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J.F.K. was then running for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, and Salinger joined the team as chief press aide. The first few months were not happy ones for him. "The main problem," he says, "was that it took me quite a while to develop the kind of relationship with J.F.K. that I had with Bobby. I'd been hired completely on Bobby's say-so; J.F.K. and I did not know each other well. In fact, I was sort of an outsider to the group: Ted Sorensen, Kenny O'Donnell and Larry O'Brien had all worked with the Senator for a long time. It took three or four months of traveling together to get to know each other well."
Ole Tex. But Salinger came to love his job and to worship Jack Kennedy. After Kennedy was elected, he named Salinger as his press secretary, and Pierre soon became an institution of his own. There was Pierre aboard the Honey Fitz in slacks of shocking pink; Pierre in blue and yellow shorts, chugging over the decorous grass tennis courts of Newport; Pierre flailing away on the Hyannis golf course while Kennedy watched in fond amusement; Pierre playing poker, sometimes at $1,000 a pot, with three wild cards; Pierre nursing his discriminating palate with fine wines and rich sauces at Washington's smart Le Bistro.
Sometimes White House newsmen got annoyed with Pierre's ways, thought he was considerably less than fastidious with facts. But by and large they came to admire him as a real pro, one who was calm, cool and correct in moments of real emergency, such as the Cuba missile crisis.
When Jack Kennedy died, part of Pierre died with him. Certainly the White House never again seemed the same to Salinger. Lyndon Johnson laughed at Pierre, not with him. Once Johnson ragged Salinger into playing the piano for visiting German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard—just after Soloist Van Cliburn had performed. On another occasion, Johnson cajoled Pierre into climbing aboard a horse at the L.B.J. ranch, and while Salinger sat there like Humpty Dumpty, Lyndon whooped, "Ole Tex Salinger!" Salinger is a man of humor, but he does not like to be made a fool of, and it was only a matter of time before he would leave Lyndon.
The time came early this year, when it became apparent that Clair Engle, even then dying of brain cancer, would not be able to run for reelection. A struggle developed between California's Democratic Governor Pat Brown and Jesse ("Big Daddy") Unruh, speaker of the state assembly and California's most power-conscious Democrat. Brown wanted State Controller Alan Cranston to take over Engle's candidacy. Unruh wanted anyone Brown did not want. First, he persuaded State Attorney General Stanley Mosk to run in the Democratic primary. But Brown, in his turn, persuaded Mosk to withdraw. Big Daddy looked around for another candidate to pit against Cranston. He picked Pierre.