The iCongressman, page 16
part #2 of The Michael Bennit Series Series
“But for those of you who are curious, I can let you listen to the whole thing because I recorded it.” He holds his smartphone in the air as a prop for all to see. I would surmise the representatives in the room are divided as to whether he should hit play. I know the media want to hear it, knowing they are always yearning for a good show.
“The men and women Americans entrust with the reins of leadership should be of impeccable character and of the highest moral order,” Cisco continues after replacing the phone in his inside suit jacket pocket. “To root out the ones who aren’t, we have to put them on display for the entire country to see. I believe this is the best way to accomplish that. I yield the balance of my time to the Chair.”
Quoting the line he used at the end of his committee testimony is a nice touch. The House erupts in chaos as Cisco departs the podium. I get up, since I am the next to speak as the gavel crashes down repeatedly in a vain attempt to quiet the chamber.
“Glad that’s over. I’ve missed hanging out with you, man,” Cisco says with a pat on the arm.
“Me too. I’m sorry you had to perjure yourself in the process.”
“I dare them to go after me,” Cisco says, probably hoping they do. He is itching to give that testimony.
“We’ll catch up when this is all over and I’m done explaining this to my staff.”
“Yeah, good luck with that!”
“The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Connecticut for five minutes.”
With the bomb Cisco just dropped, the Democrats have to be smelling blood in the water. Partisan politics runs deep these days, and although they may have conspired to oust me from Congress, there is no way they will pass up the opportunity to unseat the majority whip come Election Day. Since the whips in both parties are the enforcers who ensure discipline among their members, they make juicy targets.
“Thank you, Mister Speaker.” The House quiets as I assume my place at the podium. I am thinking about exploiting the rift Cisco just caused, and every person in this room is looking forward to a good five-minute show as I lay out my final defense. Sorry to disappoint them, but it’s time for them to make their decision with no time to think about it and live with the consequences.
“I yield my time back to the Chair,” I state to the shock of the entire room.
“Are you sure, Mister Bennit? I took the liberty of bolting all the desks and chairs down,” the Speaker says to a smattering of laughter.
“Mister Speaker, if I wanted to hit you with a chair, a couple of bolts aren’t going to stop me,” I say with a smile as I leave the podium and wander up the center aisle.
The Speaker gets the vote under way, and I go cast mine. The House votes utilizing an electronic system that requires a plastic card with a photo ID be inserted into a terminal. The red button on the systems is to vote “nay,” a green button for “aye,” and a yellow button for “present” which is basically an abstention. I insert my card, punch the red button and remove my card, placing it in the breast pocket of my suit jacket.
For anyone who has ever been bored enough to watch C-SPAN, votes in the House are usually allotted fifteen minutes. In reality, the outcome is usually determined in a third of the time. There is no assigned seating on the House Floor, so I choose a spot along the center aisle with a good view of the voting board in the upper gallery behind the rostrum to watch my imminent demise.
Members’ names are displayed on a blue, backlit panel above the Speaker’s dais, and when a member votes, a red, green, or yellow light appears adjacent to his or her name. Showing both the votes of individual members and a running total of “yeas” and “nays,” I watch as the total of “aye” votes climbs toward the magic mark of two hundred eighteen.
Even with indisputable evidence and the admission of Cisco about lying to prove his own point, it’s a tie six minutes into the vote. I managed to sway enough members over to my side to make this interesting, but it doesn’t look like it will be enough. Maybe I underestimated just how badly they want me out of here.
Thomas Parker takes the adjacent chair and watches the same unchanging screen I am. There is only one vote in the entire chamber that still needs to be cast, and it belongs to the man now sitting next to me. No doubt what he wants.
“Losing by one vote is a painful way to end your political career, Congressman. Of course, it doesn’t need to be that way. You did a favor for me once, and now I want to offer to return it.”
“I told you, sir, there was no quid pro quo with me helping your niece. That is just as true now as it was then.”
“Yes, so you said. But real truth is that was then, and this is now. There are certain political realities you have to face, especially while sitting here and watching the clock on your political career tick down.” And ticking down it is, now under eight minutes to go. “I am willing to vote ‘present’ to leave the vote as a tie if you ask me to.”
“Congressman, a tie is a loss because the Speaker will simply break it with his vote.”
“You know, I could be persuaded to bring along a friend or two to ensure that doesn’t happen, but favors like that don’t come cheap.”
“I’m sure they don’t.”
“Look, Michael, let me reason with you. I may be an ultra-right wing conservative, but I’m a Christian. The people of my district may think you’re a liberal Yankee, but they also think you’re a good man. I can sell this to my constituents back home.” I wouldn’t consider myself liberal, but I can see how the people in his district might view me that way.
The offer is a tempting one. While my staff and I already decided that we can lead the icandidates from the sidelines should I lose this vote, it’s preferable for me to lead them from the front. Of course, I need to be here to do that. The prospect of my political survival is looking less likely by the second.
