Jill left the Hart Senate building and walked across the street to a small Mexican restaurant nestled between an ice cream shop and a shoe shine store. Sitting in the far back, she met the last sweetener that should seal the deal.
“Jill,” Senator Karn beckoned to her. He was in a tight primary race trending in the wrong direction. A true independent, none of his constituents liked him very much, but then that was what usually happened when you walked on the line instead of to the side of it. New polls showed him losing badly. His funding was pathetic, and pundits projected that he might not even have enough cash on hand to make it to primary day. This was where Jill came in. While Karn was a weathervane when it came to issues, he was still just one of a hundred votes that controlled legislation in the Senate. And now, she was going to buy him out.
Jill sat down opposite of him and spoke quickly. “Your approval rating is thirty-six percent. Your campaign war chest won’t last another two months. You’re down six points to an admiral, an American hero no less. You’re dropping like a rock. How clear is this picture I’m painting?”
“You said I’d want to meet with you,” he grumbled. “If I wanted a recap of how I’m getting my ass kicked, I’d just watch the news.”
Jill leaned back and smiled. “Do you still want to win?”
“Do I want to go back to selling tractors in Wisconsin?” he spat.
“Good.” She took a piece of paper and slid it across the table. “Here’s a list of bills coming up for a vote in the next four weeks. We value your support on every matter. In return, Senator Wilks will campaign on your behalf during the upcoming holiday weekend. His political action committee will also make a sizable donation to your campaign.”
Karn palmed the paper and slid it off the table. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the list. Then he tore the paper into pieces. “That’s a long list. How large a contribution?”
“Mid five figures. Half up front, half after the holidays.”
He shook his head. “Not for that many votes. Low six. Up front.”
Squeeze him.
“The nerve!”
He was always a greedy one.
Jill leaned forward. He smelled like tobacco and road kill with a dash of Old Spice.
“Sir,” she said in a low voice, “You know Wilks used to live in Wisconsin, don’t you? He was the CEO who pulled that pipeline in from the badlands and created what, fifty thousand jobs? He’s a hero there.”
Karn snorted. “That was twenty years ago. My constituents have the memory of puppies. If you have to dig that far back, maybe Wilks’ support isn’t worth that much after all.”
She stood up to leave. “Think it over. The offer is good until I walk out of the door.” She turned and paused. “By the way, Admiral Back went to Annapolis, graduated ’82? Interesting, so did Wilks. Perhaps the good admiral would like his old friend to make an appearance and regale the good people of cheese country with some of their old adventures together at the Academy. But then, the last thing Wilks did for them was twenty years ago. I’m sure it wouldn’t mean much anymore.” She began walking toward the door.
She was halfway across the room when she heard the “wait”. She kept looking forward, a small smile escaping her lips. There was a pause, and then Karn said, “I think Wilks makes a convincing argument. I will consider supporting his positions.” Jill continued walking out the door as calmly as she could. She had him!
I thought Wilks went to MIT.
“Annapolis, MIT, what’s the difference?”
Think he will play?
“We’ll find out. The first bill on the list is the energy renewal bill. If Karn votes for it, we’re golden then.”
Jill headed back to the Hart building and met with four other appointments. By evening, she believed she had built the political firewall she needed for Wilks not to have to meet with Hogan. The deals were rough, and details still had to be hammered out, but she was now in the driver’s seat.
She went back to her office to prepare her notes to present to Wilks. When she finished, she gave herself a virtual pat on the back. It had taken an enormous amount of work but she had pulled it off.
Now to sell it to Wilks, which is far from assured.
“After all the work I did, I’ll kill him if he says no.”
No need to get your hands dirty. We can send a cleaning team in.
“I’m just kidding.”
I am not.
A few minutes later, after weeks of cobbling support from every corner of Congress, she put all her cards down on the table and laid out the entire plan to Wilks. Some of her concessions made her feel downright dirty, and others would infuriate him, but her plate of offerings more than compensated for them. At least she hoped it would.
As expected, Wilks threw a fit at some of the deals made. He ranted about putting his name on the F-112 military plane allocation, slammed his fist on his desk when told he was taking the prescription pill plan amendment off Medicare, and literally screamed when told he had to increase corn subsidies for corporate farms in Iowa. And when he heard about campaigning for Karn, she swore he almost took a swing at her. Three very draining hours later, Jill thought the game was lost when he threw her out of his office and slammed the door in her face.
“That went more or less as expected.”
I thought it went quite well, actually. Did you see the look on his face when he heard what Gastigone wanted with the military base in Turkey?
“I’m not going to lie, I almost slugged him when he called me a backstabbing turd playing for the other side.”
You would have been justifiably excused if you had.
She turned to see Tammy, wide-eyed and pale, standing by the door. “Can I get you something, Jill?” she asked, voice trembling. “Coffee? A cup of water?”
“Tequila,” Jill slapped her table. “You’ll find a half bottle in the second drawer of my cabinet. And maybe an aspirin. Make that two.”
She sat down at her desk and began to drink away her headache. She maintained a calm demeanor but inside, she was a wreck. If Wilks said no, all her hard work was wasted and she would lose all credibility in Congress. Her only remaining option would be resignation, which to be fair, didn’t sound like such a bad thing right about now.
An hour later, Wilks came out of his office and sat down opposite her. His face was less red than before and he seemed to have regained some of his composure. Noticing the bottle of tequila, he helped himself to a generous pour.
“Let me ask you something,” he said in a precise manner. She could tell he was choosing his words very carefully. “I looked everything over with a fine-toothed comb. And then I compared it with what Hogan offered me. None of it correlates. Yeah you sweetened my deal, but you’re asking me to pay a higher price too. The only similarity between your deal and his is the sanctions he is so desperate to lift. Your entire agenda is to keep them. Why?”
“Like I said, the security and economic provisions-” she began.
“You see,” he cut her off. “I don’t care two shits about these sanctions. None of them affect my home state, and frankly I couldn’t care less about trade with a region of the world where everyone is an ally, except for the egghead-shaped kid with the bad hair and nuclear ambitions. And looking at that crazy web of crap you just wove, I know you must have blown your wad on the Hill. So what are you fighting so hard for?”
Jill gave him a blank stare. She didn’t have a good answer. She couldn’t tell him that there was an alien species that wanted to move some really bad things to China to help their supply chain. She didn’t even know what it was. Sitting in uncomfortable silence, she did the only thing she could think of. She poured herself another shot of tequila and tossed it back.