by Mike Gilmore
Harold Miller paused to make sure the crowd was paying close attention. “Yet here we are, waiting for the members of the Senate to stop the three inexperienced United States senators fighting to keep the bill from going to the Senate Finance Committee. There the bill can be debated and brought back to the full Senate for a vote. All the while, these rich companies continue to use tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share.”
He again pointed his finger toward the center of the audience. “Remember this. The federal debt will be the recipient of all the income from my Fair Share bill. We are using this money to continue to ensure the stability of our government and country.”
The fifteen hundred people reacted to the president’s last statement, rising to their feet with applause and loud cheering. Many tried to restart the “Fair Share” chant.
Harold once again waved them back to their seats as he prepared to deliver his final words. “I need your help. I need you to tell your senators to stop this filibuster. Stop abusing the powers of the Senate and let this bill proceed. These representatives were not sent to Washington to be obstructionist but to work for the good of the country.”
He pointed toward the right side of the ballroom this time. His voice increased in volume. “Call your senators. Tell them to make it stop.” He pointed to the center of the room. “E-mail your senators. Tell them to make it stop.” He pointed to the left side of the room next. “Text your senators. Tell them to make it stop.”
The crowd yelled and clapped their hands.
He used both hands to point over the crowd, his energy building to a climax. “It’s time for everyone to pay a fair share!”
Chapter 28
Washington, DC
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
12:00 p.m. EST
Karen Phillips took the empty seat beside Tina Lewis in the Senate Press Gallery. The two CNN congressional reporters had been alternating to cover the Senate filibuster. Normally Tina would cover the House side of Congress, but with the Senate in session around the clock and activity in the House now on the back burner, CNN Washington Chief Bud Wilson had asked her to help with the network’s coverage of the US Senate.
Karen, thirty-two years old, was well under five feet tall; she had long, thick black hair. Her dark eyes, offset by the red lip-gloss she wore, sparkled when she was on camera. She was dressed in a dark blue business suite and matching shoes. She was still looking for a husband outside the news industry who would put up with her busy schedule.
Tina was two inches taller and two years younger, with short brown hair with natural curl. She was the mother of two boys; her husband worked at the Capitol Power Plant on SE East Street as a third-shift supervisor.
Karen leaned in so she and Tina could talk quietly. “I listened to your coverage on my way in this morning. Anything happening that you couldn’t put on the air?”
Tina shook her head. She had been following the activity in the Senate for the last eight hours. “Nothing. They have been repeating the same drivel since this thing started. You would have thought they could be a bit more creative.”
She opened her six-by-nine top-bound spiral notebook to consult her records. “If they keep to the established schedule, Saunders should be here anytime to replace Senator Laird. They’ve been keeping to a four-hours-on, eight-hours-off schedule.” Tina closed the notebook and slipped it into her shoulder bag. “Well, I’m off. Don Bailey should be coming on as the camera operator if you need him, but so far this thing has been boring as all get-out.”
She grabbed her coat from the empty seat next to her and got up to leave the gallery. She turned back to Karen when one new thought came to mind. “There is one thing, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the filibuster. Your special senator Fisher has not been seen since the filibuster started. I only know this because I heard Senator Shelba Mace asking Tom Evans where Fisher was. With the senators rotating in and out, it is hard to keep track of who is on the floor. It seems he never returned from the Thanksgiving break.”
Karen gave her colleague a smile and playful slap on her left buttock. It went unnoticed by the few members of the press remaining in the gallery. Most of the reporters were bored with the speech down on the floor of the Senate Chamber and were probably in the Senate dining room for lunch. “He is not my special senator. I’ve just been lucky to score more interviews with him than any other reporter.”
Tina whispered a little laugh and called out, “Have fun” before she started to walk up the stairway toward the nearest gallery exit.
Karen Phillips had been covering Congress for almost five years since promoted from a special-features reporter. One of her biggest news stories had been the scandal at the Department of Energy uncovered by Senator Randy Fisher and his wife, then Annie Willis. She had been in the middle of her broadcast from the sidewalk in front of the Forrestal Building, home to the DOE, when Energy Secretary Raymond Cleveland had shot himself in his office inside the building.
She had made it a point going forward to monitor the South Carolina senator’s activities. He had been the center of several other major news stories during the past few years. Her balanced reporting of the stories had earned her several exclusive interviews with him.
She looked over the railing above the chamber floor toward Randy Fisher’s Senate bench seat. It was empty and looked abandoned. Old newspapers covered the tops of desks in other senators’ benches. Some desks held open Senate rulebooks; a few of the Republican senators were trying to find a way to break the filibuster.
She looked toward Senator Laird. The tall, slender, fifty-three year with a head full of thick snow-white hair, stood out among his fellow senators on the chamber floor. He was still repeating the same six reasons for why the Fair Share Tax Bill must not go to the committee. Karen reached inside her shoulder bag, which matched her outfit, for her smart phone. In all the initial excitement over the filibuster, she had failed to notice if Senator Fisher was in the chamber earlier. Currently, the minimum number of members required by the Senate Rules Committee to maintain a quorum occupied the floor. The senators had been rotating in and out of the Senate Chamber.
