Chapter 2

January 21

RAYBURN BUILDING

"Congressman! Congressman! What's your reaction to the education bill?"

"Which do you care about more? The bill's existence or who leaked its existence to you?"

You didn't often hear the Washington press corps struck silent even momentarily. But it was rare that any elected representative challenged a reporter on what the media cared about more. It was nearly ten seconds before someone in the Dallas Morning-News managed a follow-up question.

"Did you leak the bill?"

Henry smiled. "I think you know very well it wasn't me. Now either you've all come here because its an extremely slow news day, or you've received somewhere between three hundred to four hundred no comments already and you were expecting more of the same just so you could say you did your due diligence."

"There's also the fact that you've never said anything that shows you public endorse the President," Janine Skorzky asked.

"So naturally he entrusted what will be, let me just see if I remember it, 'what he wanted Congress to pass within the first 100 days' to a representative who was not only among the least able to pass it but who he would entrust the least," Henry said whimsically. "Are you doing this alphabetically or by process of elimination?"

"Honestly we were just looking for someone who'd give us the time of day," the reporter from the Boston Globe said.

There was general laughter. Malloran was one of the more respected by all reporters, because he was always willing to talk them and always willing to be forthright.

"Look, I have no idea who would do such a thing." Henry said sincerely. "And even I did, you know perfectly well I'm honor bound by party unity not to tell you. But since you did ask me about my reaction to this bill, I think it's a fine idea." He paused. "So was the League of Nations. So is universal health care. So was the Equal Right Amendment. Rhetoric on the campaign trail and speeches often leads itself to great ideas. But when it comes to doing the hard work of passage, they will far too often be compromised to the point they are thin soup. If President Walker is serious about the passage of this bill and if Congressman Blythe is to be the face of it, then he might very well be on the right track. If, however, he chooses to bend to public pressure and remove Blythe from the leadership, then he has shown, as he did during the primaries, that he will fold when the fire gets too hot."

"Is your support for the bill conditional on that?" Goodwin asked.

Henry smiled. "The bill hasn't even been presented to me in any form. Making judgments like that would be beyond presumptuous. And as you all know, the President is far from likely to pay attention to my comments even if they were to appear on the front page of every one of your papers rather than, if I am fortunate, being referred to for twenty seconds in a local Boston TV station."

Again everyone laughed. "But on the always remote chance that the President happens to listen to these comments, I would like to make a personal comment. If Garrett Walker continues to make appointments to his cabinet of the line of Michael Kern as Secretary of State then I can tell him with great sincerity that many of my doubts about him as a leader have been resolved."

I know that what I just did may have sounded reckless and stupid. But it was low risk. There might be one, possibly two editors that give me some column space tomorrow, but in honesty, I think the twenty seconds I talked about is a generous explanation.

But sometimes you have go on fishing expeditions even if you know you won't catch anything. And given the game that's being played the whales involved aren't even going to notice. What I am trying to find out is what happens in the next twenty-four hours.

I don't have a clue who leaked the story on the education bill. I can guess but that's a different thing from proving. What I care about more is what I asked in the first question. How did Zoey Barnes, a nobody journalist in the premier paper in DC, get the biggest story of the day? Who was the go-between that Underwood used to make sure this got out and didn't touch him?

Donald Blythe is about to have throat cut when it comes to this bill. Whether the President or Underwood is holding the knife is irrelevant, all that matters is the bill he wants to sponsor is dead and a new version is going to come out. Underwood was going to be responsible for getting it through the House regardless; the next move is who Walker chooses to lead the fight.

The second poke was riskier. I don't know if Underwood will hear it; he's going to be busy the next few weeks marshalling his resources. But someone on his staff will. The question will be once he hears a sheep baying, how will the wolf react?

MALLORAN OFFICE

"See this is why I should never leave your side even for a matter of days," Jerry Renault said. "Walker hasn't been President for twenty-four hours and you're already baiting him."

"As I recall I did a lot of that during the primaries and you never objected," Henry reminded him. "Are you jealous you weren't there to suggest better lines?"

