Queen Zaria Trilogy

by Danny Dunn

  Opportunities for Opponents: This is the last chance to defeat the bill in Congress, except when there is a fight on a veto override (see Step 18).

  Advantages of Fast Track: This step is by-passed for fast-track bills.

  President’s Signature (Or Veto). The president has ten working days in which to choose among three options. If he signs the bill, it becomes law. If he vetoes the bill, it goes back to Congress. If he does nothing, the outcome depends on whether Congress is in session. If Congress is in session, the bill becomes law without the president’s signature. If Congress is not in session, the bill is "pocket vetoed" (i.e., does not become law, and Congress cannot vote to override the veto).

  Opportunities for Opponents: The opponents can seek a presidential veto.

  Advantages of Fast Track: Because it is his initiative, the president will certainly sign a fast-track bill.

  Veto Override. If the president vetoed the bill, Congress could vote to override his decision. This requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress.

  Opportunities for Opponents: It is very rare for a veto to be overridden.

  Zaria smiles and tells them that from her calculations says that, if they submit your entire platform, there are too many clocks they can cause to expire, and the bill dies in every scenario. I have several recommendations; would you like to hear them?

  Tom and Will laugh and say, oh, please do tell.

  Zaria says that the constitution provides, and the 1976 Special presidential powers act has established an incredibly broad set of powers that will enable you to breeze through this with ease.

  Step one is to submit the most very basic of pieces of your platform, and I suggest that it be the Easy Voting Act. No matter what you submit, they are going to immediately go into their scorched earth mode to stop it. I notice that in your sports, the last 2 minutes are extremely long and drawn out. Well, that is going to be them from the moment you submit your bill.

  Let them start with it but videotape everything they do and squeeze together a summary video of every tactic they employ every day and distribute it to the press. You should also add it to your website.

  After a few weeks of that, you make a plea to the American people referencing the site where all of the videos are available.

  Of course, that won’t slow them down at all, so wait a couple more weeks.

  Not too long ago, a president took money from the budget without asking to construct a wall claiming that he did it fulfill the will of the people.

  That is one of many of your precedents, and your case is even stronger. The American people not only asked you to fix voting, but they mandated that you to make your entire platform law and very specifically to stop exactly what the opposing parties are doing.

  You create a Hyper-track bill that eliminates pleasantries and courtesies, reduces clocks, and requires Hyper track to be completed within 15 days with a 51% approval in the house and 10 days in the senate. Ram it right down their throats gentleman.

  The supreme court has chosen not to hear most challenges of the special powers act, and I am pretty positive that if they heard the case, you would win. By the way, the Supreme Court closes off hearing new cases at the end of April. So, if your action were to come to a head during the first week of May, then… Either way, not only will you get the rest of your platform passed, you will get everything you want for 8 years. Special powers are reviewed every 6-months, but they are generally allowed to stay in place for years, and many of them are never revoked.

  Tom and Will love it, Tom looks at Zaria and says thank you dear and smiles.

  End Chapter 52

  Chapter 53 – Play Ball

  Tom and Will meet with Cori and Breezy and ask them to submit the bill as a fast track item. Cory and Breezy are surprised the President is only submitting the Easy Voting act of the bill and suggest that presenting the platform a piece at a time could take his entire time in the office just to make it through the platform. The president wants so much to tell them the whole plan, but they just can’t risk it. So, Tom tells them that we are going to test the waters with this and use this to determine what to do with the rest of the platform. Corey and Breezy Both feel he is making a mistake but say yes, Mr. President, and get to work.

  In the next Session, Corey introduces the Easy Voting Act on the full floor, as is their option. The New American Party is happy about it, and they stand to applaud. They read the bill aloud. The bill is 19 pages long, and the wording in it is very basic and easy to understand. The bill then goes to the Referral committee for step 2, which is to refer the bill to the appropriate committees.

  Tom and Will discuss what they can do to avoid sequential clocks and to get everything they can to run in parallel. They decide to also submit the EVA to the senate as well.

  Tom brings in White House counsel to begin building their case for defending challenges to what they are about to do.

  Tom appointed Aaron as his Attorney General, and Aaron hired 3 old friends of Tom and Wills from college as his Assistant Attorney Generals. They were Tom’s corporate attorneys at two of Tom’s Dot Com companies, and Tom made them all very wealthy with stock options, and they have remained good friends since college.

  Their offices are in the White House, and they spend time after work playing poker and watching sports.

  Tom and Will welcome them into the oval office, and they all sit on the couches.

  Tom looks at Aaron and his Assistant Attorney Generals and tells them he will be presenting a case to the Supreme Court. Tom tells Aaron he wants them to begin preparing now. He tells them this is a very high priority and for them to just let him know if they need more help and if so, he will pay for it out of his pocket if he has to.

  Aaron joking asks Tom if the two of them are declaring Marshall law. Tom laughs and says, just short of that, I think. Aaron laughs and says, let's hear it.

  Tom lays it out in bullet points.

  The people voted me in to get my platform turned into law.

