"Now, when Andy Stewart was 24, he was going to law school. When I was 24, I was commanding some of our nation's finest troops! When he was studying how to sue people, I was studying how to defend them! When he was firing lawsuits at people, I was teaching my lieutenants to fire 105s at them! If Andy Stewart wants to thump his chest and wave his flag pin, great! I'm not going to thump my chest and bray like an ass. I used to defend the real flag! Now, ask yourself, who do you think is more qualified to figure out the real issues with our nation's defense, Andy Stewart or Carl Buckman!?"
The room was stunned, but then erupted in applause. I kept going. "Now, I'm not going to sit here and brand myself a hero. Andy Stewart picked this fight, not me - but I will finish this fight! I will bet long odds that some of you out there earned medals. You know why I don't wear this routinely, because you don't wear it for yourself, you wear it for those who can't. I look around this room and I see men who served just like me. Some of you were drafted. Some of you volunteered." I gave a big grin, and continued, "And some of you volunteered one step ahead of the draft board or a judge. Yeah, I know how it works." That got some chuckles around the room.
"Why are you going to vote for me? Because I'm the guy who knows what it takes to keep your sons and grandsons prepared as best they can be. Not safe, but prepared and trained and supported. I won't promise to keep them safe, because you and I both know it can be a dirty and dangerous business. However, if they get hurt, I'm the guy who spent time at Walter Reed, and knows what it takes to make sure their medical treatment is the best it can be. Then, when they are out of the service, I'll be the guy who can make sure that they are treated properly as veterans, just like you would want! And guess what? It might not be your sons or grandsons! More girls are enlisting every day. It might be your daughters and granddaughters!"
"Now, who do you want making sure your concerns are being addressed? Andy Stewart can wrap himself in the flag and sing himself to sleep with the National Anthem, but do you really think he's the guy to help you, to help your children and grandchildren? Or do you think a guy who served like you is the one to help? I can help because I understand. Can Andy Stewart say that?"
I pushed it a little bit longer and ended up with a standing ovation. I was also asked to speak to the post in Westminster, which I accepted. Brewster was astonished, both by my speech and by the level of donations I received. I just laughed at him. "Brewster, I told you not to worry. Just watch. Andy Stewart is going to learn about this and shut down this attack real damn fast!"
John Caples came up to me at the end of the evening. He was a quiet and weathered man about ten years older than myself. "Carl, I had no idea you were in the service."
"Same here. Viet Nam?", I asked him.
He nodded. "Da Nang, '68 to '69." He picked up the plaque from where it was laying. "That's a pretty vague citation."
Another man with us laughed. "That's the kind of citation you get for when you're somewhere you're not supposed to be and doing something you're not supposed to be doing, and nobody is allowed to know about it."
I smiled. That was about as perfect a description for that Nicaraguan hike as I could imagine. "Close enough!"
Afterwards, Brewster excitedly told me we needed to push the Bronze Star and heroism as campaign hot buttons. I shut him down in no uncertain terms! "Brew, this is not a winner for us.", I told him.
"The Republican Party always looks good on defense and national security. This plays to that.", he replied.
We were outside in the parking lot at that point, so I just leaned up against the car. I shook my head. "Listen, I don't know why Andy decided to pick the fight, but he screwed up. He should have gone after me on the Bronze Star itself."
"What do you mean?"
"Brew, I'm not saying I didn't earn the damn thing, but it's not like on television. Things got very messy on that mission. I'm actually kind of surprised he didn't have that already."
McRiley shrugged. "He's tied in tight to the various banking regulators, but as far as I know, he doesn't know shit about the military. Maybe he simply saw the medal and decided not to push on a hero, but then why push the flag pin routine? Maybe he just doesn't know what any of it means."
"I don't know either, buddy, but in my opinion, let sleeping dogs lie."
Andy Stewart shut down the flag pin campaign quick enough, but immediately began pushing elsewhere. The obvious one was that I was trying to buy an election. No matter what I did, I was too rich. If I gave money to a local charity, I was trying to buy their support. Then, no matter what I gave, it wasn't enough, and with my massive funds, I was being cheap. He loudly called on both the IRS and the SEC to investigate how I had come about by my ill gotten gains (he actually used that phrase) and when both agencies ignored him, he called on the Attorney General and the Justice Department to investigate how I had bribed the investigating agencies.
There was a small grain of truth to some of what Stewart was claiming. For years I had been donating to any number of local civic and service groups. Five or ten thousand dollars was a lot of money for a volunteer fire department or health clinic, and I routinely gave a few hundred thousand every year to groups all over the area. Most were in the district, simply because I lived relatively close to the center of the Ninth. Brewster simply made my routine donations into photo opportunities. We never gave any campaign speeches at these events, but if asked, I was always able to say some kind words for the people involved and the fine and necessary work they were doing.
To be fair about it, Stewart was doing many wonderful things by giving away money, also. At least once a week he would have a press conference or a photo opportunity and be shown talking about a new government grant, or tax benefit, or road improvement. Of course, the money he was giving away didn't cost him anything, whereas mine did.
We pushed back on two fronts. One was the Horatio Alger story about how I had built my business from nothing, even to making a drive-by movie of my parent's house. They no longer lived there, having sold it as part of the divorce. Still it showed I hadn't grown up in a mansion. The other front was the negative one. I had made my money in the stock market. How did Andy Stewart, who had been working in the public sector non-stop since he got out of law school, build a net worth of over $20 million? When reporters started questioning our information, we released some very carefully sanitized versions of the info our investigators had uncovered. No account numbers were given, but banks were named. The result was a predictable level of chaos, with Stewart fulminating about the release of the information and dancing around whether it was true or not.
A big part of Andy Stewart's money was due to his position as the fourth highest ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services, also known as the House Banking Committee. As such, he had taken over a half million dollars in the last ten years from various banks and Wall Street finance companies as campaign donations. Even better, leaving aside whether Andy had ever dipped his fingers in the till inappropriately, was the way members of Congress got to legally benefit from insider trading.