Part: 12         Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536         Page 252253254255256257258259260261262263264265266267268 of 1143

good idea. Take it up with Matt Connolly.” Matt agreed, and Stowe was “it.”

Then I asked the President to push Boyle, who was then the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee to add people to the Democratic National Committee staff, including Mike Gorman, whom I had loaned to the Committee for several months. This was in order to push parts of the President's health program; some parts, I still hoped, might be passed in the next session, such as aid to medical education and the Local Public Health Units bill, if some real energy were put behind it by the Committee.

I also suggested to him that the Democratic National Committee male a real fight for health insurance, or to organize a citizens' committee with funds from the Democratic National Committee to fight for health insurance. The President said he would push Boyle himself on these two points but asked me to go and see him as it would “do Boyle good.” Do you remember Boyle?

No, I don't.

Nothing would have done him much good.

As I passed Matt Connolly's desk, going out from this appointment, Margaret Truman asked me if we would lunch at Blair House the next day with her mother and father. This lunch had little to do with any of our interest in health legislation, but it was interesting inasmuch as the President came in late, showing the greatest excitement.