 between President Johnson and Abe Fortas on November 29, 1963, at 1.15 p.m. Hello, Mr. Fortas is on. Thank you. Welcome. Hello. Mr. Fortas. Thank you, sir. Is Robert on the court? Yes, sir. And I've been trying to handle this with the greatest tact. And so, the way we worked it out is that Nick and this list of general is going to call on the Chief Justice instead of my doing it. Well, we need it right quick, though, because they already announced it in the House and sent it all over the damn place. When you talk to the leaders, just like talking into a big microphone. I know. And that's why I asked Nick to get over there right away. All right? This morning he's going to take time to general and do it. How many men's commission was going to have? If you had a dollar Sunday general and two from the House, two from the Senate, and the Chief Justice. Who do you think of as a general? The only one I can think of, and I don't know many of those fellows, is north standing always. If I had any idea who we wanted. No, I thought we'd probably have to take the East London and the ranking minority, among Judiciary Committees and similarly on the House, but maybe not in the witness ordinarily Judiciary Committee. Yeah, but Seller, God, I hate to. Seller and Eastland, I hate to have them on. They can get into the stand. Wait a minute. What did you think about John McClaw instead of General Nortz there? I think that'd be great. He's a wonderful man, a very dear friend of mine. I'm devoted to him. Let's think along that line. How can we do this by executive order? Yes, sir. Do we infringe upon the Congress anyway in doing it? No, sir. Reflect on them anyway? No, sir. I think on the contrary. You know all these editorial things to be ashamed. They have all these investigations. I think the Congress has started acting wisely for a change. I think it'd be a great thing, Mr. President, for the betterment of our country. Who would you think about this, any? I had a whole lot of men I would have. If I had to have somebody like you, if I had to chair one of those things, I'd have a whole lot of them. I'd have Russell in Easton. Oh, I would, too. And, sir, for anything, I don't have the most anybody for anything. That'd be wonderful if that could be arranged. I didn't think about that because I thought it would be four-hour days. I'd like to have Russell Cuppert be my too. That'd be marvelous. Simply marvelous. On the House side, we could get Hill Barnes. Well, he's talking all of that damn time. He's a good fellow, but he's done an outstatement. Yeah, that's what I mean. And I thought maybe this would help to get it through one. Either what, he has to get through. I mean, just their agreement that they'll do this in lieu of a seven-in-house investigation. Well, he's agreed to that. Well, that's wonderful. And McCormick's agreed to it. Yes, sir. I would guess, what's that fellow that's McCulloch? He's the rank-and-repose, and he's pretty good. I got Gary Ford. I would think Gary Ford would be good in the republic. How about his little old Carl Albert about him? I'd take him. He's the majority floor leader. I don't know what he wants. I don't know whether he'd take it or not. I think that'd be pretty good. I'd rather get away. It might be a slap at Hill if he did that. Yes, well, I'm afraid I would have won this. Might be all of Hill and McCulloch. Yes, I wonder if we're stuck with Hill. I might write those names down on my phone again. We'll have a Chief Justice, John McCoy and Alan Dulles. That's a three. We'll try to get Gary Ford as a republican, and Hale Boggs as a democrat in the house. We'll try to get Russell and I in there. Chief Justice may not want to do this, but I'll call McCormick immediately and see if he's got a report yet. He should have gone over there right away. Well, they already announced it. We'd call it back to see what the hell's happening. Who's announcing it? Hale Boggs got out and told him. He said, I had to tell him what his contemplation was. He got out on the floor of the house. Some jerk got up and said something, so he thought he had to show his knowledge. Oh, Lord. I thought you meant he just announced that the House would bring an investigation. Well, he announced there's going to be a high-level commission. That's why I'm waiting. Before we announce there's going to be a point of no one. Yes, sir. All right. God, I'm not much... I think we ought to order them to do it. Then let them belly eat. All right. All right. How about that? Yeah, well, that's to get him. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, sir. You call me now. Yes, sir. Thank you.