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Now in your relationships that you had with the various presidents, say, and people of influence in general, did she go with you on trips to Washington? Did you all socialize together with the Johnsons, say?

She was not a Johnson supporter, and that's putting it mildly. She loved Lady Bird, went to the ranch on frequent occasions, but when Johnson wanted me to come down and join his administration, and she knew that I had sort of a guy feeling I would like to have done what he wanted me to do, she said, “I'll make you a deal. I'll keep the house and stay here, if you want to go to Washington. Give me weekends, either there or here, but don't ask me to come live with you in Washington, because I'm not going to see you get ground up in all the troubles you have when you're in an appointed job. The answer is I didn't do it.

Was it for that reason, in part?

For that reason? The only reason. Because to have done some of the things that Johnson asked me to do--and, for that matter, that Truman asked me to do, and Eisenhower- -I think it would have changed my life. I never would have come back to broadcasting. I probably would have done something entirely different. God knows what it would have been, but--

That's kind of leading up to a deeper level question, which is probably the hardest question of all. This was a lifelong relationship with major influence. So in a way would your life have been really different, professionally and politically even, if you hadn't been married to Ruth. Would you have probably taken some of these opportunities?