Youre so gracious. Carry pop back to the earlier panel real quick . Engaging. You are very accessible in terms of answering questions and how are you doing this and what are people wearing. ,y question for this panel is how many people are in the press corps . Is about 40, im guessing. I wouldve thought twice as many. Peoplee are a number of who wear multiple hats. You could be sent off to boston and all the sorts of things. We are all aware of the strains that journalistic institutions and the media are under and the need to have fewer people covering more things. Technology can help with that. The number of people in the press room who are devoted to the Supreme Court correspondence has gone down materially. The core people you rely on, that you have known like these , those institutions remain committed. There are a lot of regional papers that have completely , some of theerage Television Networks have retrenched considerably. It is a smaller and smaller group. When i read something on line, the writer is credentialed elsewhere . Is in the courtroom every day. One of those has where you can cover individual cases. She doesnt get to sit in the first two rows. Because shely doesnt have a hard pass. Is not like a distinction between online magazine and a no one whoect blog, writes for the internet gets credentials e they are credentialed. She can get a day pass, but she does not have a hard pass. Thank you. Can ask a trashy question . What happens in the press corps in terms of accessibility when someone writes something about jenny thomas . And that gets written about to imat your dress interested in the personal stuff there it shes fair game pitches a public figure in every way. One final question for janet. Tell us about the future of journalism. Oh, the small question. I think it is a very helpful message. We are it is clear that getting the domesticating that help people in the collective process of redefining what journalism is. That the posts of the scotus blog summarize there isng a contribution here in redefining what the storytelling is. It is redefining it in the moment and in multiple time frames. It is what you can do immediately that is adding to the pressure that we want more information immediately. It is who you conclude in the conversation. How heard other people say wonderful it was to hear the theanations during the weights and how welcoming the blog was to the new be people who are mystified by these arcane rituals. Storyen there is a longer which is taking what is a petition, what is a document, what is the process, how do you follow one case . There is Information Organization process here that is a model. When people have forgotten the have , it will forgotten the word blog, it will have contributed to make the necessary civil practice of as a communicative and expressive as informative as it possibly can be to the widest amount of people. I think it is a wonderful case study. Has expired, please join me in a round of applause for our panel. [applause] up next, cspans original series, first ladies turcotte tonight we look at Lady Bird Johnson. After that conversation about the politics of climate change. On the next washington journal, on the tax policy. At 9 15, author of lincoln and the world. Journal begins at 7 a. M. Eastern 4 a. M. Pacific on cspan. That look that he had on his face and i could close my eyes and see him on the stretcher right now. I could see him putting his hand up, i could see his eyes. I could close my eyes and see it. I will never forget that first bringing me to reality of what was going on here. After he got into the tent, here was an initial triage, goes into the tent and everyone starts to work. In, myself and my colleague, we both got pulled in because the other team wanted us to begin right away. He didnt want us to be bystanders. They said you guys have to get involved right away. Once they did that and he pulled the sin, it was like a joke. It was like wake up, now you have to act, you have to be a doctor, a surgeon, a care provider. Emotion and tuck that away, what youre feeling and work. , you havene objective to save this guys life. You have to stop the bleeding and get him back home to his family. In his first up, dr. Hassan talks about working in afghanistan. More sunday night on cspans q and a. The deadline is january 20. A beautification, to my mind, is far more than a matter of cosmetics. To me it describes the whole effort to bring a Natural World and the manmade world into harmony. To bring usefulness, delight to our entire environment. That only begins with flowers and trees and landscaping. That is from a film created by the Johnson Administration with Lady Bird Johnson talking about beautification, her signature issue. She was a natural campaigner, a successful businesswoman, and a savvy political partner to her husband, our 36th president , Lyndon Baines johnson. Good evening and welcome to c spans first ladies. We will tell you the story of Claudia Taylor johnson, known to everyone as lady bird, wife of the 36th president. Here to tell our story tonight are two guests, Cokie Roberts, political commentator for abc news and npr. Shes also the author of two books about womens political history. Eddie lloyd caroli is a first ladys expert. She is the author of numerous books. She is currently working on a new biography of Lady Bird Johnson. Ladies, i want to start with the beginning, where we were 50 years ago this week. This is an administration birthed in national tragedy. Over the immediate challenges of the brandnew first couple . They were enormous. No one knew if it was a widespread plot. The country was in terror for a. Of time. They had to be both taking over and making sure that there was a peaceful transition of power without seeming to take over. Because of the image of pushing the kennedys out of the way. Had to be very, very careful. Lyndon johnson was very lucky that yet lady bird to help them with that. She had a good