"Look, Josh," Harrington said, leaning back in his chair, "I don't think I like what you're insinuating here."
"Senator," Josh started, running his fingers through his wiry hair, "I'm not trying to insinuate anything. I don't think that you knew anything about what Clift was doing in the House. Hell, Jack McCosham worked for the man and even he didn't know what was going on."
"But you couldn't help but bring up the fact that Erwin Clift and I used to play golf together every Saturday afternoon while the weather held," Harrington growled. "I've been subpoenaed already and been found by the Committee to not know anything. Just like your boy McCosham there."
"I mentioned the fact that you used to play golf together because I wanted to know if you and your wife were free Saturday afternoon for an early dinner at our place," Josh sighed, trying not to get angry with the man. Years of practice had helped him rein his temper in while talking to recalcitrant senators, but only a little. "Did you miss that part of the conversation?"
Harrington reached up a hand to twirl the end of his moustache. Josh didn't know how to take the gesture. Was Harrington getting ready to blow his top in the style of a Southern gentleman? Or was he just thinking? Josh hoped it was the latter. They had enough trouble right now without Josh causing a split between the two of the strongest Senators.
"I'll have Georgiana whip up some of her peach cobbler to bring along," he said after a moment. "And I'll make sure that I'm up on my issues. I'm assuming this is more than just a simple meal."
"It's more of a strategy session than a anything else," Josh confessed. "But have no fear, there will be food."
"Did we ever find out who told CNN the bribery stories?" Sarah asked, cradling her cell phone between her head and her shoulder. Using a skill she had picked up from Alex, she jotted notes down on the cover of her notebook as she walked. "Okay, thanks for the info. I'll be in touch."
In one quick motion, she reached up to snag her cell phone and stick her pen behind her ear. She mistimed it a little and nearly dropped the phone as she tried to snap it closed, but recovered the fumble. Neatly slipping the phone into her bag, she turned to the person beside her.
"Thanks for meeting me, Mark," she told him. "I know that you're busy with all of the last minute things for your book."
"It's no problem, Sarah," he answered. "I'm glad to be getting back in on the political side of things. And I don't really have to much else to do for the book until my editor is finished with it."
"Good," she responded, laughing. "Then we've got time for a cup of coffee while we talk. I've been dying for a good caffeine fix all morning."
Mark shook his head and followed her to the nearest coffee shop. "I'm guessing that you need a Republican insight to the whole thing?" he guessed as she placed her order with the cashier.
"Things happened way too fast to go through normal channels. And now most of our Republican sources have either cut us off for breaking the thing or are getting ready to be subpoenaed. The Democrats are a little better, but Alex and Ted can't give preferential treatment right now," she clarified, motioning for him to order something.
In the throng of people around the counter, they didn't get a chance to talk again until they had found themselves a relatively secluded table in the back corner. "I'm still a little foggy on the whole timeline thing," he admitted. "Comes with not having a cable hook-up."
"You've got that fixed?" she asked, sipping her coffee.
"You better believe that I got it fixed," he affirmed. "The second the cable company opened the next morning, I was on the phone demanding that someone come and take care of it. However, what with the speed the cable companies are known for, I didn't get anything until almost a week later."
"Monday morning, Clift said something to Alex about having to play the political game. But she didn't trust whatever he was telling her because he was selling out almost everything that had been on the Democratic agenda, even some of the things that maybe could have been passed," Sarah explained. "Anyway, she mentioned it to me, off the record, when I met with her that afternoon. I agreed to help her look into it, still off the record. But it broke on CNN that night."
"How did CNN get the whole story?"
"That's the thing, they didn't. They had some half-baked accusations on some of the senior Republican representatives in the House. I had told Danny the story after I had gotten back to my desk. I was out when it broke, but he called me in when he saw it on CNN," Sarah told him.
"Did you tell him everything?" Mark questioned.
She nodded. "He was in the same position when Jed was in the White House. He knew perfectly clear that whatever was said off the record had to stay off the record unless we cleared it with Alex and Ted. They gave the okay, but we still didn't know what we were looking at until Wednesday afternoon when we started phoning in favours."
Mark shook his head. "I can't believe how far this goes."
"I know," Sarah answered.
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"Why would the House Democratic leader sell out to the Republicans?"
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"That seems to be the question of the year," Donna commented, stretching her long legs out under the table.
"I would imagine that Josh tends to phrase it quite a bit stronger," CJ stated, turning a critical eye to her salad.
"The general thread of it seems to be wondering why the pusillanimous coward sold his soul to the earth-bound incarnations of the devil," Donna revealed with a tense smile. "But that's only when he's calmed down enough to string together coherent sentences."
"Pusillanimous?" CJ repeated, eyebrows raised.
"For some reason, I tend to think that he learned that word just for occasions like this," Donna sighed. "I hope that he cools down soon because we've got a hard fight ahead of us."
"When is the Committee starting to hand out subpoenas?" CJ asked.
"Probably early next week. We're figuring that almost all of the senior representatives, both Democratic and Republican," Donna answered. "And most of their staffers."
"And former staffers," CJ added. "Jack's expecting his, right?"
"Josh and Sam have been talking to him, trying to figure out what he knows and if anything could be held against him. But they don't want to get in too far in case they wind up getting dragged into it themselves." Donna sighed again. "Josh isn't so pleased about that. He doesn't want the Senate dragged into this at all. And he doesn't want to make it any bigger than it already is."
"His way of keeping it small is to call Clift and the party leadership parsimonious cowards?" CJ inquired incredulously.
"Pusillanimous," Donna corrected.
