It required his last powers of restraint to exercise this control. All right, Nat, I’ll try.
He saw Eaton placidly waiting for his reply.
Dilman said, “Eaton, I don’t know where, not even in stories about Central American politics, I ever heard a more bizarre or outlandish proposition. You have it all figured out, have you? I’m put away, and you play President. I’m to cooperate with you in this-this palace revolution, and if I refuse, you indict me for high crimes and misdemeanors, and then you try me and then you convict and remove me. But first, you kindly offer me the choice of abdication and self-exile.”
“If you prefer to put it that way, that’s right,” said Eaton agreeably.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, Eaton-I think you’re bluffing. I don’t think you or your ambitious crowd have a single shred of evidence against me, not one thing, that would stand up and convince a majority of the 448 sworn members of the House of Representatives to send Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. Unless you can-”
“One moment, Dilman.” Eaton uncrossed his legs and sat straight. “If it requires this to make you realize that we are dead serious, that your situation is hopeless, then you should see it.”
He extracted three folded sheets of yellow foolscap from his inside coat pocket, elaborately unfolded them, patted them straight, half rose, and dropped them on the desk in front of Dilman. He fell back into the Revels chair. From beneath hooded eyelids, he kept his gaze on the President.
Douglass Dilman looked down at the topmost yellow sheet, filled with typewritten paragraphs, resting on the desk blotter between his elbows. At last he unclasped his hands, picked up the three pages, spun his chair away from the Secretary of State, and read the heading, and then the first paragraph of each numbered section. He read:
INTRODUCING PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE IMPEACHMENT OF DOUGLASS DILMAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
Upon the evidence collected by the Committee on Judiciary, which is herewith presented, and in virtue of the powers with which they have been invested by the House of Representatives, they are of the opinion that Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors. They therefore recommend to the House the adoption of the accompanying resolution.
Zeke Miller, Chairman.
Harvey Wickland
John T. Hightower
Resolved, That Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office.
Articles of evidence for the House of Representatives of the United States against Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, in maintenance and support of the resolution of impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors in office.
That said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, unmindful of the high duties of his office, of his oath of office, and of the requirement of the Constitution that he should preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, did unlawfully and in violation of his oath of office, commit treason against the United States by conveying, with knowledge beforehand or through gross indiscretion, national secrets concerning internal security into the hands of the U.S.S.R. and its allies through his hitherto covert friendship with one Wanda Gibson, an executive secretary of the Vaduz Exporters, Limited, of Bethesda, Maryland, said corporation having been indicted by the Department of Justice as a Communist Front organization conspiring with the U.S.S.R. to overthrow democratic institutions wherever…
That said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully hinder the Department of Justice in its prosecution of the Turnerite Group, a subversive organization, and thus cause the loss of one life and internal unrest, because of unlawful and covert conspiracy with the Turnerite Group in an effort to protect from public knowledge the membership in this subversive organization of a relative and offspring, Julian Dilman…
That said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office, and the dignities and proprieties thereof, did disgrace and bring into contempt the Executive Branch of the United States government, and show himself unfit to perform the duties of his office, through certain intemperate and scandalous behavior involving loose morals, intoxication, partisanship, and maladministration.
Specification first.-At Washington, in the District of Columbia, in a private chamber of the Executive Mansion, said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, while under the influence of intoxicants, made improper advances upon the person of a member of the Executive staff, namely Sally Watson, White House social secretary, and did attempt to seduce said Sally Watson, and did commit bodily harm to said Sally Watson when she resisted.
Specification second.-At Washington, in the District of Columbia, for five years including the time of his ascension to the Presidency, said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, widower, conducted covertly an extra-marital liaison with the aforesaid Wanda Gibson, unmarried, in a house owned by said Douglass Dilman, on whose premises Wanda Gibson dwelt. In the same house there dwelt also the Reverend Paul Spinger, National Director of the Crispus Society, an organization of Negro Americans, and his spouse, Rose Spinger, who were treated to certain special favors by said Douglass Dilman, in return for aiding and abetting his liaison with Wanda Gibson and keeping it secret.
Specification third.-At Washington, in the District of Columbia, said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, did attempt to bring into contempt and reproach the Congress of the United States, and impair the powers of Congress, by obstructing its legislative activity through veto of the Minorities Rehabilitation Program Bill, because of intemperate habits, partisanship, and inefficiency, to the detriment of the national welfare. Without study of the aforesaid legislative bill, while under the influence of intoxicants and Negro extremists, said Douglass Dilman…
Specification fourth.-In his various residences at Washington, in the District of Columbia, in Chicago, in the State of Illinois, in Springfield, in the State of Illinois, where he was a registered patient in a sanitarium for alcoholics, and in his residences in the States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, said Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, was habitually addicted to…
Dilman came around in his swivel chair, and with great deliberation he held out the three yellow sheets until Eaton took them. Dilman was pleased to see that his own hands no longer shook, because there was no fear in him. One felt fear when there was something real that threatened, a person, a charge, that might subject one to physical injury or mental harm. This preposterous document, its grotesque half-truths and whole lies couched in the false dignity of Congressional legal verbiage, was too ridiculous to be treated seriously.