We were standing with the Boehners when Mr. and Mrs. Bush came up to us, circulating so as to greet everybody. A pair of large fellows in tuxedos were standing a few feet behind them, eyes constantly moving around the room. They had to be Secret Service. “I’d like to thank you all for coming,” said the President.
“Thank you for inviting us, sir,” replied John. The rest of us parroted him.
“Have you been able to find apartments or houses and settle in?”
Marilyn and I nodded. “We managed to move into a place this weekend. Marilyn will be going back home with the kids on Sunday. I’ll be staying in town when I can’t get home nights,” I said.
Debbie Boehner also admitted she would be staying at home with the children most of the time. John asked, “So, where is your regular home?”
“About half an hour north of Baltimore,” said Marilyn. “We’re still trying to figure out the commuting.” She turned to me, and asked, “Did you close on the deal with the plane and helicopter yet?”
The others turned to us and stared. I just shook my head and said, “No, next week, I think.”
“You’re buying a plane and a helicopter?” asked Barbara Bush.
“Yes, ma’am. The helicopter is what I’ll commute in. We’re also acquiring a Gulfstream IV for anything long distance. That would be too big for commuting, though.”
The others didn’t quite know what to say. I broke the ice by admitting, “I’ve actually been here once before.”
Marilyn gave me an odd look. “When?”
“When I was little. My godmother, my Aunt Peg, drove me down here for the tour. I mean, it was probably an hour-and-a-half, maybe two hours. That must have been back during the Kennedy presidency.”
“Do you remember it? Did you see the President?” Marilyn asked.
President Bush chuckled at that. “You don’t actually meet anybody on the tours. How old were you?”
I shrugged. “I couldn’t have been more than five or six. The only thing I remember was waiting forever for the tour to start. I just remember a really long line!” I turned to Marilyn and said, “You know, President Bush here is a paratrooper, too!”
Marilyn turned to the Bushes, who were laughing at this. “You don’t look crazy!” she commented.
That really got Mrs. Bush laughing. Mr. Bush chuckled and said, “It wasn’t planned. I had to bail out of my bomber over Chichijima. It was the accelerated course, I guess you could say. Was that your service? You were a paratrooper?”
“Yes, sir, airborne artillery.”
“Your old outfit is over there now, isn’t it?” he asked. We got more serious at that. A big chunk of the Army was currently deployed in Saudi Arabia shielding the Saudis from the Iraqis. It was still Desert Shield, and wouldn’t turn into Desert Storm for another month or so.
“Yes, sir, the 82nd Airborne.”
“You miss it?” he asked.
I hadn’t thought about it all that much, but as he asked it, I knew it was true. I nodded and said, “Yes, sir, I suppose I do. I’d have probably had a battalion, maybe a brigade by now. God forgive me, but I would want to be there.” I looked at Marilyn with a guilty smile.
Marilyn smiled back and tightened her hand in mine. “Carl was planning on going career when he messed up his knee,” she told the others. To me she said, “You’ve already got a medal, you don’t need any more. Don’t be angry if I say I’m not sorry you’re out.”
“Never,” I said, smiling back.
We chatted another minute or so, and then they excused themselves and moved on. The Boehners turned to us and John asked, “You are buying a jet and a helicopter? I remember hearing at the time about the billionaire investor who was trying to buy a district. Well, you know what I mean. You really could have, couldn’t you?!” He wasn’t asking rudely.
I nodded. “I didn’t really buy the district. I wish! That would have been so much easier than putting up with Andy Stewart! I was in investments, private equity and capital. I own about three quarters of the stock in the Buckman Group, although that’s now in a blind trust. Which means I can afford a few toys,” I said with a grin.
“If you’re ever in the Baltimore area, call us and visit,” invited Marilyn. They agreed to, and we split apart and moved around some more.
We ran into Wayne Gilchrest, and I introduced him and his wife Barbara to Marilyn. I had already had a chance to talk with him a few times during the various orientation and caucus sessions, and then we had lunch together after that while shopping for staff. He was the only other new member of the Maryland Caucus from either side of the aisle. Whether planned or not, we found ourselves sharing a table with the Gilchrests, the Boehners, and David and Caroline Hobson. David was an Ohioan like John Boehner, and the only other new Republican from Ohio. Curiously, all four of us had served in the military at some point, with John in the Navy (even if just briefly), Wayne in the Marines, and David in the Ohio Air National Guard. If nothing else, it gave us all something to chat about. The specifics, of course were about the looming Gulf War.
It was a touch strange, thinking about it. By the time I recycled, veterans in Congress were a very small minority. There had been a time when elective public service practically demanded that you had done a hitch, but that was rapidly becoming passé. It felt strange.
The other thing we could chat about was what they had all done before they had been elected. Hobson and Boehner had gone the traditional route, working up from local positions into the big leagues. Gilchrest, on the other hand, had been a high school teacher and had run for the first time in 1988. He had lost by only 460 votes, so he ran again this time and won. Only Dave Hobson had earned a law degree; Wayne was a history major and John was a business major. We joked that this would allow us to keep an eye on the lawyers.
“Well, you guys will have to tell me what in the world to do, because I am clueless. Before this I was in the Army and business. I’d never even run for dogcatcher before I got talked into this,” I admitted. “Wayne, even you ran once before, so you still know more than I do.”
“Never!?” asked an incredulous Dave.
I shrugged and shook my head. “Never even thought about it. There I was, just minding my own business, when some people I used to consider my friends said, ‘Carl, we’ve got an idea!’ One of these days I will get them back.”
“Oh, stop it! You’d jump in front of a train for John Steiner, and you know it,” scoffed my wife.
I chuckled at that. “I can still dream, can’t I?”
“So what did you do, then, before you ran for office?” asked Caroline Hobson.
“I ran an investment company. We did a lot of private equity and venture capital deals,” I answered. “The last few years I’ve done a fair bit of writing and speaking.”
Like John Boehner, the others all knew about the billionaire who had just bought a Congressional seat, but the Hobsons didn’t realize that I was the guy. “Well, you sure whipped Andy Stewart’s butt but good!” Wayne said.
“That was an ugly campaign!” added his wife.
That got all of us to start discussing our opponent’s dirty tricks during the campaign, including whatever vices we had been accused of. John smiled and asked, “So, what vices are you guilty of that you weren’t accused of?” and got a fair bit of laughter at that.
Debbie protested, “John, you can’t ask that!”
He smiled and piously intoned, “Well, I simply need to know about the character of the people I’ll be working with.”
This made me laugh. “I have no vices. I am as pure as the driven snow, and stand for truth, justice, and the American way!”
There were the predictable groans, and equally predictably, Marilyn shook a finger at me. “That’s not true, and you know it. You gamble…”