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Johnson's evaluation of people is paramount to his Senate leadership. The Senate presently has 49 Democrats (ranging from Harry Byrd conservatives to Hubert Humphrey liberals) and 47 Republicans (ranging from Bill Jenner reactionaries to Jack Javits liberals). A straight party-line vote is almost unheard-of, and it is up to Lyndon Johnson, in pursuit of his Democratic line, to piece together a winning combination from the Senate's vastly disparate elements. He does it by knowing each Senator as well as that Senator knows himself. "Sam Rayburn once told me that an effective leader must sense the mood of the Congress," says Johnson. "He doesn't see it, smell it, hear it—he senses it." Because Lyndon Johnson understands its members, he can sense the mood of the Senate as have few men before him. One time Republican Leader Bill Knowland announced to newsmen that a bill, which he supported and Johnson opposed, was going to win by nine votes. Later, Johnson leaned across the aisle to whisper to Knowland: "Bill, we don't need to have a roll call on this. I've got you beat by three votes." He did, too. Says Lyndon Johnson: "I usually know what's going to happen within the first 15 or 20 minutes of the day." Johnson is proud of that fact, as he is proud of his Senate skills. He is, in fact, a proud man who was born in pride.
Light in the East. That birth was described in a family history written four years ago by Johnson's mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, now 76:
"It was daybreak, Thursday, August 27, 1908, on the Sam Johnson farm on the Pedernales River near Stonewall, Gillespie County. In the rambling old farmhouse of the young Sam Johnsons, lamps had burned all night. Now the light came in from the east, bringing a deep stillness, a stillness so profound and so pervasive that it seemed as if the earth itself were listening. And then there came a sharp, compelling cry—the most awesome, happiest sound known to human ears—the cry of a newborn baby. The first child of Sam
Ealy and Rebekah Johnson was 'discovering America.'"
Lyndon Johnson's ancestry reaches six generations back into Texas history. One great-grandfather was the second president of Baylor University. Another was a preacher who persuaded Sam Houston to get rid of his Indian mistress and stop drinking. Another was a member of the Texas legislature. Perhaps most important to Lyndon's future, his father was a member of the state legislature—and served there with Sam Rayburn.