To be fair, the American military firmly believed in the idea of civilian control. We weren't some third world shithole with the Army routinely leading a coup d'état. A general might refuse the order and resign, but he would never do anything more than that, and sooner or later a general would be found who wanted an early promotion and would stomach what it would require, and orders would be given. In due time somebody would be coming around for me. In the meantime, however, Bill Clinton was going to be fighting this battle in the news and not looking good in the process. It would be a Pyrrhic victory, destroying his Presidency and sinking Al Gore in the process.
Slick Willie didn't find a general by lunchtime, so after lunch we flew to Helena and repeated the process. In Helena we were scheduled to stay overnight. In the meantime, after dinner, I agreed to a little bargain – the local television station played that morning's Pentagon press briefing for me and I gave them an exclusive interview. There was more on the national news. They had managed to track down Colonel Featherstone, but he was a dead end, literally. He had died of lung cancer in 1993 (well, he did smoke like a chimney, as I recalled.) In addition, some of the high points of the report and the conclusions were read out and displayed as graphics on the screen, including:
"No evidence has been found to back the accusations made against CPT Buckman. However, there is considerable evidence to prove the claims are false."
"2LT Fairfax acted with gross negligence and incompetence and conduct unbecoming an officer."
"CPT Buckman's conduct and leadership abilities were exemplary, and it is recommended that he be retained in the service of the U.S. Army."
Afterwards I met with the Governor and the various Republican powers in Montana. During that meeting I was called away, when George Bush called me. "Carl, that was a fantastic speech you gave earlier today!", he told me.
I was a bit surprised at that. "You caught that? I'm surprised!"
"The entire country caught it! You basically called the President of the United States out into the street for a gunfight!" Trust George Bush to turn this into a movie.
"Huh! I figured I was just dealing with the locals and the people following me around. You got a problem with me hogging the spotlight?", I asked.
"Not as long as you focus on Clinton. I'm holding my own with Al. You are pushing a wedge between him and Clinton, and that weakens the both of them.", he replied.
"Okay, fair enough. I've got an idea or two. Can you get Karl to call me? I want to bounce an idea or two off of him."
"Give me a few minutes, and he'll call you.", he told me. "I'll talk to you sometime tomorrow. I'm going to Florida again, Tampa this time."
"Good luck."
Ten minutes later Karl Rove called me. "Carl, what's up?" Rove might not like me, but he loved the game.
I gave him the latest. "Karl, I want you to do two things, please. First, get me on one of the Sunday talk shows."
"Okay, that's probably doable."
"Second, get in touch with Newt Gingrich. Ask him - politely – to..." I laid out my plans to him, and he told me he would talk to Gingrich first, and then get back to me. He didn't, but Newt did, and we talked it over for a bit. He agreed to go along with me, and laughed at what was about to happen.
Rove sent me a message through Scully that I was booked onto This Week on ABC Sunday morning. Ostensibly we were going to discuss the 'Buckman Crisis' and how it had spilled over into a fight between the President and the Pentagon. By Thursday that was growing deeper. With both the Army Chief of Staff and the Vice Chief of Staff forced out, the Pentagon was scrambling to find names to recommend to the President as replacements. Clinton decided to cut his losses. Denying that he had ordered Shelton to have me recalled and arrested, he cut Shelton loose and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff resigned. That made the third four star general to lose his job over this, and it was being called 'The Revolt of the Generals!'
At that point Newt Gingrich stepped up to the plate. I was hoping for a solid base hit, but he managed a standup double. He went to Capitol Hill, 'simply to meet with some old friends for lunch', and managed to get himself interviewed on camera by some of the reporters hanging around the place. When he was asked his opinion about what was happening he made a laughing comment that, "I bet Carl Buckman is sorry now that he didn't let Bill Clinton be impeached. If what President Clinton is doing now isn't a high crime and misdemeanor, I can't imagine what is!"
There it was, on national television on the evening news, the 'I' word, impeachment! Overnight the entire country was transported back in time two years to all the drama and nonsense of Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky and the resulting nonsense. The timing was impeccable, too. The first chance the White House had to respond to this was Friday, which is considered a slow news day in Washington, and the day the Administration dumps unpleasant news into the hopper, in the hope it will be go away. This usually works, to the point that a lot of the crap at the Friday White House press briefing gets tossed out, and in this case, the White House pronouncement that impeachment was ridiculous was simply ignored.
I should say that the White House denial was basically ignored. I was interviewed at a campaign rally and fundraiser in Ohio, and when asked about Gingrich's comments I answered, "Well, I have to admit, it kind of makes me wonder, you know!", and, "The next time I see Newt Gingrich, I am going to bend over and let him kick my butt!"
Sunday morning I went on This Week and was interviewed by Sam Donaldson. I had met Donaldson any number of times before, and been interviewed by him once or twice. He was a smart man, but unapologetically liberal. Still, I could live with that. This was simply too juicy a story for him not to focus on Bill Clinton.
After the initial greetings and introductions, he got right into it. "Congressman, so far three generals have lost their jobs and the Pentagon is in a state of open war with the President of the United States. Whatever happened to the principle of civilian control of the military in this country?"
"Sam, that principle is obviously alive and well! It's been the generals who have left, not the President.", I replied.
"But they refused to obey the orders given to them.", he responded.
I nodded. "I asked an officer about that recently. He told me that Nuremberg proved that there are some orders you simply don't obey. 'I was just following orders' doesn't mean much when you shouldn't have been following those orders in the first place."
"Are you comparing the order to arrest you to the war crimes of the Nazis?", he asked incredulously.
"Hardly. Bill Clinton isn't a mass murderer and war criminal. He is simply a petty and venal man with too much power, and is trying desperately to cling to that power." That was a nice phrase and ought to be good for a repeat on the evening news. Nothing like bitch-slapping the President of the United States to get headlines.
Sam moved on to the next topic. "Congressman, several days ago your old adversary Newt Gingrich commented that you shouldn't have interfered with his impeachment efforts in 1998, and that you wouldn't be in this mess if you had allowed the impeachment proceedings to go forward. Care to comment?