LBJ eschews 'riding the wire'

>>> best new thing in the world. okay? tomorrow is valentine's day. if you are in a relationship, do not forget, do something nice. if you are not in a relationship i hope that valentine's day does not bum you out and you have a really good day, however you want it to go. but on the occasion of valentine's day this year, one of the presidential libraries is going to make that day love letters , to the woman who becomes his lady. for public viewing. some of the letters were made public before. a few of them were even performed out loud by these actors in the '70s.

>> my dear bird, this morning, i'm ambitious, proud, energetic, and very madly in love with you. i want to see people. i want to walk through the thr throngs, i want to do things with the drive. if i had a box i would almost make a speech this minute. plans, ideas, hopes, i'm bubbling over with them.

>> lyndon, please tell me as soon as you can what the deal is. i'm afraid it is politics. oh, i know i haven't any business, not any proprietary interest , but i would hate for you to go into politics.

>> isn't that awesome? after they first met it took the passage of nearly two months and nearly 100 letters between them, before ms. claudia taylor agreed to marry him. we don't think of our presidents as young men in love, sometimes as celebrities, but particularly not young men in love. we don't think of this parent that way, we think of lbj as a president who was deliberately crass as a tactic. he made people talk to him while he sat on a toilet. we think of lbj as the president whose most famous recording of him was making an incredible phone call from the white house to order himself from pants from a man in texas. you have heard the recording of lbj ordering the pants from texas, haven't you? oh please tell me you have heard this recording.

>> i want a couple of -- maybe three of the light brown , kind of an almost powder color , like the powder on a lady's face. and then there was some green, and then maybe some other light pair, if you had a blue on that, or black, one blue and one black. i need about six pairs to wear around in the evening when i come in from work. and i need about a half an inch, too tight in the waist.

>> do you recall the exact size? i just want to be able to get them right for you?

>> no, i don't know, y'all just guessed, wouldn't you have the measurements there?

>> we'll find them.

>> now, the pockets when you sit down in the chair, the knife and money comes out so i need at least another inch in the pockets. now, another thing, the crotch, down where your nuts hang is always a little too tight, so when you make them up, give me an inch so i can let it out there because they cut me. just like riding a wire fence. these are almost o -- these are the best that i've had anywhere in the united states . but when i gain a little weight, they cut me under there. so leave me -- you never do have much margin there. let's see if you can't leave me about an inch from where the zipper ends, around, back to my bunghole, so i can let it out there if i need to.

>> i have heard it before, i have never, ever seen it laid out with the pictures of him. and to the subtigtler who had to actually add in there the burps, i'm sorry. we may be getting lbj 's love letters released in time for valentine's day this year, but for valentine's day eve, the " rachel maddow " show gives you president lbj ordering pants in all of its glory. happy valentine's day eve, america, this is how you know i love you. the best new thing in the world. now it is time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell, have a great ride in the wire fence kind of night.