by Dan Donovan
The Congressman walked back to the couch and sat down without inviting Poller to make himself comfortable. Poller followed on his own, choosing a chair not in the line of sight of the windows. “I’m not going to engage you in a debate, Poller. The purpose in coming here was to escape outside influences,” said Deise.
Poller leaned forward in his seat, smirking. “Save your speeches for the House. I’m here to talk about reality. Forget about the Constitutional hogwash. This is a bare-knuckle brawl for power. Stratton doesn’t know how to use it. Maurus can be trained. We’re stuck with dysfunctional yahoos on our borders who are going nova, and threatening to incinerate us in the process. If someone doesn’t take command we’re going to have bigger difficulties than deciding which prima donna gets to play Big Daddy to all us small fries.”
“I’m offering you the chance to be a major player. You can have a blank check that you can cash in anytime, if you vote the right way. Of course, the only restriction is that you can’t be President. Not right away, that is. If you’re interested in that job we can build you up. You’re a young guy, so there’s plenty of time. A Senate seat would be a good warm-up. Do the right thing, make the right people happy…we know how to reward our friends. In the meantime, maybe there’s other things you need. We can work it out. Reasonable people can easily come to a satisfactory arrangement. Whataya say?”
The Congressman shook his head. “Do you think this is just another omnibus appropriations bill we’re marking up? Do for me and I’ll do for you. I’m only in my third term but I’m not stupid or a novice. I worked in Trenton before coming down here. Wheeling and dealing is part of the game. If citizens knew what we did in conference meetings to work out legislative compromises, they’d have our heads. That doesn’t mean everything has to be reduced to a trade-off item. Some of us still believe in principles!”
“Grow a brain!” barked Poller. “You’re not Jimmy Stewart and this isn’t a scene from ’Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’ Get real. Are you going to throw away your future because the civics text books say you should be a starry-eyed boy wonder? Hell, they don’t even teach civics in most schools any more. Listen, I can get Maurus to initiate policies, once he’s President, that will expand the size and influence of the United States. We were meant to control this continent. Now we’re being given a scenario where we can achieve that goal. Most of Canada, and a necessary slice of Mexico, can be in our hands within a year. Maybe Cuba will finally wise-up. We can flaunt it to China and Europe that we’re still on the prowl. We’re the only superpower, and we should act like it. We have to stop asking foreigners for permission to defend our national interests. Just do what we need to do!…Are you going to help?”
Deise responded by standing then stating,” You know where the door is.”
Poller shook his head, rose and walked towards the exit. Before stepping into the hallway he turned to Deise, “Don’t blame me. Poor damn, stupid fool.” Poller did not pull the door out as he departed.
After securing the locks, Deise briefly considered ‘phoning the Vice President and demanding to know why Maurus set his yap dog loose; but he decided it would be a waste of time. “There’s a leash between them, although it’s difficult to tell who’s really in control.”
He went to the bedroom, picked up his briefcase and returned to the couch. Taking out a legal pad and a pen, Deise began out-lining his thoughts. An hour and a half, and several drafts, later he had made his decision. “I can always go back to teaching history if the leadership doesn’t appreciate my eloquence.”
By 6AM Sean Deise had awakened from another fitful sleep. He telephoned his family at home on Staten Island. They were all early risers so there was no concern about disturbing their rest. He chatted for a few minutes, reminding his wife Kate to set the DVD recorder for WNN’s local channel. Despite her request, Sean told her she would have to wait to hear his decision. “I might chicken out and go the other way at the last moment. I don’t want to lock myself in. Besides the line could be tapped. There’d be no suspense if the story broke before I got to the Hill.” He promised to be home for dinner.
Deise prepared himself for the morning in about twentyfive minutes. The time was shortly before 7am; “There’s a few hours . . ,” he started to think when the ’phone rang. It was the Speaker on a conference call with the three other Representatives. “Good morning to everyone,” said Todd Poorberry. The four responded in kind. “I’ve arranged for a limo to pick you up in front of the building at 7:30. Is that OK?” They all agreed. “You can come back here and barricade yourselves in your offices until the session is ready to begin. The House security staff will run interference for you with the members of the fourth estate.”
The quartet met downstairs several minutes before the scheduled pick-up time. They muttered idle sports-talk while awaiting their transportation. The limo would not be able to stop directly outside the front door because of some maintenance work that was being done. The Representatives would have to walk about ten feet to the taxi stand spot. The limo came along the drive precisely at 7:30. The group proceeded out the door and across the sidewalk. Sean Deise trailed his associates. Behind him came a shout. “Hey! Look out!” Deise spun around and saw an approaching motorbike rider. He had to jump backwards to avoid being struck by the speeding biker. The person who had yelled the warning was the building’s doorman, who now came running up to Deise. The rider, wearing a dark helmet and dark clothes continued his rapid pace, flying past the startled on-lookers.
“Are you alright?” inquired the doorman as he ran up to Deise.
“Yes…yes, thanks,” replied the Congressman as he shook the other’s hand. “I’m glad somebody was awake.”
“He must be one of those messengers, although I don’t remember seeing him before. They don’t care who or what’s in their way.”
