Nation: Johnson & the Jenkins Case

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Bennett, vice chairman of New York State's Liberal Party, the clergymen complained that "nothing justifies the smears" being circulated on the Jenkins case.* "A few episodes involving personal morality are allowed to obscure fateful moral issues related to public life —moral issues such as the full civil rights of all citizens, the shameful squalor and poverty in our cities and the danger of nuclear war," said the statement. "We see the Jenkins episode as a case of human weakness. If there is a security factor involved, let that be dealt with on its own terms and let it not serve chiefly as an excuse for dwelling on this one episode to cater to the prurient curiosity or to the self-righteousness of part of the public."

The Day After. The clergymen's statement appeared the very day after Lyndon himself had revived the Jenkins case with his own dirty dig at the Eisenhower Administration, and on the very day after Barry Goldwater protested about "the clerical spokesmen who now become loud advocates of President Johnson" and suggested that they "get back to their business" of protecting the nation's morals.