Chapter 8
The three days went by way too fast. They made love in the morning, explored the city and countryside or lazed on the beach. Bob took her to the best restaurants for dinner each night and they made love before they fell asleep.
As they were packing to get ready to leave, he noticed that she had tears in her eyes. She saw him looking at her and turned so that he couldn't see her face. He walked over to her and took her in his arms.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, I'm just being silly. I wish that we could stay here forever, never go back to Washington, and never have to worry about anyone but ourselves."
"If you like it that much, we can do this often."
"I love Nassau and I love Sandals, but that's not what I mean. I want to be with you. I know as soon as we get back to Washington that I'll have to keep my distance. The public will feel that it's too soon after Maggie's death for you to have someone else in your life. I want to be with you, but I don't want to destroy your career as a Senator."
"We can work it out, Priscilla. I'm sure you realize that Maggie and I had grown in different directions."
"I know, let's just get ready and enjoy the little time we have until we get back to Washington."
She said the word, Washington, like it was a bad word and she would have her mouth washed out with soap for saying it.
She started packing and she gave short answers whenever he asked her something. She was quiet on the ride back to the plane and she put her head on his shoulder as the plane flew back to Washington. When they landed she told him that she had to get home and thanked him for the wonderful time.
She kissed him softly we they stopped in front of her apartment building and he helped her get the suitcases up to her room. She was strangely silent. He set the suitcases on the floor and stood in front of her for a minute.
She ran into his arms with tears in her eyes, "Damn, politics anyway. I wish that we could stay together for a while longer. Three days isn't enough."
She kissed him and asked him to leave before she started to cry. The tears were already starting to fall down her cheeks. When he tried to talk, she turned him around and gently led him to the door. He stood in the hallway staring at the closed door for a minute before he went back to the limousine.
The next morning she was in her office went he got to work. She was all business the rest of the day and they spent the afternoon going over the data that they had both been compiling for his speeches before the state assemblies.
After all of the other employees had gone she pushed her papers away, "I'm sorry about last night. It hurt so much to have to leave you. I realize that we have to give it some time. I'll be as business-like as possible until you feel that the public will accept the fact that you have a right to a life."
"I promise you Pricilla, there will be time for us. I'm going to make sure that we have a life together. Let me get a couple of these state assemblies out of the way and we can come out in the open."
She nodded her head and began to talk about the data that she had accumulated on the opposition to the Amendment. He walked around the desk and took the papers out of her hand and kissed her.
"Are you going to stay at my house tonight or am I going to come over to your place?"
She grinned, "You'd better come over to my apartment. The press doesn't know where I live."
On the night of the dinner with the President, a White House limousine picked them up at the Senator's house and began the two hour drive to Camp David. Priscilla had brought a briefcase stuffed with the papers that they might need if the President wanted to review where they were with the opposition.
The limousine pulled up in front of the residence at Camp David and their ID's were checked for the third time since entering the compound. Bob Parsons could see a lot of the security precautions that were in place to protect the President, but he knew that most were hidden. He knew that any enemy would regret trying to get to the President at Camp David. They would be dead before they could even think about harming the President.
Priscilla and Bob were escorted into the study and the President came into the study with the First lady a couple of minutes later.
"Bob, how are you doing? And this is Priscilla, your Chief Of Staff. I loved the way you handled the press after Maggie's murder. Maybe I should have you on my staff."
They had cocktails and then were escorted into the dining room. The President had requested that Lobster be prepared for the dinner and the meal was much better than any served in a five star restaurant. The President talked about the troubles in the Middle East throughout most of the dinner. After the dinner, they retired to the study again. The First Lady asked to be excused to catch up on some of her correspondence and then left for another part of the building.
The President went to the intercom and asked that they be left alone for a while. He asked what they would like to drink and poured them each a drink.
"Well, the first state committee meeting on the Amendment will be in about two months. Do you think you're ready?" the President asked.
Bob nodded and started to say something but the President continued, "This is important to the party. We have to have an informed electorate. There had been far too many yokels elected to Congress and most of them feel it's their job to derail any proposal that the Administration proposes, especially if the President is from the opposition party. We have to get control of the way the electorate thinks. There's just too much at stake. I have a vision for the United States and I need a Congress that's behind me. I won't stand for any opposition to my goal for the country. The world looks at us with awe and a little bit of fear and I want to keep it that way."
