THE PRESIDENCY
President Johnson's political critics often take the opportunity to point out that he has not always been the civil rights advocate that he is today. In that spirit, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford last week told a press conference that as a Congressman and Senator between 1940 and 1960, Johnson had voted no on 39 out of 50 "meaningful roll-call votes" on rights measures. Thus, Ford charged, he was "a Lyndon-come-lately" who "has traveled a crooked path" to his present position on civil rights.
Next day, at his own press conference, Johnson was asked,...