Editing Walter Jenkins (section)

===Arrest===
A month before the 1964 presidential election, on October 7, [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|District of Columbia Police]] arrested Jenkins in a [[YMCA]] restroom. He and another man were booked on a disorderly conduct charge,<ref>White, 367; ''Time'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20080727025024/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876303,00.html "The Jenkins Report," October 30, 1964]. Retrieved November 15, 2010</ref> an incident described as "perhaps the most famous [[Cottaging|tearoom]] arrest in America."<ref>Laud Humphreys, ''Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places'' (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1974), 19</ref> He paid a $50 fine.<ref>Perlstein, 489</ref> Rumors of the incident circulated for several days, and Republican Party operatives helped to promote it to the press.<ref>Dallek, 181</ref> Some newspapers, including the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' and the ''[[Cincinnati Enquirer]]'', refused to run the story.<ref>White, 367</ref> Journalists quickly learned that Jenkins had been arrested on a similar charge in 1959,<ref>Dallek, 179, 181. The FBI had reported the 1959 arrest in April 1961,</ref> which made it much harder to explain away as the result of overwork or, as one journalist wrote, "combat fatigue."<ref>Perlstein, 490. The journalist was [[William Lindsay White|William White]].</ref><ref>Edward P. Levine, "Studying the American Press: The Walter Jenkins Case." ''Journalism Quarterly'' 43.3 (1966): 493-496.</ref>

{{quote box
| quote = Perhaps the most amazing of all events of the campaign of 1964 is that the nation faced the fact fully—and shrugged its shoulders.
| source = —[[Theodore H. White]] in ''The Making of the President 1964''
| width = 300px
| align = right
| bgcolor = #EDEDED
}}

Finally, on October 14, a ''[[Washington Star]]'' editor called the White House for Jenkins' comment on a story it was preparing. Jenkins turned to White House lawyers [[Abe Fortas]], the President's personal lawyer, and [[Clark Clifford]], who unofficially was filling the role of White House Counsel. They immediately lobbied the editors of Washington's three newspapers not to run the story, which only confirmed its significance.<ref name=white368>White, 368</ref><ref>Fortas later emphasized that at the time he did not know the validity of the morals charge against Jenkins. ''The New York Times'': [https://www.nytimes.com/1965/08/06/archives/fortas-asserts-police-need-time-to-question-suspects-fortas.html "Fortas Asserts Police Need Time to Question Suspects," August 6, 1965]. Retrieved November 13, 2010</ref>  Within hours, Clifford detailed the evidence to the President and press secretary George Reedy, who while "openly weeping,"<ref>White 369</ref> confirmed the story to reporters. Probably forewarned, Johnson told Fortas that Jenkins needed to resign.

Anticipating the charge that Jenkins might have been blackmailed, Johnson immediately ordered an FBI investigation. He knew that J. Edgar Hoover would have to clear the administration of any security problem because the FBI itself would otherwise be at fault for failing to investigate Jenkins properly years before.<ref>Perlstein, 491</ref> Hoover reported on October 22 that security had not been compromised.<ref name=evans480>Evans and Novak, 480</ref><ref name="White, 369-70">White, 369-70</ref> Johnson later said: "I couldn't have been more shocked about Walter Jenkins if I'd heard that Lady Bird had tried to kill the Pope."<ref name=dallek180>Dallek, 180</ref> He also fed conspiracy theories that Jenkins had been framed. He claimed that before his arrest Jenkins had attended a cocktail party where the waiters came from the Republican National Committee, though the party was hosted by ''[[Newsweek]]'' to celebrate the opening of its new offices.<ref>White, 367. Dallek evaluates various claims that Jenkins was set up and dismisses them. Dallek, 180-1</ref> The ''Star'' printed the story and [[United Press International|UPI]] transmitted its version on October 14. Jenkins resigned the same day. Johnson immediately ordered a poll to determine the public's reaction to the affair and learned the next day that its effect on the voters was negligible.<ref name=evans480/><ref name="White, 369-70"/><ref>Thomas W. Benham, "Polling for a Presidential Candidate: Some Observations on the 1964 Campaign," in ''Public Opinion Quartery'', v. 29 (1965), 192</ref>

Johnson announced that only he would contact the press about the incident, but his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, issued her statement of support for Jenkins.<ref>{{cite book|last=Updegrove|first=Mark|title=Indomitable Will|year=2012|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-307-88771-9|page=86}}</ref>