  We just submitted the first piece of the platform in the form of the Easy Voting Act.

  The opposition is going to fight that tooth and nail through stalling tactics

  I am going to use my special powers to establish a fast track program on steroids called Hyper-Track to force the EVA, and the rest of the platform and a whole lot more down their greedy little throats.

  They will fight, bite, kick, and scratch as we drag them down the halls, and they will drag us to the Supreme Court, which has avoided hearing any Special Presidential Powers Act case like it’s the plague.

  Aaron, wow, that is very well thought out. Do you smell that? Tom laughs because he knows where Aaron is going with it. What smell Will says with a smile. Aaron says he smells Genius. So, Tom, how is Zaria he asks. And they all start laughing.

  Tom tells Aaron they probably have 45 to 60 days to prepare. Aaron says well, Tom, it is the dream for every lawyer to present to the Supreme Court. We will give it all we have. Your case sounds like a winner. Choosing a very simple bill was smart. It is clear the people want it, and I agree, the opposition is going to fight it like it is their Alamo, and it probably is.

  Tom says that he and will are going to do nothing until we are ready to spring this on them so that we don’t chew up your resources. We were going to do nothing anyway, but this way it sounds better. Aaron shakes his head. Zaria walks from the residence to the oval office and knocks. She has a tray of tea and cookies.

  As Zaria enters, Aaron says, speaking of the brains of the family, hello Zaria. I told Tom earlier that his plan sounded a lot more like your level of thinking. Take me with you she says he beats me and steals my ideas every day and bats her eyes at Aaron.

  She walks over and hugs Aaron and meets the others for the first time.

  As the first lady, it is my job to support Tom regardless of how mean and dishonest he might be. Tom shakes his head. Zaria tells Tom, “Oh honey, I just hired Betty and Wilma as our housekeeper and a
s our residential security detail. They report to me now. Sleep well, honey. Aaron, if you have any questions well, ask Tom just to be polite. It was nice seeing you all. Bye, honey, oh, and you too, Mr. President.” Tom says, OMG, you are on fire today. Zaria walks back to the residence.

  Tom and Will finish up with Aaron and his deputies. The bill is sent to the referral-committee. The bill sits there for two weeks, despite the fact it is a Fast-Track bill requested by the president. The committee handles many other bills and actually digs some bills out of the dead pile and revives them. Finally, they refer the EVA to just about every committee possible. If the bill dies in any of the committees, the bill is dead. The EVA is referred to as the rules committee, the voting committee. It goes to the ways and means committee, the rules committee, oversight, budget, Ethics, Homeland Security, Why? Who knows? And that is where the games begin. Every sentence of every paragraph is dissected, argued, and rejected. The incumbents are relentless.

  The NAP can’t finish a sentence without the incumbents interrupting with a point of procedure, point of order, point of parliament, and most are just nonsense if one incumbent’s point is overruled 2 others jump in with objections to the overruling. It makes the Lewandowsky hearing look like warmups. And it is not just one party but two parties tag-teaming the mostly young and inexperienced NAP representatives. The NAP may have the overwhelming numbers, but the incumbent representatives have been at this game for a long time and are absolutely schooling the younger, inexperienced NAP representatives at their game. It seems that for the first time, the two incumbent parties are in full agreement. Stop the NAP at all costs.

  One very key ingredient is that the election brought a great deal of interest to politics, and for the first time MSMBC, FOX, CNN, PBS are all broadcasting the hearings live, and the public is shocked at what is going on. Every committee is so identical, so disruptive that it is hard to believe these are grownups acting like this. On the radio talk shows the citizens are livid. Over 85% of the people of the US voted for Tom’s platform, and this is just the first piece of the platform. Most are sympathetic to the new younger representatives that are simply trying the carry out the president's program. But for the two parties, they know it is certain death for their parties if the President’s platform passes. So, they could care less about public opinion. Plus, they have the lobbyists who have all the special interest groups throwing all the resources they have at it.

  Tom and will agree not to travel anywhere. There are way too many groups that want them dead at all costs at this point. Traveling would be like running the gauntlet.

  Aaron’s team craft the legal portion of Tom’s Hyper Track bill.

  Tom and Will, together with Aaron and his deputies, put the finishing touches on it, and it is ready to go. After the incumbents employ every tactic possible, including having members not show up in the final days, run the clock on 2 committees. The incumbents hold a joint press-conferences trashing the bill even though there never was any debate regarding the content of the bill. All of the time was spent on procedural and parliamentary points. The incumbents decide to attack the youth and inexperience of the NAP and proclaim that the people’s work should be left to the more experienced politicians to meet the needs of the people. Then they announce that they have a more comprehensive voting bill they are crafting and should have it ready in about 6 months.

  The President’s office announces there will be an emergency Presidential address the next night at 8:00 pm ET.

  The next night the President begins his address.

  My fellow Americans, like many of you, I have been shocked, amazed, saddened, and then disgusted at the levels to which the incumbents are willing to stoop to please the lobbyists, the wealthy, the special interest groups and themselves. What I have witnessed has been one of the most frustrating and discouraging displays of self-indulgence I have ever seen. Shame on you all.

