"John?"
"Carl, I would like to argue, but I can't. We are going to have to swear you in. We can delay it, but it's a lost cause. We'll be lucky to find anything in this mess. I heard one of the emergency managers talking about putting everything through table sifters to try and find anything but dust." He lowered his voice and added, "We're talking about bits of bone and wedding rings and pieces of wallets, that sort of thing!"
"Jesus!" They'd be sifting dust for years! "So, what do we do now? What do you two plan to do?"
Harry looked over at John and then turned back to me. "Carl, later today, John and I are going to call down and talk to Denny Hastert and Tom Daschle. You can't be in on the phone call, I mean, you just can't be. You can't be seen to be influencing anything. They'll probably talk to you later today."
"And then what?", I pushed.
"They'll talk to you later today. That's all I will say for now."
I nodded in tired acquiescence. I could see one of two things happening. Either they would decide to swear me in as President, or they could decide to wait until they had proof that George Bush was dead, something that might take years, if it was even possible. If they chose Option Two, I was the lamest of lame duck Presidents, doomed before I even started. There was even the possibility they could make me live in the Vice President's mansion until I was sworn in, making me an international laughingstock. "Fair enough." I stood up. "Guys, I am going to get out of your hair. I'll go talk to Rudy for a bit and then I'm heading back to D.C. You do your thing, and then get a room and get some sleep. You're not going to help if you collapse from exhaustion."
They both nodded mutely and we shook hands, and I left the room. An hour later I was flying back to Washington, accompanied by the Three Amigos. On the way, we talked to the Deputy Director of the FAA and outlined plans to get things up and running by the weekend. The plan was to start slowly and concentrate on getting people back home first, and then ramp up. We would start flying again Saturday morning.
By the time we got back to Andrews and were preparing to take Marine Two back to the White House I had gotten a call that Denny Hastert and Tom Daschle wanted to see me. I told them they would be first on my list. We got to the White House about 4:00 and I sent the Three Amigos on their way, while I headed to my office. Denny and Tom were already there. I invited them into my office and closed the door. "How we doing?", I asked.
"What's it like up there, Mister President?", asked Tom Daschle, the Senate Majority Leader.
"I don't know what Harry and John told you guys, but words just can't describe it. Bernie Kerik said that now he's seen Hell. There's nothing left but rubble and dust.", I told him.
Tom looked over at Denny Hastert, the Speaker of the House and a Republican, and Denny nodded back at him. Tom took a deep breath and said, "We need to have you sworn in, sir. We both talked to Harry and John, and we had a few others in the room with us. They were pretty convincing. There's nothing left, and no chance."
I nodded and looked at them. "I forget whether it was John or Harry who said that there were plans to start putting all the rubble and the dust through sifters and sieves to look for bones and anything to identify people by. I've never seen anything like that! I don't think I could do it myself."
Denny muttered something in disbelief and then shook himself of the thought. He looked at me and asked, "Carl, when do you want to do this? How do we do this?"
I gave him a brief smile. "I'm making this up as I go! Hell, how do we have a state funeral without the guest of honor? Answer me that one?" Both men's eyes popped a little at that. "Anyway, today is Thursday. I'm not sure, but I think we'll need the approval of the Cabinet, just like when they named me the Acting President. If we had absolute proof the President was dead, it wouldn't be necessary, but that might take years."
"That would be good. We can call them together and Denny and I can attend the meeting with Chief Justice Rehnquist handy.", replied Daschle. "As soon as the vote passes, he can swear you in."
"I'll call for a full Cabinet meeting in the morning."
"Very good, Mister President.", agreed Denny.
They were on the verge of leaving when I had a thought. "Hold up a second, gentlemen. Let me bounce an idea off of you." They looked at each other and settled back into their chairs. "I have a worry. There are going to be people, some in Congress and some out there in the real world, who will not think I am the legitimate President of the United States. I wasn't elected, I'm jumping the gun, the real President is in the rubble and I'm stopping the rescue – I mean, you guys can fill in the rest. Will you grant that this has the potential to be a real problem, and not just for me, but for the nation? When we figure out who did this, we are going to war, and we do not need any questions raised."
"I understand you, sir.", answered the Speaker. Senator Daschle was slower to respond, but he nodded and agreed also.
"Well, it's not like I am going to get an Inaugural Ball out of this disaster, but we can't be seen to be hiding this in a conference room in the White House. We need, all of us need, this to be public, as public as possible."
"Perhaps at the Capitol and on television.", suggested Hastert.
"How do we do the vote? What if somebody gets a bug up his tail and votes no? You don't need that on television!", countered Daschle.
"Yikes! No, that would be lousy!", I agreed. "How about this? You guys come to the Cabinet meeting in the morning. You tell them what you've agreed to, and they take a vote. If everybody is unanimous, we do a public version tomorrow night in the Capitol on live television and Rehnquist swears me in."
"You planning to speak afterwards?"
"I can. It won't be big, but I probably should. Something about how democracy continues to march on or something like that. I am not figuring on a major speech or State of the Union Address.", I told them.
"Speaking for myself, I think we could go along with that.", he agreed. "Denny?"
"Same here."
I stood up and thanked them and ushered them out, and then ordered up a Cabinet meeting for the morning. Then it was back to work.
I got home at a relatively decent hour that night. I was still living at the Naval Observatory, and Marilyn and the girls (and Stormy) were home in Hereford. They had gone back to school today, and if everything went as planned, they would be at school tomorrow. Afterwards, they could come back down for the swearing in ceremony. I ate a late supper and watched CNN for a bit.
The news was a mixed bag. It was all about the 9-11 attacks, of course, but it was about a bunch of different things. You had reports from Ground Zero (and virtually nothing from the Pentagon) with footage of rescue teams and guys in hard hats trying to sort through the mess. They were constantly rerunning any footage of anybody being pulled out, but there were damn few of those. On top of that was vast speculation about the status of the President, which segued into my status as Acting President and my visit to the site earlier in the day. Also discussed was my visit with the first President Bush, as well as some footage of Harry Reid and John Boehner talking to reporters in New York. There was intense speculation about what they were doing there, and who they were discussing their findings with.
There was also discussion of my actions the other day in cleaning house at the FAA, FBI, and CIA. Rush Limbaugh had declared my actions (on the basis of his extensive legal background, no doubt) unconstitutional and justified my impeachment. That prompted all the mainstream networks to call out their guest lawyers to report on the constitutional implications. They needed something to fill in 24 hours of air time.