Remarks With Senator Mansfield on the Floor of the Senate Following a Luncheon in Honor of the President.
Mr. President and Members of the Senate: I appreciate very much your asking me to come here today. I always enjoyed my association with the Senate. I served here as a Senator, a whip, a Minority Leader, a Majority Leader, and later as Vice President.
I always profit from what I learn from the Members of this great body, and I appreciate all that you have done to ease my burden to help us better govern this. Nation.
I hope that through the years to come, I shall have the privilege of seeing all of you from time to time and that together we can continue to build and develop this Nation and continue to make it the best country in all the world.
Note: The President spoke at 1:57 p.m. at the invitation of Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, Majority Leader of the Senate, and Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois, Minority Leader. His remarks followed a luncheon given in his honor in the Senate Conference Room at the Capitol Preceding the President's remarks, Senator Mansfield spoke as follows:
Mr. President, I was discussing with the distinguished Minority Leader the question of which seat the President of the United States should occupy if he had his choice, either that of the Presiding Officer or that of the Majority Leader of this body, where he served so effectively and efficiently in those positions for so many years.
We decided that for the time being at least he should not be half a member of the establishment, but a full-fledged Member of the Senate.
I would like at this time, with the concurrence and approval of my colleagues, to break tradition, in a certain sense, and call upon the President of the United States for a few remarks as the Majority Leader of the Senate.
As printed above, this item follows the text released by the White House Press Office.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks With Senator Mansfield on the Floor of the Senate Following a Luncheon in Honor of the President. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237399