"You were always your own best speechwriter," Jerry said with a smile. "Something that'll piss a lot of people off in the next of couple of years,"

"You always had more confidence in me than I did in myself," Henry smiled back. "But seriously, what news from the Charles?"

"No one in the district wants their money back yet," Jerry said. "And more importantly no one from the DNC is putting feelers out."

"Considering how the governor's race went they may have more pressing matters on their mind right now," Henry said.

"Something our people will be doing everything in their power to make clear the next few months," Jerry said.

"You weren't in the room for the meeting. So now I'm going to ask you the two questions you know that are coming." Henry said.

"I already have the answers."

Sometimes when you've known your campaign manager for eighteen years it can be irritating. Most of the time, like now, it's invaluable.

"First question."

"No I don't think you're crazy to think the way you did about what would happen to your seat," Jerry said. "As you might recall, I rather strongly advised you to at least make a tepid endorsement of Walker in October."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "I've heard you strenuously advise me to make decisions when I was vehemently opposed. If that was the case, you were doing a piss-poor job."

"You want to fire me?"

"I want you to keep getting paid as long as possible."

"Because of what you did, my job security may be less tenable than yours." Jerry turned serious. "Look I get why you did what you did. Was it the most politically astute thing you could have done? Absolutely not. But that's not why I got on to your first campaign. Everybody else in politics takes the safe ground. You never did on a lot of harder decisions. This was an easy one."

"Maybe it wasn't as smart as I thought. Walker did dropkick Underwood the first chance he got."

Jerry's grin completely disappeared. "And that worries me more than if Underwood had been at State. Apparently Walker never heard LBJ's advice about making sure that certain people were pissing inside your tent than outside it."

"He's been playing the good solider the last few weeks."

"We both know that's bullshit."

Henry nodded. "I've had Jane putting out feelers to the press, trying to figure out how Zoey Barnes happened to learn about the education bill. "

"See no evil, hear no evil?"

"Not quite. Janine was willing to have a conversation with Jane. She told me Zoey was ambitious to a fault. But she's also low man even on the Star totem pole."

"I know. I've had my share of encounters with her." Jerry paused. "She's rather attractive."

"Forget it. No reporter would whore themselves out for anyone on Underwood's staff. And no one who works for Underwood would make themselves that open to exposure." Henry said concretely.

"You've been doing a lot of tapdancing. Why not use your usual directness?" Jerry said.

"I know that chiefs of staff are supposed to think their bosses are omnipotent, but we both know what I could give her as a quid pro quo," Henry told him.

"Not yet. Let's leave that aside for now. I have an answer to your second question. And it's more complicated." Jerry opened his satchel. "You won reelection with 61 percent of the vote, which is the highest margin any Democrat has managed in nearly fifty years. You ran ahead of Walker in your district by a full eight points. "

"I always knew my constituents were smarter than they seemed," Henry said.

"And apparently that feeling is bipartisan. Sixteen percent of Republicans voted for you. So did thirty-two percent of independents." Jerry reached for another paper. "In a larger poll in Massachusetts, you rank third among candidates to challenge for the Governor's race in four years and second to replace Halsey in two."

"That's assuming he doesn't stand for another term. He's only eighty-four, you know."

"Practically a spring chicken in the Senate, I know," Jerry said, not really joking. "Your numbers among independents are fourth of all Massachusetts Congressmen and sixth among Republicans. So," Jerry paused, "if you wanted to do what you're talking about, it's possible in Massachusetts. A snowball's chance, I know but what were the chances of the Sox coming back from 3 games down in '04?"

"Slightly better than them losing the Series with one out to go in the tenth in '86," Henry countered.

"Let's not stretch the metaphor. And besides, it was only Game 6." Jerry reminded him. "Point is, in our state, the impossible can happen."

"That's something, at least." Henry paused. "The problem is I do this alone, it's an anomaly. Jeffords, Lieberman, an anomaly. We both know for this to work I can't be alone."

"And there you and I are in agreement. To do the kind of grass roots thing you're talking about you need four years minimum and if you're right, you've got one at the most." Jerry nodded. "My job is to give it you with the bark off. It's one in a million at best."

"With the bark still off, what is your advice for me?"

"You're fucked. Five ways from Sunday, if not six." Jerry sat down.

