[War] US: Soothing disturbed kittens

[pentaj2 at Scranton.edu]

"Soothing disturbed kittens"
4 February 2013
President John Williams
United States
============================
<Washington>

Amidst the Korea-induced controlled chaos that was taking up the time 
of POTUS and much of the rest of the White House staff, there were 
still other things that needed to be done. And, frankly, time to kill.

So it was that President Williams, after a fast-paced game of fetch 
with his dogs on the South Lawn (generating fun pictures for the 
tourists, but also getting POTUS (and the dogs!) some exercise), 
settled in in the Residence, Gizmo meandering towards the "doggie 
toilet" they'd constructed and trained the dogs in shortly after the 
Inauguration (the press had had fun covering that, and John had to 
admit, he had fun working with the White House staff designing and 
constructing what was basically a self-cleaning toilet for dogs; no 
human intervention required at any step, fortunately), and Akela 
curling up in front of the TV - turned to CNN at the moment, but it 
was safe to say that "Nobody has much of a clue what's happening in 
North Korea" would be the reigning paradigm both in reality and in the 
press for a while yet, so he pondered giving the dogs some fun and 
turning to Animal Planet or something.

Then, picking up a cordless phone, he began dialing.

"Mrs. Rosen! John Williams!" he greeted. "Might the Senator be at all 
available to chat?"

"Yes, I'll wait."

Pause for a moment.

"Senator Stevens! John Williams. Things here are nuts, given Korea and 
all, but how are things on the Hill?"

"Good, good. That said, I realize I've managed to ruffle, well...just 
about every feather in Congress. Some things I'd like to discuss with 
you, ideas on how to improve communication between the branches of 
government. I've had these sitting since I got sworn in, was going to 
wait until my cabinet was in place, but I'll lay em out now. 
Actually...I'd like to gather up the Usuai Suspects, both sides of the 
aisle, both sides of the Hill. For lunch today. One, we need to 
discuss Korea. Two, these ideas I have. If you could, I'd like the 
Sergeants-at-Arms for House and Senate, plus the historians for each 
body, and each chamber's IT person."

"Why? What do I have planned?" Williams paused, a twinkle in his 
eye. "I advise you to come and find out."

With the usual pleasantries, POTUS hung up, then made the next call.
---
<1230>

Slowly, they arrived. The Speaker, Majority Leader, and Minority 
Leader 
of the House, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate, the 
President Pro Tem, the Vice President, the Sergeants at Arms of the 
House and of the Senate, the Chief of the Capitol Police, the Senate 
and House historians, and the IT chiefs for each chamber, plus the 
Architect of the Capitol.

The Press Secretary described it as just a normal, routine lunch.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Come in and make yourselves comfortable!" The 
President greeted, shaking everybody's hand warmly.

"Mr. President...You've got that glint in your eye. You're planning 
something. What is it?" Speaker Steven McCarty asked.

"I'm that obvious?" Williams faked looking wounded for a second, then 
smiled. "Oh, c'mon, you'll like it. But first, let's get food, neh?"

Over the next few hours, Williams laid it out. Not for immediate 
response, mind you, but as something to see if it could even work.

First among the President's ideas was fairly simple: Weekly -informal- 
meetings between the Cabinet Secretaries and their oversight 
committees, as well as a similar meeting between the President, the 
Vice President, and the House and Senate Leadership on both sides of 
the aisle. Once a week, a regular thing.

Next had a bit of blinking occurring. "Mr. Roberts," Williams asked 
the Architect of the Capitol, "Is the President's Room still usable?"

"In what way?"

"As an office."

"You would probably want upgrades, but more than likely."

"Good. Because I'm planning on using it. Bob," POTUS noted, gesturing 
at the VP, "Will remain more or less my "ambassador" on the Hill, and 
I expect him to be working more out of the Capitol than the EEOB, but 
especially if we can install the necessary comms and data upgrades, 
and upgrade the security systems slightly, I hope to be up on the Hill 
myself semi-regularly. Events will dictate how often, and it won't 
replace the West Wing by any means, but I hope to be up there...once a 
week, let's say. I'm -hoping- that this will give the members of the 
House and Senate rather more access to me, and therefore improve 
communication."

"That would be a hell of a change," noted Tom Marshall, the House 
Minority Leader. "When was the last time a President used that space 
like that?"

"Wilson, I think. With modern secure comms, though, I could really be -
anywhere-. It's slightly more -convenient- to be in the White House, 
but it's not -essential- by any means. And I admit, I may have seemed 
a bit...condescending to everyone on the Hill.

