The Presidency: Grumblings at the Ranch

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Almost daily, the President hopped into his tan station wagon and drove around the 400-acre L.B.J. Ranch to gaze at his menagerie of wild deer, turkeys, antelope and buffalo. In his paneled office, Lady Bird put up a 6-ft.-high balsam tree, speckled with colored lights and topped with a golden-haired angel in a blue brocade dress. The menu for Christmas dinner called for turkey, corn-bread dressing, string beans with almonds, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, rolls, cranberry salad, ambrosia and angel-food cake. The family celebrated Lady Bird's 54th birthday on Dec. 22. And even though Lyndon Johnson was putting in non-recuperative hours—conferring with Cabinet officers, working on his State of the Union message, examining and reexamining the budget requests—there was an air of almost leisurely good will around the ranch.

Embryo Rebellion. It was just as well that the yuletide spirit had taken over. At midweek L.B.J. had to handle a highly touchy situation: nine Democratic Governors arrived to tell him what was wrong with him. Lyndon Johnson kept his Christmas cool throughout. He knew that he was dealing with an embryo rebellion that, unless handled well, could imperil his own future as well as that of his party.

The gubernatorial grumblings about the President and some of his Great Society programs became open and vocal two weeks ago during the Governors' Conference in White Sulphur Springs, where some Democratic Governors even hinted that it would be wise for L.B.J. to retire instead of running again in '68. The President reacted by issuing a quiet invitation that brought to the ranch a delegation of nine Democratic Governors, led by Iowa's Harold Hughes. Once he got them there, Johnson gave them the well-known Treatment.

He assembled a galaxy of such Administration stars as Health, Education and Welfare Secretary John Gardner, Budget Director Charles Schultze, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Acting Attorney General Ramsey Clark. He threw a big barbecue luncheon on the lawn. He set up a full-scale press conference and, with typical attention to statistics, reeled off a count of all the times that he has been in touch with Governors since he became President—400 personal talks, 200 phone calls.