Chapter 34 & 35 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 34: "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy". This begins with another tragedy. The Senior Senator from Texas, Morris Sheppard, died during the night of a stroke. Alvin Wirtz and Lyndon Johnson held a strategy meeting the very next day to see how to get Johnson into that Senate seat. Sheppard had held that position for twenty-seven years. At this point, Johnson faced the same problem that he had faced before: no one knew who he was in Texas. There were two congressional districts where he had managed to make sure that he was among the known. The rest of the state remained uncharted territory. This meant that on the political level, he faced the same issue as any so-called "new kid". Johnson's main competitor for a political race then was Mann - of whom it was said, "He possessed three enthusiasms somewhat rare...