“I need a new Congress to work with me. The Senate will arrive first, because the governors will appoint replacements for the ninety-one men and women we lost last week. The House of Representatives, however, has always been the People’s House, and it’s your job to pick those, in a voting booth, exercising your rights.” Here we go, Jack.
“Therefore, to you, and to the fifty governors, I have a request. Please, do not send me politicians. We do not
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have the time to do the things that must be done through that process. I need people who do real things in the real world. I need people who do not want to live in Washington. I need people who will not try to work the system. I need people who will come here at great personal sacrifice to do an important job, and then return home to their normal lives.
“I want engineers who know how things are built. I want physicians who know how to make sick people well. I want cops who know what it means when your civil rights are violated by a criminal. I want farmers who grow real food on real farms. I want people who know what it’s like to have dirty hands, and pay a mortgage bill, and raise kids, and worry about the future. I want people who know they’re working for you and not themselves. That’s what I want. That’s what I need. I think that’s what a lot of you want, too.
“Once those people get here, it’s your job to keep an eye on them, to make sure they keep their word, to make sure they keep faith with you. This is your government. A lot of people have told you that, but I mean it. Tell your governors what you expect of them when they make their appointments to the Senate, and then you select the right people for the House. These are the people who decide how much of your money the government takes, and then how it is spent. It’s your money, not mine. It’s your country. We all work for you.
“For my part, I will pick the best Cabinet people I can find, people who know their business, people who have done real work and produced real results. Each of them will have the same orders from this office: to take charge of his or her department, to establish priorities, and to make every government agency run efficiently. That’s a big order, and one which you’ve all heard before. But this President didn’t run an election campaign to get here. I have no one to pay off, no rewards to deliver, no secret promises to keep. I will do my damnedest to execute my duties to the best of my ability. I may not always be right, but when I’m not, it’s your job, and that of the people you select to represent you, to tell me about it, and I’ll listen to them and to you.
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“I will report to you regularly on what is going on, and what your government is doing.
“I want to thank you for listening to me. I will do my job. I need you to do yours.
‘.’Thank you, and good night.”
Jack waited and counted to ten before he was sure the cameras were dead. Then he lifted the water glass and tried to drink from it, but his hand was shaking so badly that he nearly spilled it. Ryan stared at it in quiet rage. Why was he shaking now? The tense part was over, wasn’t it?
“Hey, you didn’t puke or anything,” Callie Weston said, suddenly standing next to him.
“Is that good?”
“Oh, yes, Mr. President. Vomiting on national television tends to upset people,” the speechwriter answered with a hooting laugh.
Andrea Price fantasized about drawing her automatic at that moment.
Arnie van Damm merely looked worried. He knew that he couldn’t turn Ryan away from his course. The usual strictures that Presidents listened to–if you want to get reelected, pay attention!–simply didn’t apply. How could he protect someone who didn’t care about the only thing that mattered?
“REMEMBER The Gong Show?” Ed Kealty asked.
“Who wrote this abortion manual?” his legal aide chimed in. Then all three men in the room returned their attention to the TV set. The picture changed from an external shot of the White House to the network studio.
“Well, that was a most interesting political statement,” Tom the anchor observed with the expressionless voice of a poker player. “I see that this time the President stayed with his prepared speech.”
“Interesting and dramatic,” John the commentator agreed. “This was not your usual presidential speech.”
“Why, John, does President Ryan insist so strongly on inexperienced people to assist him in running the government? Don’t we need experienced hands to put the system back together?” Tom asked.
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“That’s a question many will ask, especially in this town–”
“You bet we will,” Realty’s chief of staff observed.
“–and what’s most interesting about it is that he must know that, and even if he didn’t, Chief of Staff Arnold van Damm, as canny a political operator as this city has ever seen, must have made that very clear to Mr. Ryan.”
“What about his first Cabinet appointment, George Winston?”
“Winston heads the Columbus Group, a mutual-fund company which he founded. He’s enormously wealthy, as President Ryan told us, a self-made man. Well, we want a Treasury Secretary who knows money and the financial markets, and surely Mr. Winston does, but many will complain–”
“That he’s an insider.” Kealty smirked.
“–with too many contacts in the system,” John went on.
“How do you think official Washington will react to this speech?” Tom asked.
“WHAT OFFICIAL WASHINGTON?” Ryan growled. This was a first. The two books he’d published had been treated generally well by reviewers, but back then you had to wait a few weeks for people to make comments. It was probably a mistake to watch the instant analysis, but it was also impossible to avoid. The hardest part was keeping track of all the TVs that were running at the same time.
“Jack, ‘official Washington’ is fifty thousand lawyers and lobbyists,” Arnie pointed out. “They may not be elected or appointed, but they’re official as hell. So is the media.”
“So I see,” Ryan replied.
“–AND WE NEED experienced professionals to get the system put back together. That’s what they’ll say, and a lot of people in this town will agree.”
“What did you think of his revelation on the war and the crash?”
f
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“What interested me the most was his ‘revelation’ that Prime Minister Koga was first kidnapped by his own countrymen and then rescued–by Americans. It would be interesting to learn more about that. The President is to be commended for his clear desire to settle things between our country and Japan, and I’d give him high marks for it. A photograph came to us along with the President’s speech.” The network picture changed, showing Ryan and Koga at the Capitol. “This is a truly moving moment captured by the White House photographer–”
“But the Capitol building is still ruined, John, and just as we need good architects and skilled workers to rebuild it, so, I think, we need something other than amateurs to restore the government.” Tom turned to stare right into the camera. “So that was the first official speech from President Ryan. We’ll have more news as it develops. Now we return you to our regularly scheduled programming.”
“That’s our theme, Ed.” The chief of staff rose and stretched. “That’s what we need to say, and that’s why you’ve decided to come back into the political arena, however damaging to your reputation it may be.”
“Start making your calls,” Edward J. Kealty ordered.
“MR. PRESIDENT.” The chief usher presented a silver tray with a drink on it. Ryan took it and sipped his sherry.
“Thanks.”
“Mr. President, finally–”
“Mary Pat, how long have we known each other?” It seemed to Ryan that he was always saying this.
“At least ten years,” Mrs. Foley replied.
“New presidential rule, executive order, even: after hours, when we’re serving drinks, my name is Jack.”
“Muy bien, jefe,” Chavez observed, humorously but with a guarded look.
“Iraq?” Ryan asked curtly.
“Quiet but very tense,” Mary Pat replied. “We’re not hearing much, but what we are getting is that the country’s under lock-down. The army is in the streets, and the people are in their homes watching TV. The funeral for
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our friend will be tomorrow. After that, we don’t know yet. We have one fairly well-placed agent in Iran, he’s on the political beat. The assassination came as a total surprise, and he’s not hearing anything, aside from the expected praise to Allah for taking our friend back.”
“Assuming God wants him. It was a beautiful job,” Clark said next, speaking from authority. “Fairly typical in a cultural sense. One martyr, sacrificing himself and all that. Getting him inside must have taken years, but our friend Daryaei is a patient sort. Well, you’ve met him. You tell us, Jack.”