"Whatever," CJ replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "What's the best case scenario for this whole thing?"
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"The senior Republicans are ousted for taking bribes and the senior Democrats aren't re-elected because they sold out their constituents."
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"And what's the most realistic outcome?" Sarah questioned, jotting notes down in her notebook, her coffee set aside and long ago forgotten.
"Most of the senior Republicans are ousted for taking bribes, some of them are prosecuted. Some of the senior Democrats receive the same treatment once they've been investigated; the rest of the senior Democrats probably not re-elected for selling out their constituents. There's a general backlash against politicians in general and the Republicans sweep through with a large majority in the midterms because taking bribes isn't as bad as selling people out," Mark speculated as Sarah's pencil flew across her page, trying to keep up with him.
"How about the next general election?" Sarah asked, still writing down parts of Mark's last answer.
Mark shrugged. "It'll really depend on what happens between then and now." He stopped, waiting for her to stop writing. "Off the record?"
"Sure," she answered dropping her pen.
"Alex and Ted are the whistleblowers on this thing, even if it came about in a roundabout way, right?" he probed, wanting to be sure of his facts before he said anything too conclusive.
"Yeah," Sarah confirmed. "She and Ted were the first ones to clue into there was something going on. They did some research of their own and they were the two that turned the whole mess over to the House Official Conduct Committee. Why?"
"How she conducts herself during the next few months may very well make or break her chances to be president," he declared softly.
"But she won't be able to run for another eight years," Sarah said in surprise. "And she probably won't do it for another twelve."
"Doesn't matter," Mark answered. "What's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say Nixon?"
"Watergate," Sarah responded instantly.
"That didn't have a political hero because the press were the ones who really blew the whistle. This is ugly, Sarah, and there's no way that Alex would use it for her own political gain."
"She'd be angry that we even suggested it," Sarah agreed, starting to understand what Mark was getting at.
"I'm a Republican," Mark pointed out. "I'm not going to go around giving political pointers to the other side or discussing these sorts of things with reporters."
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"But in a conversation with an old friend, things are a little different."
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"Right," Josh scoffed, "so long as those two friends are from the same camp."
"Josh," Chris said pointedly. "This isn't about playing golf or trying to get noticed. This is about you're the best guy I know for this stuff and I wanted your advice."
Josh passed a hand down over his face, shook his head, and sighed. "Look, Chris, I'm sorry. This thing is just…"
"I know," Chris answered. "It's like that for all of us, only we're waiting for the subpoenas to come down and you don't have to worry about that so much. Half of the House is wetting themselves and the other half is trying to figure out if they're going to have to exchange pinstripes for the jailhouse kind."
"How much longer before they have to figure out what they're going to do with this?" Josh queried, pulling a legal pad out of his top drawer. Before Chris had a chance to answer, Josh was already jotting a rough timeline down on his paper, muttering aloud to himself as he went.
"Monday was the start of the investigation; CNN broke the Republican rumours the same night. Thursday the Post broke the whole story, both sides." Josh looked up at Chris, asking, "What day did Alex and Ted file the complaints with the Committee?"
"Wednesday afternoon."
Josh crossed out the last line he had written and replaced it with the note 'Complaint filed', writing that the story had broken on the line beneath it. "How long was it in the Committee before they set up the investigative subcommittee?"
"Two weeks. They couldn't keep it any longer without invoking the considerable wrath of the press and they couldn't move it any faster under House rules." Chris shook his head and sighed. "God, Josh, I don't know how this could have happened. I mean, Clift has been there for decades."
Josh ignored the question and kept jotting down his notes. After a moment he sighed, "Next Tuesday, the earliest. I don't think they'll wait any longer than the Tuesday after that. People are going to want to see things happening so this is going to be fast-tracked as much as it can be. I'm sure they'll be taking testimony by the last week in June."
"That's what we figured too," Chris responded. "We figure anyone who's been there longer than ten years, anyone in a senior position in either party, all of the Florida representatives, Keegan, both McCoshams, any senior staffers to most of the representatives being called, and anyone who's worked with Clift or LeClerc for the past six years."
"That's at the very least," Josh confirmed. "I can't give you legal advice…"
"I wouldn't want it," Chris interrupted. "You're a crappy lawyer, Josh."
Josh glared at him. "As I was saying, I can't give you legal advice, but if it were me, I'd have everyone making up lists of all of their interns, staffers, assistants, campaign donators, and anyone who's had policy influence in the past six or eight years."
Chris reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose as he stood. "I don't know how we got into this. I really don't know."
"With both the House leaders embroiled in this thing, who's running stuff down there?" Josh couldn't help but ask.
"Not much of anyone yet," Chris answered honestly. "Anyone with the experience is either being implicated or is probably a major witness. Pretty much the only people not involved at all are first or second term and don't have a clue which way is up. The people in the middle are trying to help as best they can, but it takes time for the cream to rise to the top, especially when no one's sure of who to trust."
"Who's it looking like?"
"Morano, Pichel, Sneider, or Burris for the Republicans. Holloway or O'Shea have the seniority on our side, but Keegan and McCosham are the two that seem to be rising to the task."
"Those two aren't exactly freshmen anymore," Josh pointed out.
"Three terms doesn't exactly make you a senior either," Chris noted. "Take care of yourself and stay out of reach of the subpoenas."
"It'd be easier if I didn't have you guys coming to me," Josh complained, grinning at Chris for the first time in the conversation.
"Well, you know that it's only because Sam's out in California," Chris shot back, returning the grin and making a hasty exit.