That's the thing about your friends. They tell you the truth even when it hurts like hell.

"So is this where I start writing my political eulogy?"

"That was my advice as your best friend. So now I'm going to put my chief of staff hat on." Jerry made a motion. "Since the moment I met you in school, I knew you were the kind of person I knew I could trust. I had fought a war on my own for months. It was lonely, no one understood why I was fighting it, I'm not sure I even did. I really thought I was going to die for nothing."

We talk about school a lot. But he never talks about what happened before we met. I don't blame him. It was gossip for months and we all saw what happened. "Jerry?"

"When I decided to go back, I lost my best friend. That was worse than everything else, even the beating." Jerry wasn't looking at Henry any more. "I understood why he did what he did, just as I couldn't really understand why I did what I did. I just kept coming back to that phrase."

"'Do I dare disturb the universe?' We used a variation of that for my first run for elected office.

"What we started twenty years ago should have been impossible. But we did it." Jerry was smiling. "How much harder can this be by comparison?"

"Much, much harder. Considering still I have no idea how to hell to even begin." Henry said.

"Oh I don't have a clue myself," Jerry had a bigger smile. "Which is why we're going to have to something even harder. You're going to have to be the good solider for the party. At least until they decide to cast you aside."

"They're not going to even try to do anything until after the off-year election. Too messy." Jerry agreed. "So we've got what, ten months to figure our next step. And that is an eternity. Certainly for Walker, definitely for the Democrats."

"I do have an idea for what you can do. But you're going to hate it." Jerry said.

"Please tell me you want me to strip naked and streak down the aisle," Henry said.

"That might be less humiliating then what you know I'm talking about."

Henry walked over to his desk, sat down and dropped his head on it. "I've managed to spend the last eight years doing everything possible not to land on the radar of our esteemed majority whip. He's never had to ask me for a vote, I'm never asked him for a favor, I'm pretty sure I've been in his office six times since we got the majority back."

"You really think he doesn't know you exist?"

Henry lifted his head from the desk. "I've done everything in my power for him not to spare a thought in that corkscrew brain it is about the distinguished gentleman who represents the Massachusetts eighth. Oscar Wilde was wrong, when it comes to Underwood the best thing is not being talked about, at least in his office."

"Need I remind you that you managed to talk about him without talking about him earlier this week?" Jerry asked. "You think Stamper's not going to file it away if by some miracle Underwood misses it?"

"He'll get it and he'll file it away. I'm betting that he cares more about the immediate problem that someone he hasn't had to deal with. And we both know that he's going to be in this up to his eyeballs."

"That's what chiefs of staff are for." Jerry agreed. "All right. You claim to know what Underwood's next move is going to be. What is it?"

"Blythe just got gutted on the front page of the Star. The next step is to take him off the board. He'll either jump or be pushed, it doesn't really matter." Henry theorized. "Underwood wants to prove that he's worthy of being the good soldier in the President's fight."

"He takes lead on the bill." Jerry finished. "I think we know what the first step is. And I also think we know the best way to take the heat off you."

CAFETERIA

"How's your guy holding up?" Jerry asked.

"You asking for your guy?" Doug asked in turn.

"As someone who has to deal with a temperamental boss," Jerry said with a shrug.

Doug gave a small smile. "He says he fine. And by this point I know better than to pry."

"Can I say he's pouting like Achilles in his den? We both know it's a lie, but I have to stroke my boss' ego a little."

"Your man has principles. Those usually go away after the first year."

"If you're going to bullshit me and say there's no hard feelings…"

Doug waved it off. "We know why he said what he did yesterday. The guy never liked Walker. It was an idiotic thing to do, by the way."

"Which is why I'm here, unfortunately." Jerry sighed. "How much groveling is he going to have to do to get back in the party's good graces?"

Doug kept his stone face. "The Party has no reason to want to hurt Malloran."

"The President does, and right now he's the leader of the Party." Jerry said. "He made a list when the campaign started, and we both know Henry is not on the nice side of it."

Doug considered this. "Malloran hasn't asked for a favor in eight years."

"Has he needed to?"

