Happy Thoughts
Chapter 7
One month later
"I can't believe it." Donna raved as she read the papers in front of her. "Not only did we get the amendment tacked on to a bill, but we have enough votes to get it passed."
"Believe it." Ted beamed. "You've done an amazing job of galvanizing the votes in Congress. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your hard work."
"Thanks." She was so relieved that things were going well with this project. And although things were awkward at times with Josh, nothing major had come up from this to derail their relationship.
There was a knock on the door. Her boss' secretary stuck her head in.
"Sir, Senator Tripplehorn is here to see you."
"Send him in." Ted nodded.
A moment later, Tripplehorn entered the room. She smiled until she saw the look on his face. "What's wrong?"
"The Veteran's Affairs bill has been sent back to committee." He answered.
"Why?" She asked.
"That's something you would have to ask Josh." He explained. "It seems one of the more loyal members to the Bartlett administration has sent the bill back to committee. They are planning on holding it there indefinitely."
She thought about it for a moment and it made sense. Josh was having them send the bill back to committee so it couldn't be voted on, and in the meantime was going to work on swaying people away from the amendment.
"How worried should we be?" Ted asked.
"It's definitely a setback." Tripplehorn answered.
It wasn't just a setback though. It was a huge roadblock. The longer the bill stayed in committee, the more likely they were to lose their votes for the amendment. She wasn't sure how to combat this yet.
"Donna?" Her boss' voice brought her out of her own mind.
"Yeah?" She answered.
"I asked what you were going to do." Ted repeated.
There was only one thing she could do. She had to go see Josh. "I am going to go take care of this."
Without giving anyone else a chance to say anything, she bolted from the room.
It was easy for her to get into the White House since she was still on the list of approved visitors. All she had to do was say who she was there to see and they let her in. So it didn't take long for her to get in. Her first stop was Josh's office. Unfortunately it was empty. So she sighed and sat in his chair to wait for him.
It took about ten minutes before he came flying into the room, immediately stopping when he saw her there.
"Well this is a nice surprise!" He grinned. "What brings you here in the middle of the day?"
He came closer so she got up from the chair and walked to the other side of the room. "Why are you keeping the Veteran's Affairs bill in committee?"
His face fell. He must have realized that this wasn't a social call. She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Who says I am?" He went over to his desk and put the folder he had been holding down.
"I know you, Josh. I know this is one of your tactics." She explained. "You know that we have the votes to make the bill go through with the amendment so you are keeping it in committee until public pressure mounts to the point that the amendment gets dropped."
"The White House doesn't and can't have any power to keep a bill in committee." He reasoned. "You know that."
"I know the truth. You're using Stackhouse to keep it in committee, aren't you?" She questioned. She thought about it a lot on the trip over and concluded that Stackhouse was the likely choice. It was the play she would have done in Josh's situation.
"I'm not confirming or denying anything." He shrugged.
"C'mon Josh, it's over." She scoffed. "We have the votes. Just let us have the win. It doesn't have to get ugly."
"I've told you since the beginning that the White House isn't going to treat you any differently just because of who you are. This is something we don't want passed. I've warned you not to go after it. I've warned you it could get ugly and you kept saying it would be fine. Well things don't seem fine right now."
"Because you're being a child!" She yelled. "We got the votes. You lost fair and square but instead of taking it like a man and moving on you are changing the rules at the eleventh hour."
"You haven't won." He pointed out. "You don't win until the bill gets passed with the amendment and it isn't going to happen."
"Yeah because you're making sure of that." She scoffed again. "You know that this isn't right or fair. You know that, right?"
"Donna, this isn't personal."
"Right." She nodded. "Well this isn't over. You said things would get ugly and now you have ensured that will happen."
She turned to leave, only stopping when she felt him grab her arm.
"Donna, come on. It's just a job. Why can't you let it go?"
"Because it's my job and I take pride in my job." She told him calmly. "I know you don't understand that though."
"It shouldn't be your job." He said quietly.
She wanted to pretend she didn't hear that. She wanted to pretend that it didn't anger her. She wanted to pretend that she could rise above his little remark and not take the bait. But she couldn't. "What exactly does that mean?"
"It shouldn't be your job." He said a little louder. "You shouldn't be working for these people. You should be back at the White House."
"You mean I should still be your assistant." She corrected him. "Just admit it, you don't see me as anything other than an assistant. You don't think I'm capable of anything else. That's why you won't just let the bill go through. Because then you would have to admit that maybe, just maybe, I am capable of more."
"That's not fair to say." He complained.