“Well, thanks again,” Deise said. “If he’d hit me I’d be road pizza for sure.”
“If I see him again, I’m calling the cops,” the doorman assured him as the four Representatives seated themselves in the limo.
10:51 AM
Congressman Sean Deise entered the House chamber from a side doorway. He was unaware that the three other Members had announced their support for the measure to remove Cory Stratton from the office of President. Nevertheless, he sensed a palpable tension as soon as he set foot in the chamber. A premonition stirred a belief that his was the deciding vote. He desperately wanted a drink of water, but he feared his shaking hands would not permit such a task.
Sean Deise, almost a cliché in this circumstance—the average guy who through a series of fortunate events finds himself at the epicenter of an extraordinary moment in time. Graduate of a small college near his home, returning there for a few years as an Assistant Professor of History, then married to another faculty member, now with two children, two terms in the State Assembly then drafted to run for an open House seat he wins based on his refusal to accept donations from any source outside the district. The Founders of the nation had probably envisioned that great decisions in Congress would be made by counsel of learned elders. Here now was a common man, age 45, on the verge of deciding the fate of the Republic.
Sean Deise stood before his colleagues and the nation alone in the spotlight of history. Remembering the words he had finished early in the morning, Deise reached into his coat pocket and withdrew the text. The papers fluttered as he placed them on the podium. Finally, he coughed to clear his throat. Deise began his historic judgment, “The Framers of the Constitution established Congress as the first among equals by delineating its powers and duties in Article
I. ’We the People’ is the opening phrase of the preamble of the Constitution. Here in the House of Representatives these two concepts come together. We are the American people’s chosen representatives, elected to decide matters great and small. The President can propose lawful policy, the Supreme Court may weigh the legitimacy of policy within the context of the law, but the House along with the
Senate decides what is enacted as law. The Constitution is the bedrock of the American system of law. The Amendments are refinements to that system. Because all of these transactions are undertakings of human beings, flaws creep into the proceedings. What seemed abundantly clear and straightforward at the time of passage can become vague and imprecise at some later date. What was intended for one purpose may become an instrument for an unintended alternative.”
“In some democracies the selection of the head of government is determined in a swap-meet among parliamentary factions. What might be called bribery in other circumstances becomes agenda accommodation. The voters in such nations have only an indirect voice in expressing their preference for the country’s top political figure. Weeks, sometimes months, are required to jury-rig what in the long run may be an illusory majority. Anyone who emerges from such a process is at the mercy of the shifting sands of capricious interests, and can be dismissed in what is called a vote of no-confidence.”
“The American process has evolved far differently. We are so radical we permit the voters to elect the nation’s preeminent public official. The President is chosen by the people, and can be removed by the people at a subsequent election. It was never the explicit or implicit intent of the Framers of the Constitution to subject the President’s term in office to the mood swings of Congress. Most certainly Congress has the rightful duty to evaluate legislation and appointees proposed by the Chief Executive. Congress may also influence policy through measures passed or defeated. Congress cannot, must not, control the Presidency. We came dangerously close to such a catastrophe when the Radical Unionists were in the majority during the States War of the 1860s.”
“The 25th Amendment was born out of the realization that a procedural gap existed in maintaining the continuity of Executive power. The Amendment was designed as a mechanism for filling a vacancy created by death or severe illness. It was never intended as a backdoor version of a no-confidence vote.”
“The attempt, some would say nefarious attempt, to oust President Cory Stratton is in my mind nothing more than a cold-blooded attempt to distort the Constitution. It is nothing more, as I fear after learning the motivations of one of the plotters, than an attempted coup d’etat through misuse of the Constitution.”
“I will not disgrace this House, and undermine the in-tegrity of the Presidency, by supporting this measure. Somewhere in the debate over Mexico, Bert Maurus’ personal disagreement with the President became a personal vendetta.”
“I support the Constitutional principal of an independent President. I support President Cory Stratton.”
“I vote No!”
Epilogue
THE REACTION WITHIN the chamber of the House of Representatives was astoundingly anti-climatic. A handful of Members stood up and shouted at Sean Deise; an almost equal number arose to applaud him. The others sat in silence, either relieved or shocked that the challenge had collapsed. Speaker Poorberry made the obvious official by declaring that the measure had failed to obtain a 2/3 majority, so it was therefore defeated. The chamber began to clear slowly. The usual milling about in the aisles, the mini-news conferences in the outside hallways, the rush back to the office to sample constituent opinion—all this took place, but without the intense passion of previous days.
The news media also seemed to draw back. When the Speaker made his announcement on the voting results, most sites jumped back to their standard presentations after a brief summary by their lead correspondent. It was if the nation had decided to shake off the residual memories of a bad dream, and go about its normal business. The fascination of so bluntly challenging a President had fed a compulsion for involvement in a unique drama, if only through the vicarious mediums of television and the web. The story had reached its climax, the central character had survived (barely), and now the routine could resume. The most severe Constitutional crossroads since the impeachment and conviction of President George Mc McClellan in March 1865 (he was charged with treason for proposing a negotiated settlement to the stalemated States War), and the subsequent domination of the Presidency by the Radical Unionists in Congress until Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1869, had captivated the public’s attention while it was white-hot; but with its cooling, the grubby underlying problems still remained, still required attending to, yet the public was now tired of it. Coup or not, national survival or not, the entire mix became yesterday’s news in next to no time.
