September 18, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1424

WASHINGTON, Sept 17: The White House is keeping at arm’s length a controversial new book alleging that former president Lyndon Johnson had a hand in the 1963 slaying of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy.

The twist: “Blood, Money and Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K.” is by Barr McClellan, White House spokesman Scott McClellan’s father.

The younger McClellan recently brushed aside efforts to get him to comment on the text, drily telling a reporter: “Thank you for the opportunity, but I’m not going to have any comment on it.”

Scott McClellan, 35, is not the only big player in US politics: His brother Mark, 40, heads the Food and Drug Administration; and his mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, 63, is comptroller in Texas, US President George W. Bush’s home state.

Barr McClellan, divorced from Strayhorn years ago, appears set to make a splash when his book hits stores on Sept 30.

In it, he reportedly alleges that Johnson’s personal lawyer organized Kennedy’s killing in Dallas after the young president planned to pick a different running mate in the 1964 elections.—AFP