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Part: 12 Session: 145678910111213141516171819202122 Page 318319320321322323324325326327328329330331332333334335336337338339340341342343344345346347348349350351352353354355356357358359360361362363364365366367368 of 999
under out the resolution to the committee and never present it to the board of directors, which we had to override. So we had a lot of opposition
Well, it turned out that Nelson was still against the bill, Cranston was still against it and the Republicans were against the bill, but the Republicans were really hurting because they got so many letters. So finally by May -- the ad ran about the 20th of April -- about the 10th of May or so I realized that we just really didn't have the votes, because Mondale was a little wobbly, and I wasn't -- and without Mondale, Cranston and Nelson, we could not hope the Republicans, who were still taking a position of the President's proposal, which was really just enlarging the situation a little bit.
I decided the only person I could -- they were opposedto the Kennedy-Javits bill. They weren't opposed to doing something but they were going to go along with the President.
So I got Elmer Bobst. I telephoned him and explained the situation to him and said, “Now, listen, you've been interested in this for 25 years. This is the time when if you could persuade the President to go along, we could make a giant step forward.”
Well, believe it or not, he went to the President. He explained it to him. The President said, “I agree with you 100 percent. I will call my people together and say to them that they should support --”
At the same time we persuaded Kennedy that if the administration would give, that it could be a Republican bill, and that he could let Senator Dominick, the ranking Republican, be the author of the bill. Now, there was some mild change of language, quite small unimportant changes of the language that spelled out the intent that was there anyway, and
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