"But it's the truth and I don't hear you denying it." She shook her head. For whatever reason, it seemed like he was incapable of taking her seriously, always just seeing her as his assistant and nothing more. Everything she had done to get this amendment going, to get the votes…it didn't matter to him. It didn't change his mind about her abilities. While it made her angry, she was more saddened by it than anything else. "This fight isn't over. I'm going to get that bill out of committee one way or another."
"It's not going to happen." He sighed.
"We'll see about that." She said before leaving.
When she got back to the office, she headed to her boss' office. It surprised her that the Minority Leader was still there. "Hello." She greeted as she entered the room.
"Oh good, you're back." Ted smiled.
"Yeah. I went to go see if Josh would release the bill from committee but that's not going to happen. He wants to keep it there until we lose enough votes and the amendment fails."
"We've actually been thinking about this and we have something that we think will work to get them to release the bill." Ted explained.
"Ok." She was hopeful since she hadn't come up with a plan yet. "What is it?"
"You make this statement to a reporter." Tripplehorn passed a sheet to her.
She read it quickly and then read it again slower, trying to make sure that she wasn't missing something. This statement…she didn't know if she could do it. Her boss seemed to sense her hesitance.
"Is something wrong with the statement?" Ted asked.
"It's just…this is rather harsh." She settled on those words to describe it.
"We feel we have to be harsh in this situation. The administration is withholding a vital bill giving 1.2 billion in extra benefits to veterans from being voted on simply because there is an amendment worth 16 million attached. It's disgusting that they are playing this kind of politics."
"I agree that they shouldn't be holding the bill in committee." She conceded. "But this…this is going to incite a war."
"The war has already been started." Tripplehorn informed her. "It's just a matter of what are we willing to do to win the war."
She wasn't sure she was willing to go this far. "Can't we change some of the tone of this statement? It's going to cause a lot of trouble."
"This is the course we feel we should take." Ted told her. "You don't have to participate, but if you don't then we will have to reconsider your employment here."
She somehow knew that was going to come up. A part of her wanted to say forget it and walk out the door. But she had worked her butt off the last month getting this put together. She didn't want to see Josh dismantle everything she worked so hard to build. She wanted to prove to herself, as well as Josh, that she could do this.
Still, she knew that this statement was going to cause a lot of trouble for her relationship with Josh. He was going to be furious.
"We can have a member of the press here in less than an hour to do an interview." Ted told her.
He must have sensed her internal conflict because he pulled her off to the side of the room.
"Look, I know you are involved with Josh. I realize this puts you in an awkward position. But this is politics. It isn't personal." Ted explained quietly.
"That's what Josh tried to tell me today too." She acknowledged.
"You tried to go to him and work something out. He refused. If this was any other person and any other situation, what would you do?" Ted asked.
She thought about it. Attacking the other side with the truth, especially when the truth was ugly, would be the course of action she would take. But this was…these were her friends and Josh. She didn't want to hurt them. And this statement would cause a lot of problems for them and the President.
"I'll do it." She finally relented.
"Thank you." Ted smiled.
"But I get to pick the reporter." She demanded.
Within an hour, Danny was entering her office. She felt more comfortable with giving the statement to him since he was a familiar face. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. Although her boss wanted her to go with the original statement, she couldn't do it. She had to alter it and had been working on a way to alter it so that there wasn't as much fall-out on the president. She couldn't say the same about possible fall-out for Josh though.
"Nice to see you again, Donna." Danny greeted.
"You too." She smiled, motioning for him to sit.
"So I hear you want to talk about the Veterans Affairs bill."
"Yes." She nodded. "I'm not sure if you are aware, but the bill is being held back in committee unnecessarily."
"Really? Why?"
She could see she had his attention now and continued. "I've been working with members of Congress to get an amendment attached to the bill. The amendment contains the portions of the President's education bill that got cut out before it went to a vote. There are enough votes to get the amendment added, as well as enough votes to pass the Veteran's Affairs bill in both houses of Congress."
"So if the votes are there, then why isn't it being sent to the floor?" Danny asked.
"That's the million dollar question, isn't it?" She sighed. "The White House is using a senator to keep the bill off the floor with the hopes that the amendment will lose support. It is egregious that they are trying to stop a bill that would inject 1.2 billion dollars into veteran benefits just to cut down a 16 million dollar amendment which would make such a huge difference to America's children."
"Why would the White House do that?" Danny asked. "Besides, they aren't supposed to interfere with the business of Congress like that. How far up do you think this goes?"
"To be clear, I don't think the president is in on this. I think this action is coming from one person who is clearly overestimating their power and reach by playing God with Congress." She wanted to make sure that the president wasn't implicated in this, even though the original statement made it sound like the president was the mastermind.
"Do you have a name?" Danny asked.
"Joshua Lyman." She stated.
"Tell me more." Danny smiled.