On the fourth day with no more news from the FBI, Florentyna was at her lowest point when a reporter from the Washington Post phoned.
‘Mrs. Kane, may I ask how you feel about Congressman Buchanan’s statement on Aerogate?’
‘Has he turned against me as well?’ she asked quietly.
‘Hardly,’ said the voice from the other end of the line. ‘I’ll read what he said. I quote: “I have known Representative Kane for nearly five years as a bitter adversary and she is many things that drive me to despair, but as we say in Tennessee, you’ll have to swim to the end of the river to find anyone more honest. If Mrs. Kane is not to be trusted, then I do not know one honest person in either chamber of Congress.” ’
Florentyna phoned Bob Buchanan a few minutes later.
‘Now don’t you go thinking I’m getting soft in my old age,’ he barked. ‘You put a foot wrong in that chamber and I’ll cut it off.’ Florentyna laughed for the first time in days.
It was a cold December wind that whistled across the east front of the Capitol as Florentyna walked back alone to the Longworth Building after the last vote that day. The newsboy on the corner was shouting out the evening headlines. She couldn’t catch what he was saying — something, someone, arrested. She hurried toward the boy, fumbling in her pocket for a coin, but all she could find was a twenty-dollar bill.
‘I can’t change that,’ the boy said.
‘Don’t bother,’ said Florentyna as she grabbed the paper and read the lead story first quickly and then slowly. ‘Former Congressman Bill Pearson,’ she read aloud as if she wanted to be sure the newsboy could hear, ‘has been arrested by the FBI in Fresno, California, in connection with the Aerogate scandal. Over seventeen thousand dollars in cash was found hidden in the rear fender of his new Ford. He was taken to the nearest police station, questioned and later charged with grand larceny and three other misdemeanors. The young woman who was with him at the time was also charged, as an accomplice.’
Florentyna leaped up and down in the snow as the newsboy quickly pocketed the twenty dollars and ran to sell his papers on another corner. He had always been warned about those Hill types.
‘My congratulations on the news, Mrs. Kane.’ The maitre d’hotel of the Jockey Club was the first of several people to comment that evening. Richard had flown down from New York to take Florentyna to a celebration dinner. On her way into the oak-paneled room, other politicians and members of Washington society came over to say how pleased they were that the truth was at last out. Florentyna smiled at each one of them, a Washington smile that she had learned to develop after nearly five years in politics.
The next day the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times came out with glowing tributes to their representative’s ability to stay calm in a crisis. Florentyna gave a wry smile, determined to back her own judgment in the future. Any comment from Ralph Brooks’s office was conspicuously absent. Edward sent a large bunch of freesias, and William sent a telegram from Harvard: ‘SEE YOU TONIGHT IF YOU’RE NOT THE WOMAN IN FRESNO STILL BEING HELD FOR FURTHER QUESTIONING.’ Annabel arrived home seemingly unaware of her mother’s recent problems to announce she had been accepted at Radcliffe. Her headmistress at the Madeira School later confided to Florentyna that her daughter’s acceptance had turned out to be a very close thing, although it couldn’t have hurt that Mr. Kane had been at Harvard and that she herself was a Radcliffe graduate. Florentyna was surprised that her reputation was such that she could influence her daughter’s future without lifting a finger and confessed to Richard later what a relief it was that Annabel’s life was more settled.
Richard asked his daughter in what subject she planned to major.
‘Psychology and social relations,’ Annabel replied without hesitation.
‘Psychology and social relations are not real subjects but merely an excuse to talk about yourself for three years,’ Richard declared.
William, now a sophomore at Harvard, nodded in sage agreement with his father and later asked the old man if he could up his allowance to five hundred dollars a term.
When an amendment to the health bill, prohibiting abortions after six weeks, came up on the calendar, Florentyna spoke for the first time since the Aerogate scandal. As she rose from her place, she was greeted with friendly smiles and a ripple of applause from both sides of the aisle. Florentyna made a powerful plea for the life of the mother before the unborn child, reminding Congress that there were only eighteen other members who could even experience pregnancy. Bob Buchanan rose from his place and referred to the distinguished lady from Chicago as the worst sort of simpleton who would be claiming next that you could not discuss a future space program unless you had circled the moon, and he pointed out there was only one member in either house who had managed that.
Within a few days Don Short and his $24,300 seemed to be a thing of the past as Florentyna returned to her normal hectic congressional schedule. She had moved up two more notches on the Appropriations Committee and when she looked around the table, she began to feel like an old-timer.
Chapter thirty
When Florentyna returned to Chicago she found that Democrats were voicing aloud their fears that having Jimmy Carter in the White House might not necessarily help their chances. Gone were the days when an incumbent could take it for granted that he would be returned to the Oval Office, and take with him those of his party who were fighting marginal seats. Richard reminded Florentyna that Eisenhower was the last President to complete two terms in office.
The Republicans were also beginning to flex their muscles, and after the announcement that Jerry Ford would not seek the Presidency, George Bush and Ronald Reagan appeared to be the front-runners. In the corridors of Congress it was being openly suggested that Edward Kennedy should run against Carter.
Florentyna continued her daily work in the House and avoided being associated with either camp, although she received overtures from both campaign managers and more than her usual allocation of White House invitations. She remained noncommittal, as she wasn’t convinced that either candidate was right to lead the party in 1980.
While others spent their time campaigning, Florentyna put pressure on the President to take a stronger line when dealing with heads of state from behind the Iron Curtain and pressed for a firmer commitment to NATO, but she appeared to make little headway. When Jimmy Carter told an astonished audience that he was surprised the Russians could go back on their word, Florentyna said despairingly to Janet that any Pole in Chicago could have told him that.
But her final split with the President came when the so-called students took over the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and held fifty-three Americans hostage. The President appeared to do little except make ‘Born Again’ speeches and say his hands were tied. Florentyna proceeded to bombard the White House by every means at her disposal, demanding that the President stand up for America. When eventually he did attempt a rescue mission, it aborted, resulting in a sad loss of reputation for the United States in the eyes of the rest of the world.
During a defense debate on the floor of the House soon after this humiliating exercise, Florentyna departed from her notes to deliver an off-the-cuff remark. ‘How can a nation that possesses the energy, genius and originality to put a man on the moon fail to land three helicopters safely in a desert?’ She had momentarily forgotten that the proceedings of the House were now televised and all three networks showed that part of her speech on their evening news bulletins.