Chapter 49

Although a number of the races were quite close, the shape of the new Congress was becoming clearer. The Democrats held a small majority in both houses, but the important thing to President Lehrer was that large majorities of the members of both parties that were elected were those who supported most of her policies and felt that she was leading the country in the right direction.

It would take a week to certify the elections, except in three races where the results were extremely close and recounts were likely. These recounts would take another two weeks to complete, but they would not affect which party controlled either House. The newly elected Representatives and Senators began arriving in Washington by the end of the week that the elections were held and began caucusing the following Monday.

They decided that the House of Representatives would meet for the time being at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts while the Senate would meet at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. Work crews had already removed most of the rubble from the Capitol, and some repairs had begun. It was estimated that it would be at least another six months to a year before the Capitol would be usable again.

The two top positions in the House and the Senate were filled by people who had survived the Capitol bombing. Representative Mark Andrews, who represented South Central Los Angeles, became the first African American Speaker of the House. Representative Matthew O'Donald, who represented Boston, was elected House Majority Leader. Nebraska Senator David Burns, who was Acting President when Kathleen Lehrer was under anesthesia, was elected Senate Majority Leader. Michigan Senator Karen Milner was elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate. Each of these people were seen as strong supporters of the President who would work closely with her to get her legislative package passed.

There was another interesting thing that resulted from the election of the legislative leaders. Once the new Congress was sworn in, and until a new Vice President was chosen and confirmed, the office of President would be held by a woman, while the next two positions in the line of succession would be held by an African American and a woman, respectively.

Robert Zimmerman, a newly elected Congressman from Minnesota, was elected Majority Whip, while Alice Corson one of the newly elected Senators from Georgia, became Majority Whip in the upper house. Larry Daniels from Iowa was elected Minority Leader in the House, and Roy Herbert from Delaware was elected Minority Whip. Senator Norman Cyrus, one of the newly elected Senators from Tennessee became Minority Leader of the Senate, while New Mexico's Virginia Irving became Minority Whip. All except Representative Herbert and Senator Cyrus were viewed as strong supporters of the President, although both Herbert and Cyrus stated that they would be willing to work with the President. Although they were not seen as supporters of President Lehrer, both Cyrus and Herbert had put forward a number of alternative proposals during their campaigns that were taken seriously enough by the voters to earn their elections. The Republicans did not want to be seen as just a rubber stamp for the President, despite her current popularity, and elected these two to leadership positions to show there would be other ideas put forward.

President Lehrer invited the legislative leaders of both parties to the White House on March 30th, one week before the new Congress would be sworn into office, to discuss her most important appointments and her legislative agenda. Her most important appointment was for a new Vice President. After a great deal of deliberation, she decided to follow Lincoln's example and reach across party lines to have a national unity government. Her choice of moderate Republican Governor Thomas Bengstrom of Minnesota, a strong supporter of many of her policies and her legislative agenda, was greeted positively by the legislative leaders of both parties.

News reports had suggested that there was general support for most of the President's acting Cabinet, except for Acting Secretary of Defense John Weston, who was receiving much of the blame for allied setbacks in the war against the Ayatollah Makhtol. Many of the new legislators were openly questioning Weston's competence to lead the Pentagon and whether a new Secretary of Defense might not be more effective.

After talking with a number of the new Senators, especially the new leaders, President Lehrer came to the conclusion that Weston would not be confirmed and would have to go. On Friday morning, March 27th, President Lehrer summoned John Weston to the White House.

"John, come in and have a seat." She closed the door of the Oval Office. "Would you like some coffee?"

"No, thank you, Mme. President."

The President was silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she spoke.

"John, first I want to thank you for your service to my administration and to the country during these very trying times."

She paused before she continued.

"As you probably know, I have been consulting with members of the new Congress about my major appointments and about my legislative agenda."

"Yes. I figured you had been, from the reports in the papers."

"Well, many of the new Representatives and Senators are very concerned about all of the setbacks we have been having in the war. I am too. I have decided that I am not going to put your name forward to be permanent Secretary of Defense. We have had some serious disagreements besides the conduct of the war. You have been dragging your feet on implementing my policies of limiting arms exports to developing countries. I don't see a whole lot of progress on reform of our weapons acquisitions process. And I see a lot of fraud and abuse in D.O.D. that I don't feel has been adequately addressed."

"Mme. President, I have been trying to do what I can on these things, but my first priority has been trying to turn things around with the war."

"John, we have spent nearly three trillion dollars over the last decade on defense! And everywhere we turn, we are losing to a third world country! Every time I ask you what is going on and why we are losing so much ground, all I seem to get from you are excuses. I am getting all sorts of pressure from the American people and now from the new Congress to explain why this is happening! What the fuck am I supposed to tell them!?"

"We're trying."

"Bullshit! That's not good enough! People see how our forces are performing, or more accurately, not performing, and they're asking, 'what happened to all of this money we spent on Defense? Did we just throw it down a sewer?'"

John Weston was silent for a moment before he asked, "When would you like my resignation to be effective?"

"Upon the confirmation of the new Secretary of Defense."

"Okay. Who will it be?"

"I haven't made my final decision on that yet."

"All right. You will have my resignation by the end of the day."

"Thank you, John. I really do appreciate your service during these very trying times, but I think it is time that I start putting in my own team here to see if we can start turning things around."

"I understand, Mme. President."

John Weston rose and walked out of the Oval Office, got into his limousine and drove back to the Pentagon. He then dictated a letter to his secretary, and when she had finished typing it, he read it and then signed it. He had a courier deliver it to the White House, where it was hand delivered to the President.

The President also summoned General Robert Allen, who had been her chief military adviser, to the White House and told him that she would not be nominating him to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that she thought that it might be time that he retired. General Allen also rode back to the Pentagon, dictated a letter to his secretary, read it and signed it before having it delivered to the White House.

The President had invited Governor Lloyd Johnson of Illinois to the White House for a private luncheon with her. She had already had the necessary background and security checks done on him. Governor Johnson had previously served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and his knowledge of the Pentagon and how it worked, or in some cases did not work, was almost legendary in Washington. She had called him several days earlier to see if he might be interested in being Secretary of Defense, and had received a positive response from him.

Governor Johnson was shown into the Oval Office at 11:45. He walked in, shook hands with the President, who asked him to have a seat. She sat down on a chair across from him and handed him the letters from John Weston and from General Allen.

"So, you've decided to change the leadership at the Pentagon?"

"Yes. With the way things are going in the war, I don't think I have much choice. I need someone who knows how the Pentagon works in there to try to straighten things out. As you know from your years in the Senate, it's a mess there. I need someone whose judgment I trust to shake things up over there so that we can concentrate on winning this damn war. We have been pussy footing along now for too long. I want to show Makhtol that by attacking us, he chose the wrong opponent. So far we have not done that, and he's sitting over there in Tehran laughing at us. I need you to straighten things out. Will you do it?"