The remainder of Cory Stratton’s term was an ordeal for the man. His narrow escape left him confronting a stark fact—a majority in the House and a plurality of the general public had endorsed the proposal to oust him from office. Stratton had to confront the bitter reality that the enthusiastic support which had made him President was gone. He was required now to begin a careful, considerate program to restore his acceptance by the people and the Congress.
The resignation letter of Bertford Maurus as Vice President was delivered to the Secretary of State shortly after noon on October 15th. It contained a single sentence announcing his departure. Cory Stratton did not respond publicly to Maurus’ surrender of office; however, a White House spokesperson told reporters that a committee of senior Presidential advisers would begin an immediate review of suggested nominees for the vacant post of Vice President. The irony was noted: Bert Maurus’ successor would be selected according to the provisions of the 25th Amendment—in this case, it would be Section 2. Within an hour of Maurus’ withdrawal the eight Cabinet Secretaries who had supported him followed him once more by also submitting their resignations. On Monday, November 1st, a week of Congressional hearings began in order to consider the President’s nominee for Vice President.
The House and Senate then spent two days debating the matter, and on Thursday the 12th confirmed Donald Warsen (who had been serving as Governor of California) as the next Vice President. The President had chosen Warsen to emphasize his commitment to the Border States in the continuing Mexican crisis. Of course it helped that Warsen had been a public supporter of Stratton since the problem began.
Bert Maurus returned to his home near Columbus, Ohio. He said his initial plan was to rest, however he pledged to continue speaking out on national issues. Maurus denied that he planned to run for an open U.S. Senate seat the following year; he acknowledged an interest in writing a book about his experiences during the past few years. Tragically, Bert Maurus’ future was cut short several months later. On the anniversary of the first border attack (which occurred on July 4, 2009 against an American security team), an unknown gunman shot and killed the former Vice President at his home. Maurus had rejected the Secret Service protection offered by President Stratton. An extensive Federal investigation failed to uncover any suspect. A FBI report stated Maurus was murdered by an assailant using a 9mm handgun. Two shots were fired after Maurus opened his door to a late evening caller.
Alex Poller obtained a position as a political commentator on satellite radio. (The program is “Never Call Retreat” on the Eagle network.) He repeatedly claims that Maurus was assassinated by a hit man of the Durango cartel, and that the cartel has several sleeper cells within the United States. He ends each of his broadcasts with this sign-off barrage: “We are now one day closer to Armageddon. Be alert! Watch for the signs! The dopes in Washington can’t see it coming! I am doing everything I can to keep you informed about this threat!”
Poller has also announced that he has initiated the process of establishing a new national political party, to be called American Patriots Action. If the party can overcome the legal obstacles in each of the 51 States, Poller stated he hoped to be the party’s Presidential candidate in 2012.
Alex Poller declined all invitations to participate in the gathering of material for this book.
A multi-national force of 15,000 troops, from various Latin American countries and the United States, was deployed in and around Mexico City in the Summer of 2010. Mexico was still in considerable turmoil at the time this book was being published in December 2
010.
Almost forgotten by the outside world, Canada went about its business of dissolution. The North Prairie Republic had issued a unilateral declaration of independence on October 8, 2010. The remaining Provinces and territories expressed their intent to continue in confederation—with Quebec, of course, being the exception. The Prime Minister of the NPR stated that the new nation would consider affiliating with the United States “once the political climate there cools down.” As of this book’s publication date no public discussions had taken place.
The Congressional elections of 2010 provided Cory Stratton with a ready-made platform for political rehabilitation. Two years previously he had proposed a major overhaul of campaign finance regulations. Other concerns had pushed this topic off the stove, and not merely to the back burner. Stratton said there was an urgent need to liberate the election process from the possible corrupting influence of large donations, whether secret or not. The issue might have died of voter apathy except that the last act of the Independent Prosecutor’s investigation of the De Witt Administration bore fruit in the Summer of 2010. A Federal jury convicted the Finance Chairman of Jeffrey De Witt’s 1996 re-election campaign of covering up illegal contributions from an Angolan diamond consortium. It was revealed during the trail that Angola’s military dictatorship had hoped to gain access to influential government officials in Washington; Angola had lost its major sponsor when the People’s Republics of Eurasia imploded in the early 1990s. Angola’s leaders had retained a vision of turning their nation into the dominant power in non-Arab Africa.
The trial verdict brought back to the headlines all the influence-peddling scandals which erupted during the De Witt years. Voter turnout was higher in some States than it had been at any time in the previous half century. While campaign finance reform was not the critical issue in every race, it was a dominant feature in the defeat of several candidates (incumbents and challengers in both parties) who stood firmly against revising the current system. Most notable was Senator Connor Mitchells, the Majority Leader.