Karen had the Senate’s membership websites programmed into her smart phone. She was in the process of bringing up Senator Fisher’s to check his office calendar when she heard some commotion on the floor of the Senate below her. Leaning forward, she looked over the railing.
Senator Saunders was walking in to take his seat. He stopped briefly at Senator Laird’s bench as a sign of support and then stepped over to the bench seat beside his friend. He quickly arranged a few papers he had taken from his desk and then rose from his seat. “Will Senator Laird yield the floor to me?”
John Laird tuned to the right and nodded. “I yield to the senator from Virginia.”
Laird sat in his chair. Their plan was to change their current talking points to examples of companies that were already paying their fair share of income taxes. The new plan would show the Senate members and the American public the number of companies who did not take advantage of every loophole their accountants or CPA could find. He opened a short note from Chip Saunders, slipped to him during their handshake, describing the president’s speech delivered several hours before in Memphis. He wanted to wait a few minutes to see what Chip would say in his opening remarks.
Chip Saunders looked refreshed and rested after his eight hours off the Senate floor. He took a few moments to organize his thoughts and then looked around the chamber. He thought about requesting another call for quorum but decided the act would antagonize his fellow Senate members.
“Members of the Senate. I watched the news coverage of President Miller’s speech from Memphis, Tennessee. He used some harsh words to play on the feelings of his audience and gain their sympathy for his Fair Share Bill. As he requested of his audience, my office has been receiving a large number of e-mails and other forms of communication to attempt to st
op these proceedings. I am impressed with the quick reaction in such a short time. I have to wonder about the work behind this effort from President Miller and his organization. It does make me ponder if my fellow senators and I are making a mistake and should release our hold on the Senate. The filibuster rule is controversial, and the Senate has considered abolishing it a number of times. Wisely, this chamber has refused to discard the rule, which simply allows the minority side of any issue to ensure their voice is heard above the volume of the majority.”
He paused for a moment to look at the other senators in the chamber. There were fifty-two members in the chamber, counting John Laird who was still sitting at his desk. “It also allows time for the minority who are abusing the patience of their fellow senators to reaffirm their own convictions about their cause. During the same time that I was receiving the e-mails and texts and telephone calls from American citizens telling me to stop my efforts here on the Senate Chamber, I also received a large number of e-mails and other communications asking me to continue to stop the Fair Share Bill from progressing further in the Senate. That fact that the majority of the various forms of communications were from my own state of Virginia, where I was elected under the pledge not to vote for any new increased taxes, was no surprise but very welcome.
“I was surprised by the number of American citizens from other states also offering their support. My office is keeping a running tally. At this moment, we estimate nearly twenty percent of the messages were from outside of Virginia. It renews my faith in the path my colleagues and I have taken. We realize the American public was heavily in favor of this bill when it was first introduced by the president, but we think it is wrong and hope with time and persistence our message will get across to other members of the Senate.”
He stopped to pick up a few sheaves of papers stapled together at one corner. “On this list are hundreds of American corporations that do pay their fair share. I intend to share with you their names.”
He looked at the top of the list on the first page and starting to call out the names of American companies. The typed, single-spaced pages were full. It would take several hours to go through the entire listing before he would need to repeat the list from the beginning.
Some of the senators, forced by the rules of quorum to be present, groaned over this new boredom. Several moved to interrupt Senator Laird as he walked to the nearest chamber exit to use the next eight hours to rest before he would again take the floor.
Avery Doaks and Candy DuPont were at the door as Laird approached. Doaks held up his hand like a traffic cop. “Let’s have a little word, Senator Laird. We’ve got a cloakroom set aside so we’re not disturbed.”
John Laird stood before them. “All right. Let’s talk.”
The three senators left the chamber and walked a short way down the hallway. A staff member for the Republican minority leader stood guarding the door to keep the room free of any other persons. They would remain outside the door to ensure privacy for the meeting.
Once inside, John Laird took a chair at the small conference table inside the windowless room. They could not force him to remain standing on his tired legs. Doaks sat across the table from Laird. DuPont stood to the side of Laird looking down. DuPont’s face was red with anger. “All right. This has gone on long enough. You three have made your point. It is time to allow the Senate to finish its business and let the bill go to committee.” She was only inches from Laird’s face. “If the bill is voted out of committee and back to the floor and you still feel the same way, you can still offer to speak against it. Maybe you will have enough votes to stop the bill.”
Laird looked from Doaks to DuPont. He was a little uncomfortable with her proximity. He rose from his chair, walked to the far corner of the room, and turned to face the Republican leaders. “If we let this go to the Finance Committee and come back out—and right now you have enough committee votes to ensure it will come back—neither I nor my colleagues will ever get a chance to speak on the floor about the bill. You will team up with the vice president to make sure we are not recognized so this bill is run through the Senate so fast it will make our heads spin.”