"Not since we took the majority back, no," Doug admitted. "Is he asking for one now?"

"He wants to know just how much crow he'd have to eat."

"As far as Underwood's concerned, none. He can't speak for 1600."

"The Congressman wouldn't dare to presume. But you've been here twice as long as I have. Do you have any advice?"

Doug considered this. "Nothing you haven't told him yourself. Play the good soldier and tow the party line."

"He figured that out the day after Walker was elected." Jerry said. "Short of having the President's name tattooed on his chest, he'd like to now how he can prove his loyalty."

Doug kept his poker face. "Malloran never struck me as the kind of man who just followed orders blindly."

"He's ambitious, and he wants to stay politically alive long enough to make sure he can realize them."

"Has he told you what they are yet?"

"As he keeps telling me, if he did they wouldn't be a secret?" Jerry smiled. "Let's just that while he loves his district, he doesn't want to represent it for the rest of his life."

Doug nodded. "Has he got a timetable for them?"

"If he does, he hasn't let me on it yet. Amy knows, not me." Jerry paused. "What kind of gossip do you have on the other side of the hill?"

"You want to me ask about Halsey?"

"Just don't have Underwood challenge him to a race up the stairs," Jerry said with a smile.

"Is that where it starts or where it ends?"

"We both know regardless of how the next two years go the Senate's will be a tough road in 2014." Jerry said. "And everybody on my staff knows as well, if not better, that there is one elected office in Massachusetts that is not held by a Democrat."

"The Governor's race isn't for another two years. Are you asking if Halsey will live that long?"

"He's not. I am." Jerry said flatly. "And for the record, this is between chiefs of staff. If my guy hears about this, my name never comes up."

"You know me," Doug said with genuine emotion. "I know the code."

"Congressman Malloran is a good man. He doesn't make enemies. That's my job. It's also my job to protect him from the sometimes weaker elements of his nature. Something I clearly failed at during the campaign." Jerry sighed. "Now I have to damage control without letting him know I'm doing damage control."

"It's what we signed up for." Doug now had genuine sympathy.

"Yeah and sometimes I really wish I listened to my mother and joined the priesthood." Henry said. "Then I remember how much I hate the clergy." He smiled. "I'm sorry that I turned this into a bitch session. How are you doing?"

"Same old, same old."

"I wasn't asking about your boss. I was asking about how you were doing."

For just a moment Jerry thought that Doug saw a look of surprise on his face before the veil went back up.

"Come on, Doug. I know how this job is based on the principle of fecal gravity. And I know as bad as it is for me, it must be worse for the man who has the job of working the majority whip." Jerry said with sympathy. "Given how the President's legislative agenda ended up on the front page before Congress was even gaveled into session I can see the progression. Walker screams at Vasquez, Vasquez berates Birch, Birch bellows at Underwood and he's going to start yelling at everyone in sight. Which will include every congressman on this side of the aisle as well as his staff."

"Blythe is still handling the education bill," Doug said.

"Which is going to make Underwood's job all the harder," Henry said. "Look I'm never gonna say a bad word about Donald Blythe but the man's always had a hard job balancing pragmatism and idealism."

"And your guy isn't?" Doug said doubtfully.

Jerry paused. "When Robert LaFollette came to the Senate in 1906, he was the kind of Progressive we all hate. He believed in his righteousness and that compromise was a dirty word. TR was the kind of President he should have liked but they never got along. TR was in the midst of trying to get the Hepburn Bill through Congress and LaFollette, who hadn't been in the Senate more than a few months thought it was too weak. TR gives him a private audience and La Follette spends two hours denouncing the bill and expanding his own one. Roosevelt tells him that this bill has absolutely no chance of getting through Congress. La Follette looks the President dead in the eye and tells him that getting it through Congress is not his first consideration. Roosevelt tells him: 'I want to get something through."

Doug actually chuckled. "I see that even after 100 years the left hasn't changed."

"Blythe is so shackled to his ideals that he will put forth a bill where passage is not something he cares about. For all his flaws, Malloran does get that half a loaf is better than starving to death." Jerry paused. "You'd think that the President would realize that."

"Your guy said something very different to the reporters yesterday," Doug pointed out.

