Originally posted by Ripsnort
Civil Rights Bill, 1963.
Are you thinking of the Civil Rights Act? This was passed by Congress in 1964 with Johnson as president. It was introduced in 1963 under Kennedy, but it faced endless debate and revision. It was nowhere close to being passed when he died, and it took Johnson's leadership (and his strong relationships with Southern senators from his majority leader days) to get things done.
At the heart of it was a fundamentally different approach to congressional relations. Whereas Kennedy was a policy wonk who sweated every single line, every word, and every detail, Johnson was a big picture kinda guy. Because Kennedy insisted on exact wording, he came to blows with Democrats and Republicans alike who found fault with his administration's interpretation of civil rights legislation. Conversely, Johnson preferred to let Congress sweat the details so long as they didn't touch some of the key provisions he insisted remain in the bill.
It's funny to listen to some of the recordings of Kennedy or Johnson discussing civil rights with staff. I recall one in particular where Kennedy and his staff are going through the bill line by line making grammatical and punctuation changes. In the background, you can hear Vice-President Johnson suggest that they forego such a wasteful enterprise and just send the thing to Congress. Kennedy and his aids pause for a few seconds, say nothing, then go back to line reading again.
-- Todd/Leviathn
