Political Bargaining
Re “Two Old Pols Knew the Art of a Bargain,” Commentary, Jan. 29: With nostalgia, Jack Valenti paints Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen party-posturing in the morning, followed by a cocktail session with LBJ, where votes like cordwood were nonchalantly traded for cozy appointments to the nation’s most important regulatory positions.
His point: These old pols never “lost their honor.” Instead, Valenti does us a public service by reminding us that, no matter how juvenile and hateful the current Potomac froth, the good old days were also run by pander, posture and purchase. He also reminds us that recycling the faces without changing the shill game won’t alter a thing.
BOB RAND
Newport Beach
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