Jean Kennedy Smith any recollections of RFK's killing deer. He did go deer hunting at the ranch and was disgusted at Johnson's practice of shooting deer from the comfort of an elevated concrete structure. 'This isn't hunting,' he said on his return, 'It's slaughter'."

-- From Arthur Schlesinger's "Robert Kennedy and his times," page 674 (8 quoted from William vander Heuvel's "On His Own: Robert F. Kennedy, 1964-1968)

In my haste, I left LBJ off of the list. In truth, I think his saying, "He ain't a pimple on a good man's ass" fits any attempt to compare Cheney to LBJ. However, I felt this quote from Arthur's book needed to be included.