Chapter 193

Monday morning was a mess - to put it lightly. My phones started ringing even before I had breakfast. Two Senators from the opposite party were at the White House door; they had made appearances on the Sunday talk shows. The show host had played selected clips from the fund raiser.

They were furious; one, that I was bashing their candidate and two, that I was acting like a candidate and three, that I was fundraising like a candidate without filing the appropriate federal forms with the Federal Election commission. I was not too politely informed that they had filed an official complaint with the Federal Election commission.

They also informed me that I better not do any more fundraisers until the commission had made a formal decision on their complaint.

I placed my hand on the Presidential Rule and Guidance book. ‘‘According to this rule book, I am clearly within the guidelines as prescribed for a sitting President to raise funds for other candidates or the party,’’ I said. Reading those sections may have more value than I thought.

‘‘If the commission finds and rules on a technicality that I have done something improper then I shall file the paperwork as a candidate. At that point, I can take the gloves off and really go after your candidate. I have just touched the surface on what a dupe and louse he really is. When I am finished with him I can simply close the application and withdraw from the race,’’ I said.

‘‘Now if you are finished, I have a lot more to do than worrying about your candidate’s diminishing reputation and poll numbers,’’ I said.

The kitchen had just brought up a food cart with my breakfast; French toast, two sausage patties, one egg, and toast with coffee and orange juice. The White House doctor had determined I was drinking too much coffee and ordered the kitchen staff to include a twenty ounce glass of fresh squeezed orange juice - not processed - with my breakfast.

Tomorrow I was to go to Walter Reed Hospital for a complete physical with a blood, urine and stool work-up and a full body scan ‘so the people can be assured I was healthy’ by orders of the doctor.

What he was really saying; he wanted his name in the media and interviews so he could get more well-to-do clients for his practice after leaving the White House position.

General Ingram and the rest of the staff came in with the weekend reports as I was eating.

‘‘Madam President, ground forces captured the northern sector cities of Mashhad, Neyshabur, and Sabzevar on the east and on the west Sanandaj, Mahabad, Khoy, Ardabil and Tabriz. They captured more secret bunkers and laboratories producing chemical weapons near Tabriz,’’ General Ingram said.

‘‘Turkey is rushing troops and tanks towards the border with Iran,’’ General Ingram added.

‘‘My guess is they are attempting to influence public opinion in Turkey and maybe influence me into accepting the UN peace plan and also looking to pick up some disputed territory,’’ I said.

‘‘If they cross the border, you know what to do with them,’’ I added.

‘‘Yes of course, whatever is prudent and necessary to send them back across the border, body bags optional,’’ General Ingram replied.

‘‘You got it,’’ I said

The afternoon was filled congressional issues. Congress was passing a slew of bills. I vetoed the first one. It was to give professional teams - football, baseball and basketball - more tax breaks. The bills would authorize zero interest federal loans to build free stadiums. In my opinion they needed to lose the host of tax breaks they were getting. They were a hundred billion dollar business and they needed to pay taxes like any other business.

The second one was a bill to shift motor fuel revenue trust funds to the department of education for grants to big city schools. I vetoed that one too. The condition of many of our highways demanded that every penny in the highway trust fund be spent on roads. If they wanted more money for big city schools then raise the revenue by increasing the tax on sports teams that were only located in big cities to begin with. Problem solved.

The next bill would allow Canada to sell more beef products in exchange for allowing the US to export more fresh and frozen chicken to Canada. Tit for tat - I could approve that one.

The next bill was to limit the military recruiting at colleges and high schools. It seems every couple of years the liberals and the anti-war groups try the same kind of law, usually adding it as a rider to some other ‘must have’ bill.

This was the first time they had garnered enough votes to send up a standalone bill. Another veto and I wanted to know the names of the Senators and Representatives that supported it. They would go to the bottom of the list for campaign help.

At 1400 a group of Senators was coming in for a signing of a bill to require all electronic toll collection devices to work nationwide. It would eliminate the confusion which ones were good where. It gave the states two years to be in compliance. It was a long time in coming.