"I'd -hope- you all know me better than that. I -like- Congress. I'm 
not Bush; I don't want an Imperial Presidency. I not only accept 
Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch, I -welcome- it. But 
at the same time, I had the feeling that I needed to establish that I 
wasn't going to be -captive- to Congress, either," Williams noted.

"Okay then. Abbot. You realize how...bad it looks to be appointing a 
friend as SECDEF?" Ted Stevens pointed out.

"Yes. Piper - and that, by the way, is a name *only* I, Kayleigh, his 
wife, and his family get to use with him; it's from when he was a kid, 
I learned about it from his mom - also noted that. I would not have 
nominated Julius Abbot if he were not -superbly- qualified, 
objectively, for the post. Nobody's disputed -that-, anyhow. But that 
said, why him and not someone else just as qualified? Because besides 
the listed duties of the SECDEF, there's always been more than that. 
We all know that.

"The SECDEF is also someone the President needs to be able to work 
with in the worst of crises. Those two people -are- the National 
Command Authority. There needs to be absolute, unwavering trust. Not 
blind obedience - Piper knows damn well part of his job, a big part of 
it, is going to be telling me 'No' when he thinks he has to, which 
will probably be often; he's not afraid to argue things with me, never 
has been - but trust. Trust enough that when the chips are down, we 
can be completely open with each other, that there is -nothing hidden-
. Nobody except my wife knows me better. We have to. We have to know 
each other well enough to read each other's emotions accurately, to 
tell when one or the other is perhaps blinded by emotion when they 
need to be objective, to practically get inside the other one's head.

"I've been in -combat- with Julius Abbot, Senator. We've -seen- each 
other under stress. I know his abilities -exactly-, as he knows mine, 
and we know each other's faults and foibles and fears, too.

"He's smart enough to pick good people to delegate the things he 
doesn't know about to, and he knows enough to be conversant with and 
oversight those he picks. Ethically, he is -clean-, completely and 
totally, which is more than we've been able to say about previous 
holders of that post. If he doesn't prove up to it, I'll ask for his 
resignation, same as any other Cabinet member," Williams replied. "But 
give him a chance, okay?"

"And the budget?" That from Bob Martin, the Senate Minority Leader.

"My mistake. It was one AM when we finished, and I wasn't paying 
attention to what was written down," Williams replied, an embarrassed 
look on his face. It was the truth, too. "I thought there were a few 
less zeroes on the expenditures side. Needless to say, we're going 
over everything again, and I've asked the departments to coordinate a 
new document that scales things so we avoid the deficit. Lessons for 
next time include getting stronger coffee, and -listening- when the 
interns mention the next morning that the numbers look off."

That got laughter.

"What's worse is that it's true. 5 to 10 bil, I'd almost say 'oh, 
we'll make it up with a lucky month', but a baby on the way makes you 
realize that, A, the details really do matter; B, you get more careful 
with the budget when you're awake, such that you aren't willing to 
hope for a lucky month," Williams noted. "I may be working with 
billions of dollars, but I try to do better, as if I was working with 
a few hundred a month. This is embarrassing."

"How're you on this whole 'becoming a dad' thing, anyway?" That from 
Dianne Egan, the historian of the Senate.

"Happy. Excited. But also scared."

With that, the conversation wandered. From details of the meetings to 
the situation in Korea to life with kids. It was important, after all, 
to compartmentalize.
---
Actions:
1. A proposal to smooth ruffled feathers in Congress:

A. Cabinet Secretaries meet with oversight committees informally once 
a week, the President meeting with House and Senate leaders once a 
week, also informally.
B. For purely logistical reasons, it is gently suggested that much 
might be accomplished were there just -one- committee doing oversight 
over a particular cabinet department, rather than the 88 that cover 
DHS, for example. No, that was not a typo.
C. VP is ordinarily President's ambassador on the Hill. However, POTUS 
is going to try, as events permit, to work out of the "President's 
Room" on the Senate side of the Capitol one or two days a week while 
Congress is in session, presuming that the Architect of the Capitol 
(who's generally responsible for the physical plant) can get upgrades 
done to accommodate modern communications and data systems, as well as 
slightly upgraded (and inconspicuous) security upgrades. It should be 
possible, but that project may delay things by a bit. But hopefully 
not.

2. Cabinet secretaries are directed to submit revised budget 
numbers...Keeping to the guidelines previously agreed to, but this 
time WITHOUT going into deficit. Scale the time factor as need be. 
POTUS takes the blame for not checking the numbers enough. Next time, 
stronger coffee, that's all we can say. We're humble enough to admit 
when we screw up.