Thomas Daschle: “last spring I joined my colleagues in honoring President Lyndon Baines Johnson when we hung a portrait of our former…”

“last spring I joined my colleagues in honoring President Lyndon Baines Johnson when we hung a portrait of our former president on the one blank wall left in the President's Room in our nation's capitol. As I noted at that time, I could think of no other president or American who was as deserving of this honor as LBJ. As the Senate Majority Leader and President, LBJ was a man of immense skill, dedication and compassion. He is remembered by most Americans as a great leader whose strength of personality helped him preside over an extremely productive Senate that expanded Social Security, created the Interstate Highway system, and passed one of the most important civil rights laws of the 20th Century. Less well known, however, is LBJ's tremendous ability to compromise. He truly believed in the message of his favorite Bible verse: 'Come, let us reason together.' Our nation and our government needs more men and women who share this powerful belief. Today, I want to bring to the attention of my colleagues and all Americans another aspect of LBJ's legacy that too often has been overlooked--his work to bring justice to disenfranchised ethnic minorities and to improve the lot of the large number of Americans suffering in unimaginable poverty.”