“Would the congressman yield for a question?”
“Of course.”
“I am grateful to the distinguished gentleman and would like to ask him where he imagines the extra money for his grandiose military schemes would come from?”
Buchanan rose slowly to his feet. He wore a three-piece tweed suit, and his silver hair was parted neatly to the right. He rocked from leg to leg like a cavalry officer on a cold parade ground. “My grandiose schemes are no more and no less than those requested by the committee on which I serve and, if I remember correctly, that committee still has a majority from the party which the distinguished member from Illinois represents.” Loud laughter greeted Buchanan’s remarks. Florentyna stood up a second time; Buchanan immediately gave way again.
“I am still bound to inquire of the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee where he intends to take the money from. Education, hospitals, welfare, perhaps?” The chamber was silent.
“I would not take it from anyone, ma’am, but I would warn Mrs. Kane that if there is not enough money for defense we may not need any money for education, hospitals or welfare.”
Congressman Buchanan picked up a document from his table and informed the House of the exact figures spent in the previous year’s budget, in all the departments Florentyna had mentioned. They showed that in real terms, defense spending had dropped more than all the others. “It’s members like the distinguished lady who come to the chamber without facts, equipped with nothing more than a vague feeling that defense expenditure is too high, that make the Kremlin leaders rub their hands with glee while the reputation of the House is at the same time diminished. It is the type of ill-informed attitude being expressed by the lady from Illinois that tied the hands of President Roosevelt and left us so little time to come to terms with the menace of Hitler.”
Florentyna wished she had never entered the chamber that afternoon as members from both sides echoed their agreement. As soon as Buchanan had finished his remarks, she left the floor and returned quickly to her office.
“Janet, I want all the committee reports from the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense for the last ten years and ask my legislative researchers to join us immediately,” she said even before she reached her desk.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Janet, somewhat surprised, as Florentyna had never mentioned defense in the three years she had known her. The staffers filed in and sank into Florentyna’s old sofa.
“For the next few months I plan to concentrate on defense matters. I need you to go over the reports of the subcommittee during the last ten years and mark up any relevant passages. I am trying to get a realistic appraisal of America’s military strength if we were called upon to defend ourselves against an attack from the Soviets.” The four staffers were writing furiously. “I want all the major works on the subject including the CIA Team A and Team B evaluations and I want to be briefed when lectures or seminars on defense or related matters take place in Washington. I want all press comments from the Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek and Time put in a file for me every Friday night. No one must be able to quote something I haven’t had a chance to consider.”
The staffers were as surprised as Janet because they had been concentrating their efforts on small business and tax reform for over two years. They were not going to have many free weekends during the coming months. Once they had departed, Florentyna picked up the phone and dialed five digits. When a secretary answered, she requested an appointment with the Majority Leader.
“Of course, Mrs. Kane. I will ask Mr. Chadwick to call you later today.”
Florentyna was ushered into the Majority Leader’s office at ten o’clock the next morning.
“Mark, I want to be put on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.”
“I wish it were that easy, Florentyna.”
“I know. Mark, this is the first favor I’ve asked for.”
“There is only one slot open on that subcommittee and so many members are twisting my arm it’s amazing I’m not permanently in splints. Nevertheless, I’ll give your request my serious consideration.” He made a note on the pad in front of him. “By the way, Florentyna, the League of Women Voters is holding its annual meeting in my district and they’ve invited me to make the keynote speech on opening day. I know how popular you are with the League and I was hoping you might find it possible to fly up and do the introduction speech.”
“I’ll give your request my serious consideration,” said Florentyna, smiling.
She received a note from the Speaker’s office two days later informing her of her appointment as the junior member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Three weeks later she flew to Massachusetts and told the League of Women Voters that as long as there were men like Mark Chadwick in Congress, they need have no fears for America’s well-being. The women applauded loudly while Florentyna turned to find Mark with a pained expression on his face and one arm behind his back.
During the summer vacation, the whole family went to California. They spent the first ten days in San Francisco with Bella and her family in their new home, high up on the hill, now overlooking the bay.
Claude had become a partner in the law firm, and Bella had been appointed assistant headmistress. If anything, Richard decided, Claude was a little thinner and Bella a little larger than when they had last seen them.
The holiday would have been enjoyed by everyone if Annabel hadn’t frequently disappeared off on her own. Bella’s gripping of a hockey stick firmly in her hand left Florentyna in no doubt how she would have dealt with the girl.
Florentyna tried to keep harmony between the two families, but a confrontation was unavoidable when Bella found Annabel in the attic smoking pot.
“Mind your own business,” she told Bella as she inhaled once more.
When Florentyna lost her temper with Annabel, Annabel informed her mother that if she took more interest in her welfare and less in her precious career, perhaps she could have expected a little criticism from her.
