Chapter 120

As with all thing Washington, nothing is simple. The staff had recorded the statement starting thirty minutes before. It had the talking heads making noise with their useless opinions.

The only thing that caught my eye in the pre-statement lead-in was the ad the Marine Corps ran. The General said the poster was going to be reused and they did.

‘‘The few - The Proud - The Marines; a stepping stone to become President.’’

The professionals would go over the speech and I would get lessons on how to improve.

Wednesday started early; a nice breakfast with my abbreviated family and VCATS to my home to see how the rest of the family was this morning. That was one thing we had decided on before my mates left. We would do a VCATS twice a day - morning and evening.

Then I made the short walk to the office. The office had already been at work. Today’s intelligence reports were neatly stacked on my desk. The agency specialists had highlighted items by what they thought I should give special attention to. I made my own highlights for the cross examination I would give them in the meetings.

Another paper had the funeral arrangements for President Thomas. His body was to lie in state in the Rotunda for two days; that would be Thursday and Friday. A service was to be held at the National Cathedral on Saturday. The body would be carried by train to Wichita Kansas for internment on Sunday.

Another sealed letter was from the FBI; it contained a copy of the autopsy report on the President.

President Thomas had died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. The artery was paper thin from a genetic defect, they theorized. He had been a walking time bomb his whole life. The official cause of death was Natural Causes.

I was sure that would not hush the conspiracy pundits who started talking about how he died last night.

The official phone calls started this morning - the first was the prime minister of England. First there was sympathy and then congratulations. Then the discussion covered all the normal topics at an international level.

Others followed by the dozen; Spain, France, Canada, Mexico, Russia and so on. As President all my calls were recorded and then transcribed into the record.

Each time I spoke with a foreign dignitary, the experts listened in ready to inform their masters of everything I said and if I crossed any of the forbidden invisible lines.

The listeners were beside themselves when I spoke in each language I knew. Normally the leader spoke in his language and it was translated at this end. It took them out of the loop - no translators needed.

It was a system I was going to change when the smoke settled. I considered my calls to be private. I wasn’t a six year old whose conversations needed to be monitored. They had changed the rules when I was VP and they were going to change these back now.

At 0900 the House started deliberations on Senator Harrison’s appointment. Senator Harrison and his staff were walking the halls, renewing old friendships and trying to forge new ones. It was after 1200 when they were finished. The vote in the house was scheduled for 1400.

My staff was doing the normal political thing - canvassing votes and taking straw polls. I was learning more and more about the behind the scenes political maneuvers.

The Senate started not long after that at 1000. Senator Harrison made his appearance on the Senate floor to give a speech at 1130. Then it was lunch and back to the House to answer more questions before the vote.

At 1100 I attended the NSA meeting - this time at the head of the table. It was a different feeling - instead of giving a report, the reports were being directed to me and I asked the questions.

Lunch today was unrushed; my next meeting was not until 1400. Lorrie, Sara, Jenny and the boys joined me for lunch. They had been sightseeing this morning with several JBG security.

JJ and RJ had all kinds of tales to tell me about where they had been and looking at monuments and the WW2 museum. They had been recognized by a group of veterans in the museum.

The veterans were volunteer guides and had been explaining about General Eisenhower and how he became President when JJ remarked,’’ President like Mom is now? Did he live in the White House like Mom?’’

‘‘Yes, he lived in the White House like BJ but that was a long time ago,’’ Jenny said.

‘‘I thought you looked like someone I knew. Your part of President Jones’ family,’’ he said.

That was all it took for a flurry of pictures and questions. My family was now considered celebrity status on social media.

They would not be as happy this afternoon. It would be school work as usual. Lisa had sent each day’s work by fax. That was the agreement for them to stay with me - they had to stay and maintain a B average in her eyes. Jenny and Lorrie were the enforcers for these next few days.

At 1400 my meeting was with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy. Today was a general overview of the Navy and Naval operations. I expected it to take a couple hours. Tomorrow would be when the real ass kicking was going to start. I was sure the overview was going to generate some hard questions.