Joanna

Joanna stands as a pivotal party elder in Democratic power structures, huddling through all-morning meetings with Frank Mitchell and Bill Carney. As grief engulfs the White House after Mrs. Landingham's funeral, she fuels contingency plots to elevate Vice President Hoynes should President Bartlet withdraw amid scandal and sorrow. Abbey conveys their maneuvers in the limousine's stifling hush, exposing Joanna's role in the raw calculus of succession—where loyalty fractures under ambition's blade, and party machinery grinds forward, indifferent to personal devastation.