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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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In the crotch of the tree near the pool at the ranch there was a phone and there was a pad that had all the names of every senator on it, and he was getting over the phone the prospective votes on important bills. That's how closely he followed what was going on the Hill. And maybe Clinton is doing the same thing. In my book that was going a little too far, but it was a measure of how he related to getting action on the Hill. He understood what to do.

I think maybe I did tell you that one day he got me down to go and see Ev [Everett McKinley] Dirksen, and I said to the president, “I thought you and Ev were buddies.” There was a great deal of respect between these two guys.

He said: “Yes, but I don't want to ask him to do this. I want you to ask him to do this. For me,” he said. “You just go up and you see him and tell him that I asked him to come up and see him, to see whether he would do this for me.”

Now that's going a long way around the barn. So I said: “I don't even know whether Senator Dirksen will see me.”

He said: “He'll see you.”

And I said: “I don't know why. I'm not a particular friend of Ev Dirksen's.”

He said: “You get on up there and he'll see you.”





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