“So what do you say?” Parker asks, looking to strike the deal.
“Have you read Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Congressman?”
“I have. You think you’re selling your soul to the devil? I’m uncomfortable with the thought of how making a deal with an old preacher like myself compares to dealing with Mephistopheles.” I close my eyes and grin.
“No, sir, I’m not comparing you to the devil or his messenger. But you need to realize that I’m definitely not Faustus either. My ex-fiancée was an English teacher, and she brought me to that play. I learned a valuable lesson from it.”
“Which was?”
“Some deals, no matter how great they sound in the present, aren’t worth the final price.”
Congressman Parker shifts in his seat, somewhat stunned that I rebuffed his offer. It is very un-Washington like, especially given the stakes. It amazes me how being honest in this town really throws people off their game.
“I see,” is all he manages to utter.
“Excellent. Now go vote your conscience, Congressman. It’s what the good people of Alabama elected you to do.”
I don’t bother watching him move off, instead settling my eyes back on the vote board. It only takes forty-five seconds for the small globe light next to his name to switch to green. From his dais, the Speaker is grinning from ear to ear in a way you only see in graduation pictures and weddings.
The vote count reads two eighteen to two seventeen and I know it’s over. I can’t help but think about what my former students are thinking. Vanessa will be livid, decrying an unfair system. Xavier will be upset. Amanda and Emilee will be dejected. Vince will want to off someone and Brian will think about finding a way to steal their identities. Chelsea has always been the emotional one, and tears will be pouring down her face.
I will not hang my head. I refuse to let them see me defeated. When the results of this vote are read, I will stand in the Well of the House to hear my expulsion, turn, and exit with the same dignity I came here with. I’m not giving the people in this room the satisfaction of seeing me leave in shame.
It’s hard not to feel demoralized though. I have never been one to deal with failure well, and this is no exception. In the spirit of sportsmanship, I understand the need to be gracious in defeat on the playing field. Losing always led me to work that much harder. But this is life, not sports. Just like when I was Green Beret, the thought of failing is wearing on my soul, despite the face I’m putting on it.
I wasn’t able to do what the people elected me to. I can blame the system, or the people toiling under it, but in the end, it is my responsibility. The people of my district deserve better than what I was able to deliver. Maybe, in the end, this expulsion is the best thing for them. Perhaps they need someone who can navigate the political waters of Washington, something I was warned time and again I don’t have the proper disposition to do.
With just under two minutes remaining, I can feel a set of eyes studying me. I have been watched for my reactions as this has played out from everyone in this room including the media, members, and visitors in the gallery. I can even feel the beautiful, yet weary eyes of Kylie set upon me. But this is different.
Searching for the origin of this feeling, I see Congressman Parker standing in the Well of the House Floor. When he notices me watching him, he does the most unexpected thing this legislative body has seen in decades.
-THIRTY-THREE-
SPEAKER ALBRIGHT
I watch Michael Bennit sit in a seat along the aisle and stare at the blue tally board projected above me. He’s remained like that for the last several minutes, and I find the stoicism he’s displaying admirable. Most of the lot in this chamber would be trying whatever last minute antics and tactics they could to save their hides. Instead, he watches impassively, expressionless, and with a confident placidity that almost makes me envious. I’d be a nervous wreck.
I turn my attention to Parker who is talking to the clerk when I witness one of the most politically horrific sights of my career. I watch in horror as one of my closest political allies signs the back of a red card and hands it to her. I am confounded. He changed his vote for Bennit. I check the display next to me to be sure it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. The muted cacophony of voices in the filled room escalates into a roar, and I shoot off the dais like The Flash over to where Parker is standing.
Members can change their vote at the voting station during the first ten minutes of a fifteen-minute vote. After that time, any change must be done by handing a card to the Tally Clerk on the rostrum. With a minute and a half left, my own personal Judas did just that.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demand, as I storm up beside him in the Well.
“Calm yourself, Johnston,” Parker states as he slips his pen back inside his suit pocket.
“Calm myself? Calm myself? You just changed your vote! Why? What deal did you make with Bennit?” I yell, causing everyone in the immediate area to stop what they’re doing and take notice.
“I didn’t make a deal with him. I tried, but would you believe it? He turned me down.”
“You expect me to believe that?” I question, glancing back at the clock to notice there is only a minute left.
“I don’t really care what you believe.”
“So you changed your vote because of what, your conscience?”
“It’s not a concept I would expect you to understand, Mister Speaker, especially in light of the events that brought us to this moment.” I need to try a different tactic.
“I am the Speaker of the House,” I softly say to my longtime colleague to avoid the prying ears of those around us. “You know the favors I can do for you and your entire caucus. I am a much more powerful ally than enemy. You know that.”
“‘And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.’ Revelations, chapter six, verse two. You have gone too far this time, Johnston. While politics is a hard way for an old Christian preacher to make a living, I cannot tolerate what you are doing to an honest man. I might not agree with Bennit politically, but he deserves to be here.”
