Chapter 29

The President put the phone back into its cradle. She had been catching up on her paperwork and preparing to meet the governors when the message from Mexico had come through that Steve was safe and in the embassy with important news for Ambassador Garcia. She had the White House operator contact the Ambassador on a secure line.

Her first emotion was relief, then joy, that Steve was safe. Then, a cloud descended upon her features as she considered the importance of what she had just been told. On top of everything else that had happened over the past three days, Kathleen Lehrer now had to worry about the very real possibility of the economic collapse of not only the United States, but possibly the whole world.

She had Anna Escrito contact the financial leaders with whom she had been meeting over the previous days and have them come to the White House to meet with her and the War Cabinet at 4:30. Then she got up and went to meet the governors.

As she walked into the Blue Room, the President was greeted by enthusiastic applause from the assembled state leaders.

Kathleen Lehrer was embarrassed by her reception and blushed as she walked around the room greeting everyone and introducing herself to the governors she had not met the previous day. She then came around to her seat and asked everyone to be seated.

"Thank you for coming. We have a lot of work to do so we may as well get started. The first thing I would like to discuss is the timing for the elections for a new Congress. Who would like to start?"

Karen O'Rourke, the Governor of Nebraska, raised her hand. "I would like to have the elections completed within six weeks, four weeks to choose the candidates in the primaries and the general elections two weeks later."

Joseph Marino from New York objected to that timing. "Two weeks between the primary and the general election might be okay for a small state such as Nebraska, but in the larger states such as New York, that is not nearly enough time. We need at least a month after the primary, especially if there's a primary fight in one party or the other."

"I think we should wait until after we have a Constitutional Convention before we hold congressional elections," stated James Bertram from California. "A Constitutional Convention could end up changing all the rules, and I think we should see what the rules will be before we go electing a new Congress."

"I totally disagree with that," said the President. "Under the 25th Amendment, whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of the Vice President, that vacancy can only be filled by a majority vote of both houses of Congress. If something happens to me before a Vice President is confirmed, we face total chaos because I am the last person in the line of succession now. No one can legally become President if something happens to me until after we have a Congress. We will face total instability and people throughout the country and the world will question the new leader's legitimacy. We must have a new Congress and we must have it as soon as possible. If a Constitutional Convention is called, it should be after a Congress is elected, not before. Now, how soon can we hold the elections?"

Gov. Frank Schmidt of Texas was impressed by the President's urgency. "I think we can get elections together within six or seven weeks if we push our parties hard enough. We can have the primary in three or four weeks and the general election three weeks after that."