When Richard heard the story he immediately accompanied Annabel back to the East Coast while Florentyna and William traveled on to Los Angeles for the rest of their holiday.
Florentyna spent an unhappy time phoning Richard twice a day to find out how Annabel was. She and William returned home a week early.
In September, William entered his freshman year at Harvard, taking up residence in the Yard, on the top floor of Grays Hall, making the fifth generation of Kanes that had been educated at Cambridge. Annabel returned to the Madeira School, where she seemed to be making little progress despite the fact that she spent most weekends under her parents’ watchful eyes in Washington.
During the next session, Florentyna allocated a considerable part of her time to reading the defense papers and books her staffers recommended. She became engrossed in the problems the nation faced if it wished to remain strategically safe. She read papers by experts, spoke to assistant secretaries at the Defense Department and studied the major U.S. treaties with her NATO allies. She visited the Air Force SAC headquarters, toured U.S. bases in Europe and the Far East, observed army maneuvers in North Carolina and California, even spent a weekend submerged in a nuclear submarine. She sought meetings with admirals and generals, as well as having discussions with enlisted men and noncommissioned officers, but she never once raised her voice in the House chamber and only asked questions in committee hearings, where she was often struck by the fact that the most expensive weapons were not always the most effective. She began to realize that the military had a long way to go in improving its readiness if a national security crisis was to be handled effectively. This had not been tested fully since the Cuba confrontation. After a year of listening and study she came to the conclusion that Representative Buchanan had been right and it was she who had been the fool. She was surprised to find how much she enjoyed her new discipline and realized how her views must have changed when a colleague openly referred to her as a hawk. America had no choi
ce but to increase defense spending while Russia remained so openly aggressive.
She studied all the papers on the MX missile system, which came under the jurisdiction of the House Armed Services Committee. When the so-called Simon Amendment to hold up the authorization of the system came on the calendar she asked Chairman Galloway to be recognized during the debate. She told Richard. He agreed.
Florentyna listened intently as other members gave their views for and against the amendment. Robert Buchanan gave a considered speech against it. When he took his seat, Florentyna was surprised the Speaker called on her next. She rose to a packed house. Representative Buchanan said in a voice loud enough to carry, “We are about to hear the views of an expert.” One or two Republicans seated near him laughed as Florentyna walked to the podium. She placed her notes on the lectern in front of her.
“Mr. Speaker, I address the House as a convinced supporter of the MX missile. America cannot afford to delay any further the defense of this country because a group of congressmen claim they want more time to read the relevant documents. Those papers have been available to every member of the House for over a year. It hardly needs a course in speed reading for members to have done their homework for today. The truth is that this amendment is nothing more than a delaying tactic for members who are opposed to the MX missile system. I condemn those members as men with their heads in the sand, heads that will remain in the sand until the Russians have made their first pre-emptive strike. Don’t they realize America must also have a first-strike capability?
“I approve of the Polaris submarine system, but we cannot hope to push all our nuclear problems out to sea, especially now that navy intelligence informs us that the Russians have a submarine that can travel at a speed of forty knots and remain underwater for four years—four years, Mr. Speaker—without returning to base. The argument that the citizens of Nevada and Utah are in more danger from the MX system than anyone else is spurious. The land where the missiles would be deployed is already owned by the government and is at present occupied by nineteen hundred and eighty sheep and three hundred and seventy cows.
“I don’t believe the American people need to be mollycoddled on the subject of the nation’s safety. They have elected us to carry out long-term decisions, not to go on talking while we become weaker by the minute. Some members of Congress would make Nero appear to the American people as a man who was giving a violin concert in aid of the Rome fire brigade.”
When the laughter had diminished, Florentyna became very grave. “Have members so quickly forgotten that in 1935 more people worked for the Ford Motor Company than were in the entire United States armed forces? Have we also forgotten that in the same year we had a smaller army than Czechoslovakia, a country since trampled on by Germany and Russia in turn? We had a navy half the size of that of France, a country humiliated by the Germans while we sat and watched, and an air force that even Hollywood didn’t bother to hire for war movies. When the threat of Hitler first arose we could not have rattled a saber at him. We must be certain such a situation can never rise again.
“The American people have never seen the enemy on the beaches of California or on the dockside of New York, but that does not mean that the enemy does not exist. As late as 1950, Russia had as many combat planes as the United States, four times as many troops and thirty tank divisions to America’s one. We cannot allow ourselves to be at such a disadvantage again. Equally I pray that our great nation will never be involved in another debacle such as Vietnam and that none of us will live to see another American die in combat. But our enemies must always be aware that we will meet aggression head-on. Like the eagle that bestrides our standard, we will hover always alert to the defense of our friends and the protection of our citizens.”
Some members on the floor of the House started to applaud.
