The maestro at work: NCSL Executive Committee, Austin.

• Position: POINT OF ORDER - National Conference of State Legislatures meeting talks about Lyndon Johnson's bargaining skills - Brief article

President Lyndon Johnson may have been the greatest political arm twister ever to inhabit the Oval Office. Last month, attendees at NCSL's Executive Committee dinner meeting in Austin got a firsthand account of his skill.

Ben Barnes, former Texas House speaker, recalled the time he was in Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen's office when Dirksen announced they'd been invited to the White House for a drink. In the Oval Office, after a scotch--Barnes suspected Johnson had the bartender serve his guests an extra shot--Johnson mentioned he needed three Senate GOP votes to pass a tax bill. Dirksen told Johnson there was no way.

Johnson ordered more scotch. Then the president remembered an Army Corps of Engineers...