Of LBJ & Tiger

Once, many years ago, there was a Texan in the White House by the name of Lyndon Baines Johnson, better known as LBJ. And there were many legends about LBJ. A number are recounted in a privately printed best-selling book, "A Texan Looks at Lyndon" by J. Events Haley. Haley, born in 1901, was a rancher, a segregationist, a fierce opponent of FDR and his policies, and a good friend who had ridden the Texas cattle trails to Chicago as a young man. He died at 94 when the horse he was riding fell on him. LBJ was above everything a Texas politician. He worked hard and played every angle as only a Texan politician knows how to. One of the most infamous legends was the tale of how a political rival committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the back of head -- with a shotgun. And how each of three witnesses who could have given evidence against him in the Billy Sol Estes scandal died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their cars. During his White House years, LBJ would, during the fall and winter, host an "off-the-record" dinner for an ill-assorted group, usually about 20 guys, about once a month...read more