Doaks knew DuPont’s approach would never work. “Then what do you want? We can try to negotiate something. Not on this bill, because if we change it in any way it will have to go back to the House for another vote. But we can offer you or the others something on another issue.”
John Laird straightened his tired back. “No. The only thing you can do is to vote to stop this bill here and now. Anything less and we will continue with the filibuster. We have enough people to keep this up indefinitely. Now if you will excuse me, I need to use the restroom and then check in with my staff.”
Chapter 29
Washington, DC
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
12:45 p.m.
Karen Phillips stood outside the cloakroom, waiting for the three senators to exit. Avery Doak’s staff member had been keeping her at a respectful distance, so she had not been able to hear any conversation from the other side of the closed door.
She had seen Senator Laird stopped at the exit door of the Senate Chamber by his party’s Senate leadership. She had hurried from the galley and down the stairs to the main floor. When she reached the same floor as the doorway to the Senate chambers, none of the three senators was in sight. Looking around the wide hallway, she recognized the staff member from Avery Doak’s office. Seeing the look on the staffer’s face, she decided to wait from a distance, among the many other people moving within the wide hallway.
Only a few minutes went by before John Laird came out of the room and turned away from Karen to make for the nearest men’s restroom. She was debating if she should wait outside the restroom. She had done it before to get a comment from a senator and would not hesitate to do so again.
The cloakroom door opened again, and Avery Doaks and Candy DuPont walked out. Their expressions told her the discussion in the room had not gone their way. She had no time to contact Don Bailey, her camera operator, set up near the Rotunda. Armed only with her digital recorder, she quickly approached the two Republican senators.
“Senators Doaks and DuPont. Could you comment on your attempt with Senator Laird to stop the filibuster?” She had guessed about the reason for the closed-door meeting, but it was logical and correct based on their expressions.
Doaks quickly looked around for a camera operator from the news network and saw none; he was glad no one had captured the look of surprise on his face. He hated ambush tactics by any member of the press.
Quickly putting on a smile, he spoke toward to the outstretched hand holding the digital recorder. “Good afternoon, Karen. We did have a few minutes with Senator Laird and asked if we could get him to allow the bill to go to committee where it would receive a full review. Witnesses could have testified about whether the Finance Committee should vote to recommend its passage by the full Senate. We feel it is important to stop the filibuster and allow the Senate to continue with its normal work. As you are aware, we have other pieces of legislation that we want to work on before we recess for the year. The filibuster is stopping other important work besides just the Fair Share Bill.”
Karen turned her mic toward Senator DuPont. She was much shorter than the female senator was and needed to reach up. “Senator DuPont. Were you able to convince Senator Laird to release his hold of the Senate floor along with Senators Hanley and Saunders?”
DuPont looked at the group of people forming around them. Reporters from other news outlets were already holding their microphones out to capture her words.
“We did discuss possible options with Senator Laird. He gave us a few thoughts that we can share with our colleagues, but this is very sensitive, as you can imagine, and we need to meet with other members of the Senate to discuss it with them.”
Karen jumped in with her next question before another reporter could try to edge
her aside. “Are you saying that Senator Laird offered to stop the filibuster if you agreed to meet the demands of the three Davids?”
DuPont kept her expression calm. The new name the press had adopted was rapidly spreading around Capitol Hill. “This is not an event that the press can apply some catchy label to, trying to hype their ratings. We have an important piece of legislation on the floor of the United States Senate that will address tax loopholes used unfairly by many corporations to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes while millions of middle-class Americans supports the government with their tax payments.”
She stopped to allow her emotions to calm down. “We did not offer anything new on the Fair Share Bill to any of the senators involved in the filibuster. We simply appealed to their common sense about allowing the bill to move forward, as the majority of the country wants.”
Karen was happy with her recording of the two Republican Senate leaders. She wished her camera operator had been there to record DuPont’s slightly flustered facial expression. She would simply have to describe the emotions displayed by the senators during her next on-camera report. She gave them a polite smile. “Thank you, Senators Doaks and DuPont for taking the time to talk with me.”
She stepped away. Other reporters moved in, trying to get more information from the senators. She called Don Bailey on his cell phone to alert him she had an update on the Senate’s efforts to break the filibuster and then made a second call to Bud Wilson at the CNN Washington building with the same news.
As she made her way to the Rotunda where Bailey’s camera equipment was, she used her smart phone to bring up Senator Fisher’s website and his calendar. His schedule noted he was taking personal time off. That was strange. She had a good memory but wanted to check whether Randy Fisher had ever missed a Senate session since he came to office. She did not think so.
She flipped the calendar back to November to check his whereabouts during the Thanksgiving break. The last days of November, when the Senate had been in recess, began his personal time off.