year for knowing what exactly to say and when to say it. In particular, what did she do in those first weeks . She said she felt onstage for a part she never rehearsed. In fact, i think it would be hard to find a first lady better prepared than she was. She started taking notes while she was waiting to hear if president kennedy had died. On the way back, she made plans to put their Radio Station into a blind trust so they would not be accused of profiting from it. She took over very fast. She was a good study. I want to lay off that idea. That was an administration that documented itself extensively. There was a daily diary that which she recorded herself. There were the Lyndon Johnson phone tapes fabulous. There was also a naval Television Crew that documented them. Was this new to the administration or had this been going on a while . I think the amount of documentation is new. She did not record every day, because sundays were too full. She had her little recording machine, and days she was too busy, she would stuff brown envelopes with menus, and she would get an hour one day and record. Those recordings are still being transcribed. They are wonderful. Her white house diary is, i think, 800 pages, but that is only 1 8 of what she has on those pages. There were recordings before this. We have some kennedy recordings. We have roosevelt recordings. John quincy adamss wife wrote when she was first lady, the autobiography of a nobody. I think that most first couples have an awareness of the magnitude of the job. Lady bird johnson had such a sense of history that she understood. She said she dared herself to be productive. Throughout this program we will see some of the video from the naval crew that followed her around to document her days in the white house. We will start with one of those. This is Lady Bird Johnson in 1963, recording that first, tragic day that brought them into the white house. One leg of mrs. Kennedy was almost entirely covered in blood. Her right glove was caked with her husbands blood. She always wore gloves. She was used to them. I never could. That was somehow one of the most poignant sights exquisitely dressed and caked in blood. I asked her if i couldnt get somebody to come in to help her change and she says, oh no, that is all right. Perhaps later i will ask Mary Gallagher but not right now. For a person that gentle, that dignified, you could say she had an element of fierceness. She said, i want them to see what they have done to jack. It was decided that he should be sworn in there in dallas as quickly as possible. There, in the very narrow confines of the plane with jackie on his left, her hair falling in her eyes, but very composed, and then lyndon, and i was on his right. Judge hughes with the bible in front of him. A cluster of secret Service People and congressmen we had known a long time. Lyndon took the oath of office. What are you hearing there that people should understand about Lady Bird Johnson . She is very specific heard i had forgotten how she yet so many details. Her descriptions of that and also before that when she talks about walking into the hospital and the kennedy car was still there and she saw this bundle of pink blossoms and the blood around it. She is a very astute observer. She is also a wonderful writer. She writes intentionally. She is also clearly upset in that recording. You can hear it. She is trying to both described the situation, but at the same time, give homage to Jacqueline Kennedy, this very meticulous woman, caked in blood. She is trying to tell you what is happening, but not to sensationalize it. For her to follow in mrs. Kennedys footsteps, it has been referred to as a delicate dance of being respectful but needing to take control. Many people said that it was a daunting act to follow. She said, i feel sorry for mrs. Kennedy, not for me because i still have my husband. I think she made a special effort not to imitate. Lyndon johnson advised her not to beautify the mall because the kennedys had done something similar. She was amazingly absent. She did not have envy of anyone. She considered the kennedys a different generation. I find her amazing in that she knew that Jacqueline Kennedy was extremely popular but she had a role to play, too. She would fill in for Jackie Kennedy many times. She was pregnant, she lost the baby, she was unwell, and there were a lot of things that she didnt want to do. Mrs. Johnson filled in. She knew the role well and she was a quintessential washington political wife. She had been on the scene since the 1930s and she knew it well. She had a cadre of other political wives that were extraordinary women. They all gathered around her. That also made that transition somewhat easier. We should say at the onset, one of the women who gathered around was your mother. Can you talk about the friendship between your parents and the johnsons . My father was first elected to congress in 1940. He was 26 and my mother was 24. That was before world war ii. The rules were still there of calling. So you had to go calling, the Supreme Court on monday, the cabinet on tuesday, i am making up the days, but there was my mother, this 24yearold girl, her first day of having to go calling. The horn honks outside and she goes running down and it is Lady Bird Johnson and pauline gore, al gores mother. They took her calling on the first day and the friendship has been warm ever sense. All throughout their husbands political lives, and when they both became widows, they traveled together and had a wonderful time. Were going to step back in time and learn more about the woman who became first lady. Before we do that, a reminder about your involvement. These programs are interesting because of your questions. We hope you will join in tonight. You can tweet us at cspans website. We are also taking questions on our facebook page. Here are the phone numbers we will mix your calls and questions throughout the program. Where was she born and