When LBJ was building power as a young Senator, he was both charming and energetic and a master manipulator of others, using their passions, interests, vanity to make them want to work for him. His power was "cultivating people." The book "Path to Power" by Robert Caro is filled with stories of such cultivating... the doing of favors to be called in later, sycophancy, flattery.
About one important White House figure, Goldschmidt... "But, easy-going and not as intensely fired by personal ambition as the other members of his group, he was malleable material in Johnson's hands. He was... passionately idealistic, and the focus of his passion was public power... When Johnson put the case for the Marshall Ford Dam in those terms, Goldschmidt believed him -- and was willing to do anything he could to advance the cause of the dam."
"Johnson knew how to make the most of such willingness. He had been assiduously cultivating Clark Foreman..."
He wasn't cultivating "the friendship" of.... he was cultivating him.
Caro's book is the tracing of the political power.
LBJ's path to success is not often pretty. The chapter "Longlea" details his affair with a beautiful wife of a very powerful Texas man. Caro talks about how he uses his normal sycophantic moves to the older man (Branch?) while he has a secret affair with his longtime girlfriend, X Glass. Caro notes the effect that this has on people in the house (Longlea, a 1000-acre compound in Virginia build by Branch for Glass), including Branch's children who saw him buttering up Caro and making love to his long-time girlfriend.
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