ABSTRACT
The Congress today is one of the few legislatures that can regularly say no to a popularly elected president and make it stick. Even presidents such as Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, who seemed to follow the strategy for legislative success recommended in Chapter 4 and who for the most part avoided the personal and organizational failings that characterized legislative liaison during the Nixon and Carter administrations, often were unable to move the Congress on key issues. Nearly every president, no matter how adept he and his staff proved to be at legislative relations, and no matter how much success he had with the Congress early in his administration, has ended his term bitter toward the Congress and stalemated with it on the major policy issues of the day.
