We can't be checking up on every shooting scrape in the country. . . .

[Douglas Caddy]

Joseph McBride posted this exchange today on Facebook:

"EVERY SHOOTING SCRAPE IN THE COUNTRY": In phone conversations on November 25, 1963, the morning of President Kennedy's funeral, LBJ reacts angrily to being lobbied by the DOJ, the Washington Post, and others (notably Yale Law School Dean Eugene Rostow) to appoint a presidential commission to study the president's assassination,: LBJ-J. EDGAR HOOVER, 10:30 a.m.: LBJ: Apparently some lawyer in Justice is lobbying with the [Washington] Post because that's where the suggestion came from for this presidential commission, which we think would be very bad and put it right in the White House. We can't be checking up on every shooting scrape in the country. . . .

LBJ-JOSEPH ALSOP [Washington Post columnist], 10:40 a.m. LBJ: My lawyers, though, Joe, tell me that the White House must not . . . the President . . . must not inject himself into local killings . . .

ALSOP: I agree with that . . . but in this case it does happen to be the killing of the President . . . [After further discussion] Well, Mr. President . . . I repeat . . . I must not keep you because you'll be late getting into your trousers . . . but I repeat . . .