Executive orders - Tom Clancy [288]
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30 - FULL COURT
IT MIGHT BE HIS LAST shot, Kealty knew, again using in his own mind a metaphor denoting firearms. The irony of it never registered. He had more important things to do. The previous evening he had been summoning his remaining press contacts-the reliable ones. Others had, if not exactly backed away, at least maintained a discreet distance in their uncertainty, but for most, it wasn't all that hard to get their attention, and his two-hour midnight meeting had been called on the basis of a few key words and phrases known to excite their professional sensibilities. After that all he had to do was set the rules. This was all on background, not for attribution, not to be quoted. The reporters agreed, of course.
It's pretty disturbing. The FBI subjected the whole top floor of the State Department to lie-detector tests, he told them. It was something they'd heard about but not yet confirmed. This would count as confirmation. But more disturbingly, look at the policies we're seeing now. Build up defense under this Bretano guy-a guy who's grown up within the military-industrial complex. He says he wants to eliminate all the safeguards within the procurement system, wants to slash congressional oversight. And George Winston, what does he want to do? Wreck the tax system, make it more regressive, do away with capital-gains entirely-and why? To lay the country's whole tax burden on the middle and working classes and give the big shots a free ride, that's why.
I never figured Ryan for a professional, for a competent sort of man to occupy the presidency, but I have to tell you, this is not what I expected. He's a reactionary, a radical conservative-I'm not sure what you'd call him.
Are you sure about the thing at State? the New York Times asked.
Kealty nodded. Positive, hundred percent. You mean you people haven't-come on, are you doing your job? he asked tiredly. In the middle of a Mideast crisis, he has the FBI harassing the most senior people we have, trying to accuse them of stealing a letter that was never there.
And now, Kealty's chief of staff added, seeming to speak out of turn, we have the Washington Post about to run a canonization piece on Ryan.
Wait a minute, the Post reporter said, straightening his back, that's Bob Holtzman, not my doing. I told my AME that it wasn't a good idea.
Who's the leak? Kealty asked.
I don't have a clue. Bob never lets that out. You know that.
So what is Ryan doing at CIA? He wants to triple the Directorate of Operations-the spies. Just what the country needs, right? What is Ryan doing? Kealty asked rhetorically. Beefing up defense. Rewriting the tax code to benefit the fat cats. And taking CIA back to the days of the Cold War. We're going back to the 1950s-why? Kealty demanded. Why is he doing all this? What is he thinking about? Am I the only one in this city asking questions? When are you people going to do your job? He's trying to bully Congress, and succeeding, and where is the media? Who's protecting the people out there?
What are you saying, Ed? the Times asked.
The gesture of frustration was done with consummate skill. I'm standing in my own political grave here. I have nothing to gain by this, but I can't just stand by and do nothing. Even if Ryan has the entire power of our government behind him, I can't just let him and his cronies try to concentrate all of the power of our government in a few hands, increase their own ability to spy on us, load the tax system in such a way as to further enrich people who've never paid their fair share, reward the defense industry-what's next, trashing the civil rights laws? He's flying his wife to work every day, and you people haven't even remarked that that's never happened before. This is an imperial presidency like Lyndon Johnson never dreamed of, without a Congress to do anything about it. You know what we have here now? Kealty gave them a moment. King Jack the First. Somebody's supposed to care about that. Why is it that you people don't?
What do you know about