Grumblings at the Ranch

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.

No Apologies. In a 2 1/2-hour session in the spacious ranch-house living room, the Governors got some complaints off their chests. Most were irritated that they are neither consulted nor informed about federal programs that affect their states. At the press conference, Johnson pooh-poohed any talk that there was a critical chasm between him and the Governors. But, he added: "We Democrats have never been known to suppress our differences. We do have different viewpoints on different programs. They have made that abundantly clear in their respective states. I made it abundantly clear that I ran on a platform that contained my commitments." As a result of the gripe session, he said, he would see to it that his administrators would "review with their own staffs these various programs and see if it is possible in any way to relieve the states of any of the burdens of administration." A bit snappishly, he told reporters: "No apologies were given and none were expected." When someone asked if he would run again in 1968, he retorted shortly: "I will cross that bridge when I get there."

Iowa's Governor Hughes rather glumly assured reporters that the meeting had been "very open and very frank" and that "we should and will meet in the future with more frequency." But no one seemed particularly repentant nor completely satisfied. Indeed, Missouri's Warren Hearnes, who had wondered publicly whether L.B.J. should run again, barked to reporters that he had no intention of taking back anything he had said about the President. Snapped he: "I don't care about statistics. I don't care about meetings. I just know people."

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