Executive orders - Tom Clancy [188]
CLARK, JOHN SAID, picking up his direct line.
Holtzman, the voice said. The name made John's eyes go a little wide.
I suppose I could ask how you got this number, but you'd never reveal your source.
Good guess, the reporter agreed. Remember that dinner we had a while back at Esteban's?
Vaguely, Clark lied. It's been a long time. It hadn't actually been a dinner, but the tape machine that had to be on the phone didn't know that.
I owe you one. How about tonight?
I'll get back to you. Clark hung up and stared down at his desk. What the hell was this about?
COME ON, THAT'S not what Jack said, van Damm told the New York Times.
That's what he meant, Arnie, the reporter responded. You know it. I know it.
I wish you'd go easy on the guy. He's not a politician, the chief of staff pointed out.
Not my fault, Arnie. He's in the job. He has to follow the rules.
Arnold van Damm nodded agreement, concealing the anger that had risen in an instant at the correspondent's casual remark. Inwardly he knew that the reporter was right. That's how the game was played. But he also knew that the reporter was wrong. Maybe he'd grown too attached to President Ryan, enough so that he'd actually absorbed some of his flaky ideas. The media, exclusively composed of the employees of private businesses-most of them corporations with publicly traded stock-had grown in power to the point that they decided what people said. That was bad enough. What was worse, they enjoyed their jobs too much. They could make or break anyone in this town. They made the rules. He who broke them could himself be broken.
Ryan was a naif. There was no denying it. In his defense, he'd never sought his current job. He'd come here by accident, having sought nothing more than a final opportunity to serve, and then to leave once and for all, to return to private life. He'd not been elected to his post. But neither had the media, and at least Ryan had the Constitution to define his duties. The media was crossing the line. They were taking sides in a constitutional matter, and they were taking the wrong side.
Who makes the rules? Arnie asked.
They just are, the Times answered.
Well, the President isn't going to attack Roe. He never said that he would. And he's not going to pick Justices off park benches, either. He isn't going to pick liberal activists, and he isn't going to pick conservative activists, and I think you know that.
So Ryan misspoke himself? The reporter's casual grin said it all. He'd report this as spin control by a senior administration official, 'clarifying,' which means correcting, what the President said, the article would read.
Not at all. You misunderstood him.
It sounded pretty clear to me, Arnie.
That's because you're used to listening to professional politicians. The President we have now says things straight. Actually I kind of like that, van Damm went on, lying; it was driving him crazy. And it might even make life easier for you. You don't have to check the tea leaves anymore. All you have to do is take proper notes. Or maybe just judge him by a fair set of rules. We've agreed that he's not a politician, but you're treating him as if he were. Listen to what he's really saying, will you? Or maybe even look at the videotape, he didn't add. He was skating on the edge now. Talking to the media was like petting a new cat. You never knew when they'd reach up and scratch.
Come on, Arnie. You're the most loyal guy in this town. Damn, you would have been a great family doctor. We all know that. But Ryan doesn't have a clue. The speech at National Cathedral, that loony speech from the Oval Office. He's about as presidential as the chairman of the Rotary in Bumfuck, Iowa.
But who decides what's presidential and what isn't?
In New York, I do. The reporter smiled again. For Chicago, you have to ask somebody else.
He is the President of the United States.
That's not what Ed Kealty says, and at least Ed acts presidential.
Ed's out. He resigned. Roger took the call from Secretary Hanson, and told me about it.