‘Yes,’ said Florentyna, ‘and I’ll try to report within one year so that you have time before the election to describe to the voters your bold new plans to sweep away the cobwebs of the past and usher in the Fresh Approach.’
‘Florentyna.’
‘I’m sorry, Mr. President. I just couldn’t resist that.’
Janet didn’t know where Florentyna was going to find the time to chair such an important commission. Her appointment books already needed the staffer with the smallest handwriting to complete each page.
‘I need three hours clear every day for the next six months,’ said Florentyna.
‘Sure thing,’ said Janet. ‘How do you feel about two o’clock to five o’clock every morning?’
‘Suits me,’ said Florentyna, ‘but I’m not sure we could get anyone else to sit on a commission under those conditions.’ Florentyna smiled. ‘And we’re going to need more staffers.’
Janet had already filled all the vacancies that had been created from resignations during the past few months. She had appointed a new press secretary, a new speech writer, and four more legislative researchers from some of the outstanding young college graduates who were now banging on Florentyna’s door. ‘Let’s be thankful that the Baron Group can afford the extra cost,’ Janet added.
Once the President had made his announcement, Florentyna set to work. Her commission consisted of twenty members plus a professional support staff of eleven. She divided the commission itself so that half were professional people who had never needed welfare in their lives or given the subject much thought until asked to do so by Florentyna, while the other half were currently on welfare or unemployed.
A clean-shaven Danny, wearing his first suit, joined Florentyna’s staff as a full-time advisor. The originality of the idea took Washington by surprise. Article after article was written on Senator Kane’s ‘Park Bench Commissioners.’ Danny One-Leg told stories that made the other half of the committee realize how deep-seated the problem was and how many abuses still needed to be corrected, so that those in genuine need received fair recompense.
Among those who were questioned by the committee were Matt the Grain, who now slept on the bench Danny had vacated, and ‘Tom Guinzburg,’ an ingenious convict from Leavenworth who, for a parole deal arranged by Florentyna, told the committee how he had been able to milk a thousand dollars a week out of welfare before the police caught up with him. The man had so many aliases he was no longer sure of his own name; at one point he had supported seventeen wives, forty-one dependent children and nineteen dependent parents, all of whom were nonexistent except on the national welfare computer. Florentyna thought he might be exaggerating until he showed the commission how to get the President of the United States onto the computer as unemployed, with two dependent children, living with his aging mother at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. Guinzburg also went on to confirm something she had already feared — that he was small fry compared with the professional crime syndicates who thought nothing of raking in fifty thousand dollars a week through phony welfare recipients.
She later discovered that Danny One-Leg’s real name was on the computer and that someone else had been collecting his money for the past thirteen years. It didn’t take a lot longer to discover that Matt the Grain and several of his friends from parking lot sixteen were also on the computer although they had never received a penny themselves.
Florentyna went on to prove that there were over a million people entitled to aid who were not receiving it, while, at the same time, the money was going elsewhere. She became convinced that there was no need to ask Congress for more money, just for safeguards designed to ensure that the annual pay-out of over ten billion dollars was reaching the right people. Many of those who needed help just simply couldn’t read or write and so never returned to the government office once they had been presented with long forms to complete. Their names became an easy source of income for even a small-time crook. When Florentyna presented her report to the President ten months later, he sent a series of new safeguards to Congress for its immediate consideration. He also announced that he would be drawing up a Welfare Reform Program before the election. The press was fascinated by the way Florentyna had got the President’s name and address onto the unemployment computer; from MacNelly to Peters, the cartoonists had a field day, while the FBI made a series of welfare fraud arrests right across the country.
The press praised the President for his initiative and the Washington Post declared that Senator Kane had done more in one year for those in genuine need than the New Deal and the Great Society put together. This was indeed a ‘fresh approach’ Florentyna had to smile. Rumors began to circulate that she would replace Pete Parkin as Vice President when the next election came around. On Monday she was on the cover of Newsweek for the first time and across the bottom ran the words: ‘America’s First Woman Vice President?’ Florentyna was far too shrewd a politician to be fooled by press speculation. She knew that when the time came, the President would stick with Parkin, balance the ticket and be sure of the South. Much as he admired Florentyna, the President wanted another four years in the White House.
Once again, Florentyna’s biggest problem in life was in determining priorities among the many issues and people that competed for her attention. Among the requests from senators to help them with their campaigns was one from Ralph Brooks. Brooks, who never lost the opportunity to describe himself as the state’s senior senator, had recently been appointed chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which kept him in the public eye. He had received considerable praise for his handling of the oil tycoons and leaders of big business. Florentyna was aware that he never spoke well of her in private, but when proof of this came back to her, she dismissed it as unimportant. She was surprised, however, when he asked her to share a TV commercial spot with him, saying how well they worked together and stressing how important it was that both Illinois senators be Democratic. After she had been urged to cooperate by the party chairman in Chicago, Florentyna agreed, although she had not spoken to her Senate colleague more than two or three times a month during her entire term in Congress. She hoped her endorsement might patch up their differences. It didn’t. Two years later when she came up for re-election, his support for her was rarely more than a whisper.
As the Presidential election drew nearer, more and more senators seeking re-election asked Florentyna to speak in their behalf. During the last six months of 1988 she rarely spent a weekend at home; even the President invited her to join him in several campaign appearances. He had been delighted by the public reaction to the Kane Commission report on welfare, and he agreed to the one request Florentyna made of him, although he knew that Pete Parkin and Ralph Brooks would be furious when they heard.
Florentyna had had little or no social life since Richard’s death, although she had managed to spend an occasional weekend with William, Joanna and her three-year-old grandson Richard at the Red House on Beacon Hill. Whenever she found a weekend free to be back at the Cape, Annabel would join her.
Edward, who was now chairman of the Baron Group and vice-chairman of Lester’s Bank, reported to her at least once a week, producing results even Richard would have been proud of. On Cape Cod he would join her for golf, but unlike the results of her rounds with Richard, Florentyna always won. Each time she did she would donate her winnings to the local Republican club in Richard’s memory. The local GOP man obligingly recorded the gifts as coming from an anonymous donor because Florentyna’s constituents would have been hard put to understand her reasons for switch-hitting.