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Bobby Kennedy has never practiced law privately but, for his age, he has had valuable experience in the Federal Government's legal labyrinth. Soon after he graduated from the University of Virginia law school (1951), he joined the Justice Department's criminal division as a junior investigator, plunged into the ultimately unsuccessful prosecution of Foreign Policy Adviser Owen Lattimore for Communist activities. In 1952 Bobby moved over to be assistant counsel of Joe McCarthy's Senate Investigations Subcommittee, but quit after a much-publicized row with Chief Counsel Roy Cohn. Later Bobby rejoined the committee as minority counsel for the Democratic members, wound up as chief counsel after the Democrats won the Senate in 1954.
For years Bobby was lost in the shadow cast by his big brother, but in 1958 he emerged as a public figure in his own right, as counsel for the Senate labor-management rackets committee. As he unfolded the sordid exposé of corruption and crime in the Teamsters and other big unions, Bobby momentarily overshadowed Jack, and his curled-lip intensity and Yankee twang became a television staple. It was a skillful, relentless and aggressive investigation, conducted at the man-killing pace that has become Bob Kennedy's trademark. When Jack decided to run for the presidency, Bobby cheerfully reverted to a supporting role to become campaign manager. The dogged, hair-raising—and winning—battle he directed for 15 months awed and often angered many an older, greyer politician.
The seventh of Joe and Rose Kennedy's nine children, Bobby had to struggle to make his presence felt in the midst of that boisterous tribe (he is himself the head of a family of seven lively, towheaded youngsters). A moody man, Bobby has made many enemies in the course of his public life, though his own subordinates swear by him. The major question about him is whether he has the gentler, mature qualities of patience, second thought and understanding.
Before he took the job, Bobby Kennedy talked at length with outgoing Attorney General William Rogers and an old friend. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. His first act as a prospective Cabinet member was to announce his brother's appointment of Denver Lawyer Byron ("Whizzer") White, 43, University of Colorado All-America, Rhodes scholar and veteran Kennedy campaign worker, as Assistant Attorney General.
Bobby Kennedy has stamina, talent, guts and opportunity. He will need them all. Segregation, civil rights, corruption, racketeering, trustbusting are all passionate subjects, and he can expect to be the target of constant criticism, whatever he does.
POSTMASTER GENERAL