Part 2 Chapter 11 Summary

Leland Olds and his wife Maud entered SOB 312, high ceilinged and gold draped, to find few spectators or reporters; no one expected the hearing to generate news. Congressman John Lyle sat, holding a large briefcase on his lap. LBJ opened the proceedings, calling Lyle as the first witness. Lyle took out a thick stack of papers and declared it would be "utterly unthinkable" to reappoint Olds, who was a proponent of Leninism, an opponent of the U.S. government and free enterprise, author of a body of alien economic and philosophical writings in the communist organ, the Daily Worker and a chameleon who would say anything in order to remain in power.

Lyle proceeded to examine each of his fifty-four select articles, calling the senators' attention to particularly damning phrases. Early on, Senator Charles Tobey, a member who had opted to...