Rather Rattled

"Hello, Nancy," said Lyndon B. Johnson last summer, stepping out of his plane at Atlantic City, "I've been watching you all day, and you're doing a swell job." L.B.J. was talking to Nancy Dickerson, an NBC Washington correspondent who has been a Johnson family friend since she covered his earliest attempts at the presidential nomination five years ago. Later, from Austin on the night of Johnson's election, the President's affectionate "Hello, Nancy" was heard so often that some viewers wondered why he didn't sing it.

All this understandably rattled CBS White House Correspondent Dan Rather, to whom the "Hello, Nancy" refrain in all likelihood began to sound like the awkward bounce of a head rolling over uneven ground. (His.) On Inauguration Day, suspecting that Nancy and Lyndon had prearranged key spots for her to be in, Rather shadowed her like a spy who had been left out in the cold. When he would catch sight of an NBC camera crew, Rather would quickly deploy a CBS crew to the same place.

"Hello, Nancy," said Lyndon on his way to the platform. People who were close to Dan Rather say that they noticed him wince. And well he might have. Rather was picked for his job by CBS in some measure because he is a Texan and because he was particularly effective in his coverage in Dallas of the aftermath of the assassination. Now there he stood, in the ten-gallon shade of a pretty girl from Wisconsin.

When the word got to Lyndon, he apparently decided that he ought to do something about his reputed favoritism to N (for Nancy) BC. So, coming out of the Capitol luncheon on the day of his inauguration, Lyndon drew a bead on ole Dan Rather and said, "Hello, Dan." Millions saw and heard him do it on the owned and affiliated stations of the CBS Television Network.

A couple of days afterward, CBS announced that Rather--despite the bone that had been tossed to him--was being transferred to London. Hearing this, Lyndon followed up his earlier gesture with a whole can of Ken-L-Ration, wishing Rather all the best and promising him that he would "put in a good word with Harold."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.