Damn! Fifteen seconds left.
“Look, Thomas, you don’t understand what kind of pressure I’m under. As my friend, I need you to help me make this happen. There are higher powers in play here.”
“There is only one higher power I answer to,” Parker says pointing with his index finger and looking up. “‘But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.’”
I watch as the final seconds tick off. In that time, seven more votes switch out of the “yea” column. Arguing with Thomas Parker is a moot point now. Time expires, and now that the vote is over, the official Congressional Record will show the resolution to expel Michael Bennit was defeated by eight votes.
This news is not going to be received positively by my political allies. The people I have to deal with do not respond well to failure, nor accept excuses when it happens. I wasn’t lying when I said powerful forces had their hand in this, and I’ll be hearing from them soon.
-THIRTY-FOUR-
SENATOR VIANO
“How the hell did he pull that off?” I ask Gary, who took his nose out of his phone to watch the final result of the vote and resulting uproar on the House floor.
“No idea, but it’s impressive,” he muses in thinly veiled admiration. He told me earlier that his boss told him this vote was a lock, despite Michael’s theatrics during the committee hearing.
“It’s not impressive, it’s ridiculous! And to trust Reyes to play that little game and not betray him in the process? Who does that?” I can’t help but think they must be old Army buddies or something, because that level of trust is unprecedented in this town.
“Again, impressive.”
“Or stupid.”
“No, it only would have been stupid if it didn’t work.”
Gary brings up a fair point. Reyes and Bennit were smart enough to fool the smartest politicians in the country. The leadership of both parties was so smug about this vote that they never realized they were set up to fail by a couple of political novices until the final votes were cast.
Michael is on the Floor, shaking hands with the men and women who I presume took his side in this fiasco. I can’t hear what is being said from up here in the House Gallery, but there are some spirited arguments all over the place between members down below.
“Damn.”
“This throws a small wrench in your plan, I think,” Gary astutely observes. It does.
I never thought for a second he would survive this vote when it came up. When I was first told of how they planned on getting rid of Bennit, I formulated my scheme around that. Of course, I could not have known about Michael’s counter-surveillance move, nor known that he would use that cowboy from Texas to embarrass the leadership of both parties on the Floor. He is far shrewder than I give him credit for.
“I may still be able to control them even with Bennit in the picture.”
“I doubt it, Senator. You may have picked them, but he is their leader. They emulate Bennit, and he’s a messiah now. After this Houdini escape, they’ll be waiting for him to walk on water next.”
If I were religious at all, I might be offended by the inappropriate Christian references. Unfortunately, he’s probably right. There is no reason for the icandidates to stop following Michael now.
“Perhaps it’s time to begin reconsidering our allegiances.” My former chief of staff and longtime trusted advisor eyes me suspiciously.
“You’re playing with fire if you decide to cross …” He cuts his warning short after realizing there are too many people around to discuss this in public. He leans and whispers, “I signed on to do this with you because your patron is a powerful voice in this town. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of him. You told me the same thing.”
“That was before I realized Bennit may be stronger. Gary, Michael survived this against all odds. How long do you think he will be down in the polls up north in Connecticut? With all the social media fuss and the news coverage of this mess, he’ll probably win that race now in a walk. If even half the icandidates win their races, it’s a game changer that provides us a lot of leverage.”
“It’s risky,” is all Gary says, turning back to his phone which is now blowing up with notifications.
“But it’s an acceptable risk.”
“If you say so,” he concedes, still sounding unconvinced.
I had a favorite professor during my undergraduate studies who was a survivalist. He would take nature trips to the deepest parts of the Alaskan woods for a month with nothing more than a tent, sleeping bag, and hunting rifle. He had one piece of advice for all his students I never forgot—no matter how good your first is, always have a Plan B.
When I ventured into politics, I often had multiple instances of Plan B lined up in case things went haywire. My benefactor, the man who helped me win my Senate seat, takes it several steps further. He goes deep into the alphabet, often referring to changes in direction as “Plan G.” I was convinced my original plan would work because the very thought of Michael Bennit surviving the joint effort to expel him was simply laughable. For that reason, I never spent a lot of time developing a contingency. One is forming now, though, and I need my former chief of staff on board to pull it off.
“Gary, if two independents can cause this many problems, can you imagine what will happen when a group of them comes to town to face off with the Washington establishment?”
“Yeah, like the Dark Knight says, ‘We find out what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.’”
“Precisely. Let’s make that happen.”
-THIRTY-FIVE-
CHELSEA
“Dad, this is a pretty expensive place,” I observe, admiring the atmosphere after our waiter delivers the appetizers.
“Nothing but the best for my little girl. When was the last time we had a father–daughter night out?” he asks, knowing full well it’s been a while. “I know you’ve been really busy and stressed and wanted to treat you to someplace nice.”