to whom . She was born in a town well, you cant really say a town because it was really not much of a town, either karnak, texas in december 1912 in a big house. One of the things i have found it in studying first ladies is how many married down into families lower them lower than them socially, economically, and sometimes, education. It made a big impression on me to drive past the house where the Lady Bird Johnson was born. The big columns. It is near the louisiana border. You drive 300 miles west and you see that cabin where Lyndon Johnson was born. She came from a far wealthier background than she did. What is important to know about her childhood and what shaped her . I think the death of her mother. She was only five when her mother died in what i consider mysterious circumstances. She was a very lonely child, although she said she wasnt but how would she know what any other kind of childhood would be like . She had two older brothers, but they were sent away to boarding school. They were a good bit older. Particularly the older one, tommy, she said she really never knew him. When he died in 1959 of pancreatic cancer, she said that she had cried harder than she had ever cried in her life. It was a lonely childhood, i think. Even the name lady bird, it is said it came from a nurse. She says in her interview with Mike Gillette that it was really two little africanamerican playmates, the children of hired help that decided to call her that because they did not like claudia. It was not considered acceptable to say that she had African American playmates, so the nurse was brought in and it was attributed to the nurse. And an aunt who was dysfunctional the aunt was someone she had to take care of. There she was. A little girl all by herself in this big house with a father who was around but had no clue what to do with her and this, sort of, and nutty old southern aunt and some playmates here and there. The big advantage to that was that she became a worldclass reader. How important was it for southwestern women of that vintage to get an education . Was it unusual that she went to college . Yes, slightly, but by that time more women were going to college. Youre talking about the 1920s. It was more common than a generation before that. Do we know why she was interested in journalism . I think it was for a lot of women do you have an answer . She was interested in high school and an early interest. And i think as part of her plan to get out of that area, that part of texas. A lot of women could write. They learn to write. That was something they thought they could do. My mother wanted to be a journalist. They both ended up as politicians. The interesting thing about her approach, she was from a wealthy family. She not only got a College Degree but also got a teaching certificate and learned stenography. That is what a girl did to prepare for all possibilities. Isnt it interesting she felt the need to prepare for all possibilities with how much money she had . She had a good income. She was inheriting about 7,500 a year in the 1930s, which was about what five schoolteachers could make. Her aim, i think, was to get out of there. Some faraway place like hawaii or alaska. She went to the same Journalism School as walter cronkite. The same professor. This is about the same professor as a favorite. Paul bolton. She hired him to have the news division, the same professor, when she bought the Radio Station. We forget how very welltrained he was as a journalist. How did she meet Lyndon Johnson . By chance, supposedly. Certainly true a woman they both knew and mustve heard something about each other before. It was a september afternoon when lady bird had dropped into the womans office. Her name was jean, a woman lady bird had grown up with. Lyndon johnson by the same office on the same day. It was, as lady bird says in one of the interviews, it was electric going from the first minute. Love letters, which are just the courtship letters, released by the library last valentines day, everyone should read them online. Search lbj courtship letters, and you can read the transcript. They were conducting a hot and heavy courtship. And fast. He was not going to waste any time. She was either going to marry him or not. He was, at the time, a congressional aide. You could be an aide and not run, but he clearly had ambitions. She was for those ambitions. He called it whirlwind but he wanted it from the getgo. She says, hold on here. She says, are you going to marry me or not . She finally said, ok. He liked lyndon but thought it was too fast. The and certainly thought it was too fast. The woman who introduced them and the father thought it was too fast. Against really all of the family council, she went ahead. What she said when she got in the car, that saturday morning and they drove down to get married, she really did not make up her mind until about 6 00 when she went down to the church. And was very young. 22 and he was 26. She was not quite 22. 21 to 23 was normal to get married. I have two questions. Did Lady Bird Johnson have contact with kennedy after she was first lady and did she ever have doubts about the vietnam war . Did they continued their contact after the Johnson White house . Yes. The tax bill, he gave her four pens, one for her and one for each of the kids in the library. During the white house years, the contact was rather formal. Johnson certainly invited mrs. Kennedy back but she never came back while they were there. They give gifts to the children. I know the christmas for example, they gave john junior a fire engine. They reached out to her after the white house though. In the 1980s, after she was widowed, we would not say they renewed a friendship but established a friendship on Marthas Vineyard in the summer. When you look at the documentary of it, certainly should certainly she supported her husband publicly. In her private materials, did you ever find any doubts about the vietnam war . She said if