Priscilla watched the President and she began to see how much the President looked and acted like Al Pacino in his movies. He was short like Pacino and had the same mannerisms. She began to smile at his antics and the President saw her face and was sure that she was smiling because she was behind him all of the way.
"Bob, your first state committee that you're going to testify before will be chaired by one of our good friends. He's with us all of the way. I'm going to get him to Washington soon. There's one bad apple on the committee. Delegate Colborne. I call him Senator Cornpone. He's seventy years old and crusty as they come. He's going to lay into you as soon as he can. Bait him. He's got a short fuse. As soon as he starts to scream at you, the chairman is going to have him ejected from the committee meeting. The rest of the committee is with us. I'm going to have the IRS keep Senator Cornpone busy. He'll be on board after I offer to call off the dogs."
The President continued to lay out his plan for the committee meetings for each state, calling Bob's attention to the problem politicians in each state assembly. Priscilla offered her research on the opposition and they reviewed which people would need to be persuaded, neutralized or tied up by the IRS or Justice.
The President stood up, "Bob I have to prepare for a meeting with the Liberian Ambassador. I sure appreciate you taking the lead on this. I'm sorry about what happened to Maggie. There might be good come out of her death though. I think that the public will feel sorry for you and cut you some slack. If I were you, I might use that to tone down any opposition to your speeches. Get them feeling sorry for you and you'll have them eating out of your hand."
Bob and Priscilla tried to hide their shock at the callous remarks of the President and stood up and walked to the door with him.
The President turned to them, "I really think we have this battle won. I hold all of the Aces. After this Amendment is ratified, we can work to get the twenty-second amendment repealed. What a dumb move that one was. If you've got a good man in the Presidency, why not keep him? Why hobble him with term limits? We'll talk about this later. Thanks again for coming. I'll keep in touch as you make your way through the committees. If you need any help from my staff, let me know."
Bob saw that Priscilla was about to say something and he put his hand on her back and gently led her to the door. They got into the limousine for the ride back to Washington and Bob put his finger to his lips to keep her from talking until they got back to his house.
As they walked into the door she turned to him, "Did you hear what I heard?"
He nodded and she continued, "He's setting himself up to be President for life. This amendment is just the first step to that end. He's going to use the IRS and any other agency that he can to destroy the opposition. This man is ruthless."
"The first thing in the morning, I want to dissect this Amendment and see what could happen if the President gets his way. We've only been concentrating on the numbers of those against us. I want to know what they're saying is wrong with it. I want the phone numbers of everyone that has come out against the Amendment. I'm going to talk to them and listen to their side."
He pulled her to him, "Will you stay here tonight?"
"I wouldn't be any good to you, I'm too mad."
"I feel the same way. But it will be nice if I could reach out and feel you next to me."
When Monday came they both began to check on what the opposition was saying about the Amendment. It soon became apparent that several of the more vocal opponents had been approached and warned of an IRS audit if their opposition continued. The comments began to get worse as the week progressed. He began to worry as the first state committee meeting was next Monday.
On Wednesday afternoon Priscilla walked into his office, "Do you have time to talk to one of your constituents? I've never heard anything like this."
When he nodded she told him to pick up line two and that there was a Mrs. Simmons on hold.
"Mrs. Simmons, Senator Parsons here. What can I do for you?"
Senator, I'm at my wits end. The IRS has seized our bank account and is going to auction off our home for back taxes. We live on Social Security and we need our money to live."
"Why has the IRS seized your account?"
"Our son is severely mentally retarded and lives with us. He can't work at all and we've always claimed him as a dependent. We were audited and the agent disallowed our deduction for our son. He said that he couldn't believe that a forty-five year old man was a dependent. The IRS is asking that we amend our returns and pay back taxes and penalties for the years that we've been claiming out son as a dependent."
"Mrs. Simmons, I'll put one of my aides on this right away. Her name is Becky Rogers. Give us a day or two and then check back with us. I think that we can straighten this out. This is pretty straight forward."
"Thank you Senator. I'll check back with your aide."
When he hung up he shook his head. He wondered how many cases like this he never heard of. He called Becky into his office and explained the situation and told her to take care of it and to work on it until it was solved.
On Friday he waited until the office cleared out and told Priscilla
that they were going away for the weekend. He took her to a cabin in
the Blue Ridge Mountains that was owned by a friend of his and they
relaxed and got ready for the Committee meeting on Monday.