governor's head on my desk.'
EIGHTEEN
The Roman Catholic Church constructed the San Agustin Cathedral in downtown Laredo in 1872. La catedral features a clock tower that rises five stories above the pavement and a stark white exterior that continues inside to a sanctuary with a tall arched ceiling and a white altar. Lindsay Bonner knelt in the back where the pews were vacant. Jesse had driven her to church but refused to enter the church. He believed in God and he was Catholic, but he understood neither God nor the Catholic church. Why had God abandoned this border and the church these people? She too had questioned her God and her church, but she needed to be in church and to pray to God that Sunday morning. Because she was contemplating sin.
The sin of adultery.
One hundred sixty miles north of the cathedral in which the governor's wife now prayed, San Antonio Mayor Jorge Gutierrez took a bite of his migas which he chased with the strong coffee. He was watching Fox News on the flat-screen television mounted on the wall above the counter in the small cafe. Normally, the television would never be tuned to Fox News in this cafe in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, but given that the governor of Texas was on the national show that morning, an exception had been granted. When his face appeared on the screen, the patrons booed and made derisive comments in Spanish. San Antonio's Hispanics-which is to say, all of San Antonio-did not vote Republican.
On the TV, the host said, 'Welcome, Governor. It's an honor to have you on the show. You're a genuine American hero.'
'Aw, heck, I only did what any American male with a three-seventy-five-caliber safari rifle fitted with a scope would've done in the same situation.'
'I'm not so sure about that, Governor. I think a lot of Americans would have cut and run.'
The governor nodded. 'Democrats.'
The diners booed again, but Jorge chuckled. That was a good line, he had to give the governor that. Jorge sipped his coffee just as his phone rang. He checked the caller ID then answered.
'Clint, my friend.'
Clint Marshall, the state Democratic Party chairman.
'You watching this?'
'Yes, I am.'
On the television, the host took the governor through the hot-button issues of the day, like ticking items off a shopping list-spending and taxes, the debt and deficit, abortion and gay marriage, welfare and ObamaCare-and Jorge's attention alternated between the governor on the television and Clint on the phone.
The host, on the TV: 'Governor, you've railed against the stimulus, but you took the money to balance your state budget last year. Why?'
'Because the Feds took that money from us. Texas is a donor state-we pay more in taxes to Washington than we get back from Washington. Texans are funding New York and California, and we don't appreciate that.'
Clint, on the phone: 'Well, if Texas had voted for Obama, maybe he'd give us more federal money.'
'I think that is his point, my friend.'
The governor, on the TV: 'We're fifteen trillion dollars in debt. We're spending ten billion a day and charging four billion to our Bank of China credit card. Borrowing money and printing money isn't the same as having money.'
Clint, on the phone: silence. Jorge chuckled.
'Come on, Clint. That was a good line.'
'Jorge! You're just encouraging him.'
'He cannot hear me. He is in Washington.'
'Oh. Yeah. Still, it's the principle.'
'Ah, yes. The principles of politics.'
The governor, on the TV: 'It used to be a crime to charge more than ten percent interest, so only the mob engaged in loan sharking. But the big banks bribed Congress with campaign contributions to legalize loan sharking. Now credit cards charge thirty percent. How many trillions of dollars have been transferred from Main Street to Wall Street because of that one federal law?'
Jorge noticed a murmur of grudging approval from the crowded cafe. They were middle-class Hispanics who used credit cards.
Clint, on the phone: 'Okay, he's right about that.'
The governor, on the TV: 'Twenty million Americans are unemployed on Main Street, but Wall Street is making record profits. Where's Main Street's bailout?'
The murmur grew louder. Everyone in the cafe had a spouse, sibling, child, or friend who was unemployed.
'And what about that, my friend?' Jorge said.
Clint, on the phone: 'Yeah, yeah.'
The governor, on the TV: 'The government steals money from one citizen and gives it to another, but both citizens lose their freedom. One becomes dependent upon the government, the other a slave to the government.'
The murmur broke into Spanish… words of approval.
'He is very good,' Jorge said.
Clint, on the phone: 'Tell me.'
The governor, on the TV: 'I really don't care what two consenting adults do, as long as they do it inside. But, if it's okay for two men or two women to marry, then why not one woman and two men or one man and two women?… Well, actually, that should be illegal.'
The host: 'One man marrying two women? Why?'
The governor: 'No man should be forced to bear the shopping expenses of two women.'
The diners laughed heartily. And they applauded. The governor of Texas.
Clint, on the phone: 'Are they clapping? Hispanics?'
'Yes, my friend.'
The host, on the TV: 'Governor, the latest Fox News poll shows that you now hold a commanding lead among Republicans with forty-two percent. And while Obama beats every other Republican by double-digits in head-to-head matchups, he doesn't beat Bode Bonner. It's all square. Which means the Republican Party needs you. Question: Don't you want to be president?'
'I'm not running.'
'No way, no how?'
'Nope.'
'You're absolutely sure?'
The governor gave the camera a broad smile.
'Pretty sure.'
The Fox News show ended, and the cafe became noisy with animated political discourse. The proprietor changed the channel to a local Spanish station favored by his Hispanic clientele. Jorge waved to the waitress for the check.
'We've got to beat him,' Clint said.
'Next year? For the White House?'
'This year. For the Governor's Mansion.'
Jorge laughed.
'That will not happen, Clint. He is the governor-for-life.'
Clint launched into a profane narrative, so Jorge focused on the local Sunday morning show on the television. A pretty Latina reporter named Gaby Gomez introduced the lead story. That past Monday, she had journeyed to a