  I welcomed the incumbents to join me in Arizona, and zero responded to my offer, then I gave them every opportunity to approach our party with sincerity and respect, and what you have witnessed is how they respond. I ran for this office because I care about our country, and I see the greatness that is being smothered by shameful behavior many of you have been watching along with me. I will not be bullied, bamboozled, tricked, or “flimflammed” out of fulfilling the promise I made to the American people.

  The constitution in its wisdom, as well as the Special Powers Act, signed into law in 1976, grants special powers to the office of the President to enable this office to address a very wide range of states of emergency. I believe strongly that if our forefathers witnessed what we witnessed happening over the last weeks in the house of representatives, they would be ashamed and appalled. They would never uphold such obvious actions that are clearly designed to block the will of the people, as in this case.

  I say shame on you congressmen for willfully obstructing the will of the people.

  Tomorrow, I will be declaring that Congress and Senate are both in a state of emergency and be implementing a Hyper Track bill that is designed to expedite the will of the people and to prevent these shills in the house from acting on behalf of the lobbyists, special interests, and the wealthy from holding our government hostage. My party and I will use this tool to implement every line in my platform

  On April 23rd Corey and Breezy present the EVA to the floor and begin reading the bill. The house chair is pounding his gavel, attempting to stop the reading, but Corey continues to read the bill on behalf of the president. The president's bill allows the majority to call for an immediate full house vote declaring the bill “good-as-is” at every stage of the process. If a committee refuses to hear or address the bill immediately or refuses to hold the “Good-AS-IS” vote, or delays in any way, the bill is to be brought to the full session, and the stewards of the bill are to demand an as is vote per the Presidents order. If there is a 66% “Good-AS-IS” vote in full session, the bill is to be considered approved at that step and immediately proceeds to the next step. All Hyper-Track bills have 3 days to be processed in full. If at the end of 3 days a Hyper-bill is not fully processed, it is to be read aloud and voted on by the house in full session.

  Every political and news TV network is covering this historic event live. One reporter that what he sees “It is as if the NAP is a swat team charging through the house of representative freeing hostages as it sweeps through the entire house.

  The first committee is the referral committee who refuses to interrupt their business to kneel to the demand of the president illegal coup attempt of the American political process. Corey says, “and so you are refusing to hear this Hyper Track bill now. The Chairman of the Referral committee says that he is interrupting their committee, and if he does not leave, he will have security remove him. The Chairman adds that he does not recognize the president’s attempt to overthrow the American political system and that it is nothing more than a coup attempt.

  Corey briskly walks back to the full house and reports to the house chairman that his Hyper Track bill has been refused by the Referral committed chairman and the full session speaker of the house call for a full house vote Good-As-Is. All that vote Aye say, Aye. A loud and overwhelming vote of Aye is heard, nay. A loud but much smaller nay is heard. The Speaker says that the Ayes have it. Since the Referral committee refused to hear the Hyper Track and refuses to recognize the president's powers under the emergency powers act, the bill shall go to the Markup committee.

  The Markup committee is held by nearly all incumbents, and this would normally be their opportunity to butcher the bill or completely replace it with something else.

  Hyper Track bill bypass steps 4,5,6, and 7 and go straight to a full house vote.

  Within 1 hour and most of that was spent walking to departments, the EVA is ready for a final vote.

  The vote is read again and is exactly as it was in the beginning. Incumbents are attempting to interrupt, and the speaker is having none of it. The AVA is read over the
hundreds of objections during the reading of the 19-page bill. Corey and Breezy alternate reading each page of the bill and complete it over the objections.

  The speaker calls motions to vote. They get a first and a second, and the full house approves the vote. A shocking event happens in that 20 of the incumbents vote for the bill as well, leaving only 27 of the incumbents voting against it.

  The TV analysts can’t believe the pace of the events. They can’t believe this would happen so quickly and that so many of them would cave this early on in the game.

  The 20 incumbents that voted for the bill all held press conferences.

  Reporter 1 “What made you decide to vote against your party and for the EVA?”

  Incumbent 1 “When it was a party against party, there was at least some truth to voting this way or that way on a bill was about what the one party’s constituents want vs. what the other parties constituents want. In this case, it is obvious what the American people want, and I, for one, am not going to go down in history as someone that betrayed the American people. We have been under extreme pressure from party leaders to stick to their position “or else.” I will not be bullied or blackmailed by my own party and from this point will do as my conscience, and my constituents want and not what a handful of lobbyists, big campaign contributors, and special interest promoters want. I feel good already.

  Tom Will and Zaria are all watching, and Tom is holding Zaria’s hand the whole time. Tom looks at Zaria, and tears run down his cheeks. She wiped them away and says it's OK, you’re welcome and starts laughing. Will says to Zaria, “When did Tom turn into such a cry baby. Zaria tells Will, “when he realized how much smarter I am than him.”