Four Days In February

CHAPTER FOUR

  A clock somewhere unseen was chiming 7:00 a.m. Pinchon noticed out the hall window that it was still raining. The EEOB even at this hour of the morning had staffers going to and from various offices. Some were carrying cups of coffee, and Pinchon thought, "Coffee, that would be good."

  Just then they came to a door with another dark suited man with a lapel pin standing in front of it.

  "We are here for the meeting with the President's commission on free trade," Adams said.

  The agent guarding the door stepped out of the way, and Adams opened it, and said, "This way Sir." Pinchon entered and Adams quickly shut the door.

  Entering the room, the General saw a long conference table with about a dozen chairs. Seated at the end of the table were two men and a woman. Pinchon did not know who the one man or woman was, but recognized from Congressional hearings some years before, the older man who was seated at the end of the table, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ryan Burlson.

  Adams said, "Mr. Speaker, good to see you, and glad you brought your friends. Is Richard coming?"

  "Good to see you too Charles, and yes, Richard is coming, I hope very soon."

  Adams replied "Good," ..."and General Pinchon let me introduce the Speaker of the House, Ryan Burlson. He is an old friend of mine out of Texas. ...Speaker, this is General Bull Pinchon."

  As Pinchon and the Speaker shook hands, Pinchon said, "The Speaker and I have met before."

  "Yes," said the Speaker, "I remember the General appearing before the Armed Services Committee a number of times in past years."

  Adams then said, "And this is Dora Vinnity, House majority leader, and Henry Onan, House minority leader."

  As they shook hands, Vinnity said, "General, we do not know each other, but I am glad to meet you and wish you well in your service."

  Onan also quickly extended his hand to Pinchon and said: "Speaker Burlson and Richard have told me a lot about you, I am glad you have agreed to serve."

  Pinchon was about to ask what they meant, but the door opened again, and he instantly recognized a familiar friend, Richard T. Sharon, the very elderly President pro tempore of the Senate.

  Adams spoke up and said, "Welcome Mr. President, we were waiting for you."

  "Hello Charles," the President said, and "hello Bull, Martha will be excited to hear you are in town."

  Pinchon replied: "Good to see you too Mr. President, and give your wife my greetings. Is she well?"

  "Yes, Martha is well, a little weak on her feet, like I am, but she still keeps watch on me."

  "That sounds right," Pinchon said, "she always set me straight."

  Henry Onan spoke up: "The General knows your wife, Mr. President?"

  Pinchon interjected, "Yes, I knew Mrs. Sharon, before I did the President pro tempore. She was a good friend of my mother, and she is the one who gave me my nickname 'Bull'. I was Ulysses Pinchon, until she saw me play football in high school, and said that I ran through the defensive line like a bull. That nickname stuck. Since my mother died, not many people call me Ulysses."

  The Speaker spoke up and said, "We need to be about our business, and make sure everything is agreed; we must do it quick and right the first time, there will not be a second chance. Now Richard, why don't you tell the General what we want to happen today."

  The President pro tempore cleared his throat with a small cough, and said: "Bull, we are asking you to do something for the nation that is fraught with unknown danger and difficulty. If our plans go awry in the next twenty-four hours, we ...and you ...could lose our reputations, our positions, perhaps even our personal liberty, and lives. There are people in high places of power in this nation, who will be against what we are going to do. Some will oppose us out of principle, and some will be unprincipled and challenge us out of political malice; and worse, there are yet others who will act against us because they plan treason. For these reasons, we must act together ...decisively!"

  Sharon continued, "President Woods is about to die. He knows it, and we know it. We do not have any option about him. Since he succeeded President Carr, we have had no Vice President. ...Bull, President Woods, the house leadership, and a few in the Senate, have for eight days been considering who would, could, or should be the next President of the United States. We have concluded together, that you are the one who should be President. We can go no further, however, until we know that you give your full and free consent. We do not ask this lightly of you, there are terrible dangers to the nation, and if we are thwarted in our plans, well... great personal difficulties to us all. If we attempt this, as Benjamin Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 'We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.' So then Bull, you have met with President Woods, and now with us... will you do it, will you agree to serve?"

  Bull, shook his head in disbelief. He bluntly said: "How can this happen? There is a constitutional and a lawful order of succession, and Mr. Speaker you are next in line, and Mr. President pro tempore, you are next after that. So then, I again say, whatever my thoughts about the situation, how can this happen, that I can constitutionally and lawfully be made President of the United States, let alone today? There just is not enough time for a Vice Presidential nomination and confirmation. A handful of members of either house of Congress, from both political parties, could tie the nomination up for days or even weeks."

  "Bull," Speaker Burlson said, "We have considered this carefully. You know that the President pro tempore and I are of opposite parties; we politically do not always agree. The same is obviously true of representatives Vinnity and Onan. However, we do not think, rather we know, that right now in the existence of our nation we must not have more political instability or weakness. We need a leader, and we need a leader now. It is true, I could succeed to the Presidency, or decline it and pass it on to Richard, but I am old and not well myself, and Richard, to be delicate, is older still. The last thing the United States needs in the next year or two, is an old, ailing, President who is not at the top of his game. As well, should we assume the office, and then die or become incapacitated because of age, there would be a fourth President in one term. That will not do, and we are trying to prevent that possibility."

