McKeithen Leaves 'em Laughing, Gasping

              Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1969 THE SHREVEPORT TIMES
McKeithen Leaves 'em Laughing, Gasping
By CHARLOTTE BURROWS
Of Tbe Times Staff
Louisiana's governor spent the
kind of day in Shreveport
yesterday that left local legisla-tors
laughing and members of
the press gasping.
There were a few revelations
about state matters, but listeners
often had to run to hear them.
And there were so many other
local officials close on the
governor's heels that this writer
occasionally found herself stubb-ing
toes on legislators' shoes.
Here to talk to the Texas Daily
Newspaper Association, G o v.
McKeithen followed that engage-ment
with a press conference
where the questions ranged
rapidly from the Louisiana Loan
and Thrift indictments to the
recent administrative pay raises
for LSU.
Concerning the LL&T indict-ments,
which involve Joe Kavan-augh,
his adviser, State Atty.
Gen. Jack P. F. Gremillion, and
a late friend, Clayton James,
McKeithen said, "Sad, sad, sad
. it behooves me as governor
not to say anything . . . not to
say anything to defend them."
However, he said emphatically
that Clayton James was inno-cent.
He said the other men are
living; that they can speak for
themselves. But he said James is
dead and that he was "used . . .
used badly."
"There is no evidence any-where
that he ever did anything
knowingly wrong," he said.
At one point, the governor said
he didn't want to talk about the
attorney general "at all." But. in
the car, he declared, "Gremillion
deserves it. He's been taking
chances ever since he was
elected. I'm just surprised he
didn't get into trouble before."
McKeithen expressed the opi-nion
the LSU pay raises should
be rescinded and described them
as "administrative mistakes."
"I think they were a mistake
. . . We all make administrative
mistakes . . I've made them . . .
We've got some great people on
the board, but I think they made
a mistake," he said. He added
that he gathers the board is
"prepared to rectify it."
Asked whether he contributed
$50,000 to Hubert Humphrey's
presidential campaign, the gov-ernor
shot back, "I wish I had
$50,000. Then, somebody else
could be governor."
More seriously, McKeithen
said he was "aware" that a
nurnber of his staunch supporters
were prevailing on the Demo-crats
to accept him as a running
mate and that they raised some
funds for the campaign. But he
said he did not "personally raise
or contribute money" in Hum-phrey's
behalf.
There was another question
about whether LSU's proceeds
from the 1968 Sugar Bowl game
were used to finance his New
Year's Eve party in New Or-leans,
and McKeithen denied that
emphatically. He said all he ever
got from LSU was a watch.
"And from the looks of things I
should have gotten two watch-es!"
he joked, noting that he
serves as an ex-officio member
of the LSU Board as well as being
governor. He said the much-pub-licized
watch gifts were one of
the board's "mistakes."
Asked about industrial recruit-ment,
the governor said an
industrial recruiting trip to Cali-fornia
is promised during the
coming spring if the money is
available. In the light of the
current economy effort the fact
that it would cost several
thousands of dollars, he said it is
uncertain.
There was a question about his
removal of Caddo Rep. Frank
Fulco from the Legislative Budg-et
Committee in favor of Caddo
Rep. Lonnie Aulds. McKeithen
said he wanted to publicly
apologize if he had hurt Fulco's
feelings.
"I want Frank Fulco and
others to know that I've gotten
hold of my temper . . . hopefully
. . Any disagreements I've had,
I'm willing to set aside," he said.
He said the dispute had not been
good for Caddo or the state.
Spotting Fulco in the back of
the room a few moments later,
McKeithen told him he wished he
had been there earlier to hear
the "nice" things he was saying
about him. And he repeated his
apology.
Fulco thanked him and said he
was also willing to forget the
matter. "But I want to take this
opportunity to tell you that I
think you made a political
mistake," he added.
"I don't think there's much
doubt about that. I'm sure it was
a political mistake, and if I'd
known all the mean things you
were going to say about me I
might not have done it," the
governor told him.
Rushing away from the press
conference. McKeithen trekked
io the office of local GOP leader
Charlton Lyons where he con-ferred
with him and GOP
National Committecman Tom
Stagg about the tidelands prob-lem.
He said following the
session that Stagg agreed to
serve on his special committee
handling the matter.
"We expect to have a meeting
of the tidelands committee to-ward
the end of this week or
early next week," he said.
Then, there was a rapid walk
to meet Mayor Clyde E. Fant
and Public Safety Commissioner
George D'Artois and the legisla-tors
clambered into automobiles
to inspect new state schools in
Shreveport.
Riding in a local car of the
State Police, the governor went
first to Veterans Administration
Hospital, where he was surprised
to find the offices of LSU School
of Medicine at Shreveport. He
said he thought the new medical
school was already under con-struction,
and he said he had VA
Hospital confused with Confeder-ate
Memorial Medical Center.
Next stop was LSU-Shreveport,
where he was greeted by Dean
Donald Shipp and was conducted
on a brief tour. He exoressed
delight over the 200-acre site,
inquired why the site was
elevated for the construction and
then he shouted a farewell to
someone he thought was Dean
Shipp, and who wasn't.
En route to Southern, Mc-
Keithen's discussed the new 70th
Street Extension bridge over Red
River and laughed at a story in
The Times that showed how its
approach road evenly split pro-perty
owned by former Gov.
Jimmie Davis.
At one of the stops, Caddo Sen.
J. Bennett Johnston shoved Ful-co
literally into the governor's
arms, and the delegation joked
about the "Big Boy" label
McKeithen gave Caddo Rep.'
Dayton Waller.
There was a question about
whether he had challenged Lyons
to hold Nixon to his promise
concerning Louisiana's tidelands,
and McKeithen said that would
have been unfair.
At Southern, there was a quick,
tour. The governor said the facil-ity
is "prettier" than LSU-Shreve-port,
and he asked for the name
of the architect. Joking with
university officials about their
"not needing money," McKeithen
promised additional funds will be
forthcoming. "We're going to
regroup," he said.
Last stop was the Downtown
Airport, where his State Police
driver deposited him and then
tried to explain to Appeal Court
Judge James Bolin and a "Mr.
Fowler" why the governor left
without waiting for them to
arrive. He knew they were
coming, but they were late, and
that, in a nutshell, was about the
story of the day.