yell. “Jim, I think we should postpone the press conference until one P.M.”
“Stu, you know I hate postponing those things. It’s just going to make us look like we’re unorganized.” Garret grabbed a fresh piece of paper and leaned over the table. He wrote the number 209 in the upper left-hand corner and 216 in the upper right. “We were at two hundred and nine votes versus two hundred sixteen this morning. Since then we’ve picked up Moore, Reiling, and one of those hicks. They were all undecided, and we got
Dreyer and Hampton to defect. That’s minus two for them and plus five for us. That puts us at two hundred fourteen apiece.”
Garret stood up and screamed, “God, I love this tension. We’re going to win this damn thing.” The President and Dickson smiled. “I see where you’re headed with this, Stu,” said the President. “You would like to turn this thing into a little victory announcement.”
“Exactly. If we can wait until one, I think Jack and Tom can pick up enough votes to give us a little breathing room. Tom’s office has already leaked that Moore settled. The rest of the gamblers will be making their deals as soon as possible.” The President looked up at Garret with a smile and conceded.
“Stu, do what you have to do to move it from twelve to one o’clock, but try to be gentle with Ms. Moncur.” Garret nodded, then headed off to get the job done. He would be about as gentle with Ann Moncur as a five-year- old boy is with his three-year-old baby brother. He was in one of his zones. Victory was just around the corner, and he
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would do anything to win. He had no time for frail egos and overly sensitive, politically correct appointees. He was on the front line and they were nothing more than support people. It was always amazing to him that the people who complained the most were usually the ones who were trying to justify their jobs. The people in the trenches never complained. They just continued to produce results. Koslowski was like that. He didn’t care if it looked pretty or not, he just made sure the job got done.
Their new ally, Arthur Higgins, was a producer. No bullshit, no complaining, only results. He made a mental note to thank Mike Nance, the national security adviser, for setting that one up. God, did he do a nice job on Frank Moore. That could be the one that put them over the top. THE PRESIDENT AND HIS ENTOURAGE WERE STANDING
IN THE ANTEROOM located behind the White House Press Room. They could hear
Ann Moncur explaining to the White House press corps that the President had a busy afternoon and would not be able to answer a lot of questions. Stevens was a little nervous.
It had been almost four months since his last press conference. The honeymoon between him and the press had ended in the middle of his second year of office. During the first year and a half he could do no wrong. The press had backed him during the election, and he had in turn given them unprecedented access. The honeymoon soured when certain members of the press corps remembered that their job was to report the facts and keep the public informed.
Several potential scandals were uncovered, but before they became full-blown stories, Stu Garret stepped in and put out the fires.
Documents were shredded, people were paid to keep quiet or lie, and everything was emphatically denied and denounced as a ploy by the opposition to smear the President.
When the scandals finally died, Garret laid out a new strategy for the President when it came to dealing with the press: act hurt, betrayed, and keep your distance.
The President gladly complied with his chief of staff’s plan, and the new strategy had partially worked. Some in the press were in awe of the President and yearned for the relationship they had had with him during his first year in office, but the hardened reporters saw right through the scam. Too many documents had miraculously disappeared, and too many sources had changed their story overnight. The old guard of the press corps had been around too long to be taken in by the feigned isolation of the
President. They were cynical, and to them, professional politicians did nothing that wasn’t calculated. If the President was isolating himself from the press, it wasn’t because his feelings were hurt. It was because he had something to hide. Garret had pulled the
President away from the rest of the group and was reminding him which reporters he should steer clear of during the question-and-answer period. “Now, Jim, don’t forget, no more than four questions, and whatever you do, don’t recognize Ray Holtz from the Post and Shirley Thomas from the Times.” The President nodded in agreement.
Garret grabbed him by the shoulder and started to lead him toward the stage. “I’ll be right there if anyone backs you into a corner, and remember, only four questions and then you have to go meet the new premier of Ukraine. If they whine about how short it is, just
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smile and tell them you’re sorry, but you’ve got a full calendar and you’re already running behind.” The President smiled at Garret. “Stu, relax, I’ve done this before.” Garret smiled back. “I know, that’s what makes me nervous.” Ann Moncur was still addressing the gallery when she noticed the reporters look to her right. She glanced over and saw the
President standing in the tiny doorway. “Good afternoon, Mr. President.
Are you ready to take over?” The President bounded up the two small steps and walked toward the podium, extending his right hand. “Thank you, Ann.” The two shook hands, and Moncur went to join Stu Garret and Mark Dickson, who were standing against the wall. While the President organized his notes, the photographers were busy snapping shots. After a brief moment, he cleared his throat and looked up from the podium.
With a slight smile he greeted the press corps, “Good afternoon.” The press responded in kind, and the President’s slight smile turned into a big one. Like most politicians, Stevens knew how to work the crowd, and his most successful tool of all was his larger-than-life smile.
What most of the people in the room didn’t know was that the smile had been rehearsed. Few things in this administration happened by accident. Stu Garret made sure of that. The smile had its desired effect, and the majority of the people sitting in the gallery smiled back. The President placed his thin, well-manicured hands on the edges of the podium and cleared his throat again. “I have called this press conference to announce a victory for the American people. During the past week, this administration has battled partisan politics, disinformation, gridlock, and a thirty-two vote deficit to secure the successful passage of my budget in the House of Representatives. As of