"Did you really expect him to dump on the President when he was vulnerable? Malloran knows he's in the crosshairs already. Even he knows kicking the President before the legislative session has even begun is a way to make his own situation worse. Malloran can be an iconoclast. That doesn't mean he's also not a pragmatist."

Doug put his poker face back on. "So what's your guys position going forward?"

"As he puts it he has three responsibilities. To his voters, his party and the nation." Jerry said. "He's proven his loyalty to the first two, and he'll do what it takes to carry out the third." He paused. "Whatever form that is."

MAJORITY WHIP OFFICE

"Jerry Renault and I had lunch today." Doug said.

"We have a problem with Malloran?" Underwood asked.

"Maybe the opposite."

"So it wasn't the press he was talking to yesterday." Underwood said. "You know outside of a few meetings at the beginning of his first term, I don't think I've talked to him more than three or four times."

"We've never had to, sir. With three exceptions, he's always been willing to follow the party line." Doug said.

"It's the problem children we worry about and we never have to pay attention to the good ones." Underwood said. "Took balls for him not to endorse Walker even after the convention."

"How pissed was the President?"

"More concerned about winning the Oval than having to deal with his enemies." Underwood said. "I'll confess I was thinking he might be a problem in the legislative session to come. But even after things changed I wasn't sure how reliable an asset he'd be."

"Renault hinted he has long terms plans."

"Senate or governor?"

"Renault said he wasn't sharing with him yet. Obviously he's lying but he wasn't going to put all his cards out on the table all at once."

"What did he say about the education bill?"

"Renault's like every legislative aide; he's skilled at talking in code. And considering what he seems to be hinting at, he was acting like this was East Berlin just before the Wall went up." Doug said. "One thing came very clear. His boss is a pragmatist."

"Which Donald Blythe never has been." Underwood said.

"How do you want me to play this?"

"For now, just keep the lines of communication open. We've got bigger fish to fry right now and Malloran can't help us there yet." Underwood had been looking at his computer and sighed. "That's the problem when people are loyal. You don't need to exploit them, so you get lax. Not that I would have made much of an effort anyway. His district is so safe the only way to find leverage would have been self-defeating."

Doug thought for a moment. "There is one thing that was strange about his inner circle. I didn't think much of it at the time but it might be useful."

"I'm listening."

"Renault and Malloran go back to high school together and a lot of them are from that period. I looked at the bio when he was a freshman Congressman. Henry Malloran went to a Catholic high school called Trinity in the early 1990s."

"That's not earth shaking. Irish Catholic is practically a requirement to get elected in Boston."

"No but this might be. Trinity High School doesn't exist anymore. Ten years ago, it was shut down by a Boston archdiocese and the Massachusetts school board."

Underwood thought for a moment. "What was Henry Malloran doing back then?"

"He was working in the Boston DA's office. I did some checking on it back then when he was running in the primary eight years ago, wanted to see if there was anything that might come back to bite either us or the DNC. There wasn't any apparent connection, not in his case files or anything he did during that period. Here's the thing. You can't win a race in his district without the endorsement of at least some version of the Catholic church, even if it's the local diocese. Malloran never even took a photo op at a local soup kitchen."

Now Underwood looked interested. "And the church didn't endorse his opponent?"

"That's the real mystery. Henry Malloran seems to be the only politician in the state of Massachusetts who not only has had Catholic endorsement but where as far as the church is concerned, doesn't exist. They've never endorsed any of his Republican challengers, and even though he's made it very clear that religion has no place in politics there hasn't even been a parish priest who has said boo in eight years."

Underwood was genuinely impressed. "Are you saying that Henry Malloran has some kind of leverage with the Massachusetts diocese?"

"And in Boston the only individual who can get away with that kind of thing is God himself."

"Note the moment Doug. This is genuinely impressive even by my standards."

"What do you want me do with it?"

Underwood paused. "Save it for a rainy day. Right now we've got more to worry about then the possible weakness in a potential ally."

"Such as a weakness in the potential nominee for Secretary of State." Doug agreed. "I have to be honest that was slightly tougher than Malloran." He paused. "Though not impossible."