[War] US: Madam Speaker?

[pentaj2 at Scranton.edu]

"Madam Speaker?"
16 November 2006
Pres. John Williams
USA
===============
POTUS sat in the Residence, in one of the solariums on the third 
floor; He'd taken some of the mail that came through the secretaries 
up with him after the morning briefings earlier, and had just sat down 
to open it up and read it.

A head poked in. Jarrett Walker, his personal aide (called a "bodyman" 
colloquially).

"They'll be here in 10, sir. May want to start getting ready for em."

"Thanks, Jarrett."

With that, Jarrett gathered up the mail for later, and the President 
headed downstairs.

10 minutes later, the House Democratic leadership - as it was going to 
be constituted for 2007, anyway, and at least the senior few people - 
entered the White House, greeted by the President and the White House 
press corps.

"Hi, and welcome to the White House!" greeted the President with a 
grin. "Don't worry, we fed the reporters before you came, they 
shouldn't bite."

Laughter at that, as POTUS shook hands and the cameras were fed.

"Alright, folks. You're all finally here. Let's head upstairs and 
chat, shall we?"

With that, POTUS turned and led the group to the stairs, the Speaker-
to-be beside him; amiable filler chatter ensued until they left the 
reach of the press.

"So, are we actually going to see bipartisanship, Mr. President?" 
asked Pelosi.

Williams smiled. "I was bipartisan in the House, and my essential 
nature has not changed, Madam Speaker."

"I'll believe it when I see it, Mr. President," noted Steny Hoyer, the 
Majority Leader. "This place does weird things to people, and you 
haven't had to really deal with Congress since you moved down here."

Williams nodded. "Fair enough; And, agreed. I hope you all would be 
good enough to smack me privately if I somehow let this job go to my 
head."

A chorus of "Deal!" followed as they reached the third floor, and the 
President led the group into the solarium. Gizmo, being himself, had 
decided to steal the President's chair as a good place for a nap.

"Gizmo, get down from there. No stealing my chair!" scolded John with 
a grin.

The dog looked up at its owner with sad eyes. ~Do I have to?~ he 
seemed to be asking.

"Get *down* from there," Williams repeated calmly and sternly.

The dog whined as he returned to the floor, deciding that curling up 
*on* the POTUS's feet would be a good revenge.

John looked to the Democrats, then. "Yeah. Among the things we really 
need to do is renovate and remodel the Residence. Make it kid-proof 
and prep for the baby, obviously, but also," he noted with a grin as 
he pointed at the Wheaten Terrier on his feet, "make it dog proof."

Laughter from everybody as they sat down, coffee and trimmings set out 
for them by the stewards.

"Mr. President, I sense I'll need to drag the appropriations committee 
down here to talk with you and the First Lady about that?" replied 
Speaker Pelosi with a grin.

"Yeah. Now, before we get down to business, I have a minor proposal 
for you," Williams replied, as he passed out papers.

"On what?"

"Minimum wage." He paused. "I'll give you the raise to $7.25 you've 
proposed, but."

There was a pause as they all *looked* at him. Had he really just 
*given* them that? And what was the 'but'?

"But," Williams continued, "in return, we find a way to index it to 
inflation. Maybe CPI will do that, maybe we need a new metric. Either 
way, this should be the last time it has to be fought over. Index it 
to -price inflation-, and let's quit using it as a football."

Thoughtfulness on Democratic faces, Pelosi's not least.

"Why price inflation?" She asked.

"If it tracked wage inflation, it would seem to spur a vicious circle 
of inflationary pressures, as I recall from my economics courses in 
college," Williams noted. "Indexing to price inflation preserves 
buying power, without risking a boom-and-bust effect as the economy 
goes."

Nods from everyone.

"Now, where would you all like to begin?" Williams asked.

"Iraq," Pelosi replied.

"I meet with the new Saudi King soon, and it'll be on the table. I'm 
going to see what help he can provide in helping us get through this," 
Williams replied. "After that, I'll want to meet with you and the rest 
of the Gang of Eight, plus Chair and Ranking Member on HASC and SASC, 
to discuss matters. My *goal* is to get the troops out by 1 January 
2008. I hope I'm not being optimistic."

"You aren't the only one, Mr. President."

"Next...Committee Assignments. I won't argue on any, I don't really 
*care* who you put on what committee. With one exception," Williams 
noted, with a pause.

"Intelligence," Pelosi replied.