“To each American who says our defense expenditure is too costly, I reply let them look to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and see that no price is too high to pay for the democratic freedom we take for granted in this country. The Iron Curtain is drawn across East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, with Afghanistan and Yugoslavia guarding their borders in daily expectation of that curtain being drawn still further, perhaps even reaching the Middle East. After that the Soviets will not be satisfied until it encircles the entire globe.” The House was so silent that Florentyna dropped her voice before she continued. “Many nations have through history played their role in the protection of the free world. That responsibility has now been passed to the leaders of this commonwealth. Let our grandchildren never say we shirked that responsibility in exchange for popularity. Let us assure America’s freedom by being willing to make a sacrifice now. Let us be able to say to every American that we did not shirk our duty in the face of danger. Let there be in this House no Nero, no fiddler, no fire and no victory for our enemies.”
Members in the chamber cheered while Florentyna remained standing. The Speaker helplessly tried to gavel the meeting to order. When the last cheer had died she spoke almost in a whisper.
“Let that sacrifice never again be the lives of America’s youth, or substituted for by the dangerous illusion that we can keep peace in the world without providing for its defense against aggression. Adequately protected, America can influence events without fear, govern without terror and still remain the bastion of the free world. Mr. Speaker, I oppose the Simon Amendment as irrelevant, and worse, irresponsible.”
Florentyna took her seat and she was quickly surrounded by colleagues from both sides who praised her speech. The press heaped further praise on her the next day and the networks included passages from her speech in their bulletins. Florentyna was shocked at how glibly they described her as an expert on defense. Two papers even talked of her as a future Vice President.
Once again Florentyna’s mail rose to over a thousand letters a week, but there were three letters that particularly moved her. The first was a dinner invitation from an ailing Hubert Humphrey. She accepted but, like the other invited guests, did not attend. The second came from Robert Buchanan, simply written in a bold hand:
“I salute you, madam.”
The third was an anonymous scrawled note from Ohio:
You are a fucking communist agent bent on destroying America with impossible defense commitments. The gas chamber is too good a place for people like you. You should be strung up with that dummy Ford and that pimp Carter. Why don’t you get back to the kitchen where you belong, bitch?
“How do you react to people like that?” asked Janet, stunned.
“You don’t bother. Repudiating that sort of mindless prejudice is beyond even your skillful hand. Let’s be thankful that ninety-nine percent of the letters are from fair-minded people who wish to express their views honestly. Though I confess if I knew his address I’d be tempted to reply for the first time in my life, ‘Up Yours.’”
After a hectic week during which she seemed to be pursued by phone messages, Florentyna spent a quiet weekend with Richard. William was home from Harvard and was quick to show his mother a cartoon from the Boston Globe depicting her as a heroine with the head of an eagle, punching a bear on the nose. Annabel phoned from school to tell her mother that she wouldn’t be home that weekend.
Florentyna played tennis with her son that Saturday and it took her only a few minutes to realize how fit he was and what a dreadful state she was in. She couldn’t pretend walking around golf courses kept her fit. With each shot it became more obvious that William wasn’t trying very hard. She was relieved to be told that he couldn’t play another set because he had a date. She scribbled a note to Janet to order an Exercycle from Hammacher Schlemmer.
Over dinner that night, Richard told Florentyna that he wanted to build a Baron in Madrid and he was thinking of sending Edward to check the building sites.
“Why Edward?”
“He’s asked to go. He’s working almost full-time for the Group now and has even rented an apartment in New York.”
“He’s become counsel to the firm and says that if you can change your whole career at forty, why shouldn’t he. Since Daley’s death he hasn’t found it a full-time job proving that you’re worth a place in Congress. I must say he’s like a schoolboy who’s found himself locked up in a candy store. It’s taken a great load off my shoulders. He’s the only man I know who works as hard as you.”
“What a good friend he has turned out to be.”
“Yes, I agree. You do realize he’s in love with you, don’t you?”
“What?” said Florentyna.
“Oh, I don’t mean he wants to leap into bed with you, not that I could blame him if he did. No, he simply adores you, but he would never admit it to anyone, although it wouldn’t take a blind man to see that.”
“But I never—”
“No, of course you haven’t, my darling. Do you think I would be considering putting him on the board of Lester’s if I thought I might lose my wife to him?”
“I wish he would find himself a wife.”
“He’ll never marry anyone as long as you are around, Jessie. Just be thankful that you have two men who adore you.”
When Florentyna returned to Washington after the weekend she was greeted with another pile of the invitations that had been coming in with increasing frequency. She sought Edward’s advice as to what she should do about them.
“Select about half a dozen of the major invitations to places where your views can be expected to reach the maximum number of people, and explain to the others that your work load does not permit you to accept at the moment. But remember to end each letter of refusal with a personal handwritten line. One day when you are seeking a bigger audience than the Ninth District of Illinois, there will be people whose only contact with you will be that letter, and on that alone they will decide whether they are for or against you.”
The Prodigal Daughter Page 32