There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous. He’s got to know them better than they know themselves. And then, on the basis of this knowledge, he’s got to build a system that stretches from the cradle to the grave, from the moment a bill is introduced to the moment it is officially enrolled as the law of the land.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)

Comment to Doris Kearns, in Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1976)