Status Updates From Means of Ascent (The Years ...

(10) which probably totaled around 100 miles of driving. So yeah, LBJ is kind of a horrible tyrant. Much more tyrannical behavior to come, I reckon.

(9) a slave to him. Kellam would drive LBJ back from the airport constantly, but would often have to wait in his office until LBJ told him when he was leaving. One time there were multiple delays due to bad weather, and Kellam had to drive to Austin airport, then San Antonio airport, and finally Waco airport…

(8) were in their office meeting with a potential sponsor, the intercom would boom in their room to LBJ’s reviling, and the staff member would have to sit in humiliation. One employee, J.C. Kellam, who met LBJ in college, was perhaps the most subservient to LBJ and many employees saw Kellam as essentially…

(7) of the chapter. We see how LBJ runs the station, and he’s essentially a dictator. He struck fear into his employers, had them working 18 hours a day, and would verbally abuse his staff, publicly and privately. He would even use an intercom and tongue lash his staff from his office. Even if a staff member…

(6) the station whatsoever and had nothing to do with its operations; all operations were managed by his wife and his wife only. Of course, these statements couldn’t be further from the truth; he had interests in the station and oversaw operations as soon as it began making money. Then the second half…

(5) acquiring a radio station with a potential to gain profit from it would not put him in the best political light, so he has his wife put it under her name instead. When he became president, questions about the station came up, and LBJ would consistently state that he had no interest in…

(4) frequency. He also gets a CBS affiliation and numerous sponsors to boost the stations revenue stream, making its profit margins skyrocket within the first year of its acquisition. Furthermore, it is not LBJ who acquires the KTBC station, rather his wife, Lady Bird. LBJ knew that a sitting congressman…

(3) of this ruthlessness. The first half of this chapter shows LBJ’s acquisition of the Austin KTBC radio station, which made him INCREDIBLY wealthy. He used his congressional seat and entrée to secure Federal Communications Commission approval and later approvals to improve the stations facilities and…

(2) he isn’t any less ruthless in vol 1. His two aides (L. E Jones and Eugene Latimer) and his abusive treatment of them when LBJ was a congressional secretary absolutely displays this ruthlessness to subordinates, but the chapter “Buy and Selling” that I just read shows a more brutal display…

(1) So I’m reading this book and I think I’m completely convinced that LBJ is a monster. In the first volume Caro paints LBJ as an ambitious politician “who will do anything” to win. In this volume, however, he’s absolutely ruthless. That’s not to say that…