The paunchy little man stood quietly behind the marble rostrum, uneasy in his unaccustomed formal clothes, his shrewd, warm eyes downcast, his bald head shining dully in the soft glow from the vast skylight. Inches from his right hand was the gavel, the symbol of the authority he would now wield as Speaker of the House, until death or defeat of the Democrats. Sam Rayburn, 58, of Bonham, Tex., bachelor, shorthorn breeder, and for seven years a moderator of the New Deal, was waiting to speak his piece.
Below him, in the well...
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