Williams nodded. "Bingo. Madam Speaker...I realize you might not like 
Jane Harman, but let me be really, really honest. Alcee Hastings was 
impeached for taking bribes by a Democratic House, with your vote 
among those in the affirmative as I recall, and convicted by a 
Democratic Senate. The man could never recieve a security clearance. 
He is therefore utterly inappropriate for a committee that works with 
classified information. Am I going to tell you 'don't appoint him as 
chair'? No. It's your prerogative, and I fully respect that. But how 
the hell can we expect *anybody* to respect security protocols when we 
let someone impeached for taking payoffs chair a committee that deals 
in the most sensitive information held by the US government? If I 
don't scream, loudly and continuously, against his appointment as 
chair, I'm a hypocrite. We're *all* hypocrites. If you appoint him, 
I'm telling you now that I will not be silent. I will scream very, 
very loudly."

A silence settled over the room, then.

"I'll think about what you've said, Mr. President. I didn't realize 
you had such strong opinions on the matter," Pelosi responded, 
uncertainly.

"Next up...Let's run down the biggest social issues," Williams nudged 
the convo.

"I know what the Democratic caucus thinks, I want to tell you what *I* 
think, given I've held my thoughts to myself mostly," he continued.

"On abortion: I'm a loyal Catholic. Abortion is bad. However, I'm also 
of the belief that, regardless of that fact, on such issues there's 
every reason to wait until there's a popular consensus on the issue. 
If I have to appoint judges, there'll be no litmus tests beyond: A. Is 
this person qualified? B. Is their record with regards to ethics of 
the unsullied quality the people have a right to expect from the 
judicial branch? C. Will they rule on the case at hand, not try to 
make philosophical points?

"If they wind up being conservative, OK. If they wind up being 
liberal, OK. I just prefer judges who can be modest; Rule on the case, 
respecting precedent to the extent you can. If that means a decision 
is made to overturn Roe v Wade, so be it.

"When it comes to Supreme Court justices, same rules apply. John 
Roberts has the right idea: Rule narrowly, trying not to make new 
philosophical points or overturn precedent unless you have to.

"Gay marriage: It isn't a federal issue. There'll be no constitutional 
amendments being proposed by me, I'll say that. I disagree with it for 
the simple reason that I figure if you want something -like- marriage 
for homosexuals, something that gives the same basic protections, 
that's OK...But don't call it marriage, because that violates the 
commonly-understood meaning of the term. Right now...The states will 
decide as the states will decide. Eventually, every state will have to 
deal with the issue. When that happens, inevitably conflicts of law 
come up, which it will be the Congress's task to deal with, one way or 
the other. But otherwise, we do not touch the issue. Not even in 
regards to federal recognition of civil unions. Not until there's a 
clear consensus. So, please. Even if it might please the base to bring 
it up, don't. I believe in the rectification of names on this point: 
If you call something by a name, it should accord with what that 
something means."

Sighs of relief could be heard. "I don't think I need to say, Mr. 
President, that it'll be good to have that issue left off the table 
around here," Hoyer said.

"Agreed," Williams noted.

"Now, the economy. I am a free trader. You all know that, we've worked 
together in the past on a lot of things. Yes, globalization hurts at 
times. I sympathize with those representing states that get beaten up 
by the loss of manufacturing jobs...But the country, as a whole, wins 
with free trade.

"On the budget? We balance it. Maybe not immediately, but we balance 
it. Primarily, we get systems to work *better*. We cut things, the 
stupid things everybody knows should be cut but doesn't want to face 
the whining on. I'm thinking of a lot of the pork we dole out. The 
farm bill. The random earmarks we spread everywhere."

"What about immigration?" asked Pelosi.

"Count me as a supporter of comprehensive reform. At the same time, 
though, we should build an actual border fence, to the extent the 
environment allows," Williams replied.

"You all might disagree with me on a lot of things, but that's fine. I 
want to make it clear where I stand as we start to talk about things.

"Which is what today's about."

The day continued like that; A long, roaming discussion that went on 
for hours on end.

At the end of the day was dinner, the House Democratic leadership and 
the White House staff all around the same table.

"May the next two years be as reasonable as today was," offered POTUS.
---
Actions:
1. Meet with House Democrats.
2. Offer carrot: Agreement on Minimum wage to $7.25, in return for 
indexing it to some form of prince inflation measurement, so that the 
issue is no longer an issue.
3. Offer stick: Madam Speaker, swallow your pride. Don't put Alcee 
Hastings as chair of the intelligence committee. If you don't, I will 
scream long and loud about you putting an impeached federal judge in a 
position with access to the most sensitive of classified information.
4. A general "this is where I stand" run-through of issues, followed 
by a day of friendly discussion, debate, and general "getting-to-know-
each-other".
5. Follow up the next day with a meeting with the Senate Democratic 
leadership, covering the same basic issues.