  Pinchon looks at Burlson and says: "But it still cannot be done constitutionally. I won't be part of a 'putsch.'" I would not be recognized as legitimate by the present Cabinet, government, or the American Armed Forces. Foreign governments, friends and foes alike, would regard me as having pulled a coup. There would be great national instability and protest. To this, you could add the danger that some rogue country might think that no one was in charge, and seize the opportunity to attack us or our allies or interests."

  Henry Onan spoke up. "As House minority leader I pledge to join the majority leader in the Congress, and then in public, in assuring all concerned, of your legitimacy. We do not want a coup either. If we had the time we would gladly agree to a nomination and confirmation process. We do not have the time. Necessity is the mother of invention. We believe our way will work."

  Dora Verity said: "General, you probably wonder why we picked you? Your patriotism and integrity are unquestionable. Your previous service to the country is respected by all. We believe that you are wise, and tough. Best of all, you are not a politician; you have kept yourself aloof from both political parties. You do not owe anything to labor or business, left or right. You are not a lobbyist. No one owns you. Neither party will gain an advantage over the other, if you are President. That will help us to hold down the political hot heads in and out of Congress. Importantly, you are known and respected by all ranks of the military, and loved by many of them. The Joint Chiefs, the Generals and Admirals, know that you believe in civilian control of the military; you can help them through this difficult time. I have to warn you, I believe that civilian control must be emphasized in this present distress. There are things going on today that must be
watched closely. I am convinced that you are the man that we need."

  Pinchon replied, "What about President Woods Cabinet? Do they know what you are trying to do? The Secretary of State is third in line to be President, why not use him?"

  Charles Adams spoke up. "There are two reasons we do not want the Cabinet officers succeeding the President. First, they are part of the present political administration. They are going to be politically controversial. Secondly, as the Presidential Succession Act states, if Cabinet officers did become acting President, it would only be for a temporary period of time until a Speaker of the House or President pro tempore was available to succeed. The House and the Senate, being controlled by different political parties, would then be likely to get in a race to see who could elect a different Speaker or another President pro tempore who would be willing to take the presidency for their party. This would throw the whole matter into a political firestorm, and constitutional crisis. It would ensure that we would have more changes in who is President. No, we do not want that, we need to have only one more President, this term."

  Majority Leader Vinnity said: "General Pinchon, to answer your first question about whether the Cabinet knows what we are doing; the Secretaries of State, and Treasury are aware of our plans, as is the Attorney General. The Secretary of Homeland Security also knows. President Woods has been upfront with them, and they are on board." Moreover, our means of making you President, precludes their assuming the office."

  Pinchon leaned forward and asked, "Has Defense Secretary Ishnik signed on too? Knowing my history with him, I doubt it! He doesn't like me!"

  "No," Vinnity said: "Ishnik has not been in the loop. Because of several concerns we have not included him yet. However, the President will tell him today personally."

  Pinchon said: "The nation, the people ...some are going to be really riled up; some are going to be scared."

  The Majority Leader said, "I am riled up at those who shot and killed Caroline Carr, who never gave her a chance to present her legislative program to the Congress. Somebody did not want her to get anything done. The first woman President, dies without a political accomplishment, except for her election. A hundred years from now she will just be a footnote in history. She might have done so much."

  Minority Leader Onan said: "And I too am scared of what is going to happen. No one knows what is going on, who is attacking our form of government, or when it will end. The people are right to be afraid"

  Charles Adams says: "General Pinchon, Will you agree to become the President of the United States?"

  Sharon, the President pro tempore, interjected: "Bull, the nation needs someone to take the proverbial ball and run right through the opposing line. You are the man."

  Congressman Vinnity said: "We need you now."

  Onan said, "You have to decide now; later, or tomorrow, will be too late, the opportunity will have been lost. What do you say?"

  "Yes," Charles Adams agrees, "What do you say?"

  This is a position Bull knows he has never been in before. He was trained to defend the country against foreign aggressors... to seek out, cut off, and kill the enemy.

  Pinchon says: "I am not ready for this, I do not like politics, and I will never be a politician."

  Speaker Burlson says: "Don't be a politician, be a President. The nation will like that, and respect that... they will see that you are trustworthy and not out for a political party, or even yourself... and the people will follow you."

  Pinchon said, "I have never backed away out of fear, I have never worried for my personal safety, and I will never fail to serve my country. If you will tell me how I can become President, constitutionally, lawfully, and honorably. ...I will agree; I will serve. If there is anything illegitimate about this plan, I don't want to hear it, and I won't do it. You have to understand, I will accept no political chicanery, and no deceit. Tell me now, how do you propose this to be done?"

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