He listened to my explanation and agreed to sponsor a Senate version of the bill, although he wasn’t too sure how well it would go over. I had already given my fulminating speech in the well of the House, and the Democrats weren’t overly amused. I promised to send over a copy of what we were working on, so that his legislative staff could do something with a version of their own. We were calling it the Gulf War Syndrome Research and Relief Act. We’d have to see how it would go.
I understood what Senator Kerrey meant about the Democratic leadership not being thrilled with my speech. You write these things with lots of one-liners and sound bites, in the hope that the networks pick them up, for a ten or fifteen second filler. Both NBC and CBS picked up on my comments. “Our voters have to balance their checkbooks at home! Why is it that Democratic Congressmen don’t need to balance their checkbooks?! And why is it they don’t want the voters to know this!?” ABC didn’t even pay attention to the uproar today. We all expected they would shortly, since Jim Nussle was planning to give his speech while wearing a paper bag on his head, to signify his ‘shame’ for being part of this Congress! The rest of us laughed our asses off when he told us this!
Our actions were going to cause the House Democratic leadership to start blathering about how we were upsetting the apple cart. We didn’t need Newt Gingrich to tell us that there would be complaints about partisan Republican freshmen, who didn’t understand the system, demeaning the dignity of this great institution. That would result in an immediate counteraction, where we would ask what they were trying to hide. If they tried to stifle any legislation as punishment, that would be the next week’s speech, denouncing their authoritarian tactics, and fear of what an investigation would find.
I got a call from Tim Russert’s office Friday morning, after my speech, and was asked to appear on Sunday’s This Week. I, of course, said yes. In this I was lucky, since Jim wasn’t going to do his brown bag thing until next week, at which point nobody would give two shits about me! They would all be clamoring for him! I agreed to show up, and was told I was going to be going up against Dave Bonior, the brand new House Democratic Whip. I had to get my shit together! These guys wanted to bury me, preferably after burning me alive with a stake through my heart.
The best defense is a good offense. If Bonior responded too hard to my frontal assault on the House Bank, I was going to flank him by bringing up the House Post Office scandal. The Postal Inspection Service of the U.S. Post Office had just turned over their report to the House Postmaster, Robert Rota, who had promptly given it to the wife of Tom Foley, Speaker of the House, who was burying it. If I could get Russert to start questioning Bonior, we could whipsaw the man!
I spent a lot of time on the road that weekend! Friday night I flew home in time to make a pizza and relax with my family. Saturday morning we had soccer games (boys lost, girls won.) Saturday afternoon I hustled Charlie and his bike to a race in Harford County (he won!) Saturday night I flew back to Washington, so I could appear on This Week, after which I flew home again for the rest of the weekend. I would fly back Monday morning. I was going to have to get a better schedule going, because I was exhausted!
The whipsaw technique worked great on Bonior. He hadn’t been expecting my side attack on the Post Office scandal. I kept pushing my theme of ‘Ordinary Americans have to play by the rules. Why can’t the Democrats in Congress?’ In this case, it was, “You say this is more complicated that it looks. So explain it simply, for all of us. Everybody out there in the audience has gone to a Post Office. What makes yours so special that it needs to be investigated?” Russert picked up on this and pushed the idea that where there was smoke there was fire. Why wasn’t it a good idea to find out if there was a problem? Silly question! The reason they didn’t want any investigations was because there was a problem, and they didn’t want it exposed!
In October Senator Kerrey and I put our bills into the system. I was promptly informed by Sonny Montgomery that it would be snowing in hell before any bill I introduced would ever get out of committee, let alone get passed by a Democratic Congress. I just smiled and nodded in understanding, and then counterattacked. I took out full page ads in the November issues of Army Times, Proceedings of the Naval Institute, Air Force Magazine, Coast Guard Magazine, and Leatherneck (the Marine magazine) detailing what the bill would do, and highlighting the importance of the bill. I also specified I was a veteran myself, and how I was paying for the ad out of my own pocket, and not with taxpayer funds or campaign funds. Readers should write their Congressman and Democratic Party leaders demanding the bill be passed. That got me ten minutes on Meet the Press when word hit Washington!
Marilyn and I took the kids up to Utica for a few days over the Christmas holiday, to spend time with their grandparents. After that, we took them down to Hougomont for the rest of the weekend. Monday morning I left Marilyn in the Bahamas, and flew the kids back to Utica for the remainder of the week, and then turned right around and flew back to spend the week with her.
Marilyn met me at the door of the house when I arrived. She was wearing a wrap skirt and a halter top and high heeled sandals when she greeted me. She gave me a very warm kiss when I came inside, and as I wrapped my arms around her, I couldn’t feel anything under her clothes. I rubbed her butt and got a nice wiggle in return. “Why do I think you have something planned?” I asked her.
Marilyn simply smiled. “I can’t imagine what you mean! I’m simply trying to greet my husband as a good wife should!”
“Hmmm… well, I must admit I approve of the outfit. How come you never greet me like this when I get home?”
My wife laughed. “Wouldn’t that give the kids something to talk about!”
“Remind me again why we wanted children. I keep forgetting.”
She laughed some more. “I don’t remember either. Holly and Molly are starting to play games with the teachers. They’re swapping clothes in the bathroom and switching places in class.”
“And you found out how?”
“They’ve got big mouths. They told their friends, and the whole class started giggling. Somebody blabbed to Mrs. Markell.”
“And here I thought Charlie was going to be the problem!” I just shook my head and chuckled. “What’d Mrs. Markell do? Mark them with Magic Markers?”
“Worse! Ignored them. I heard about it at a PTA meeting.”
“I like my idea better. Wait until they start dating and pull that on their boyfriends.”
Marilyn sat down on the couch and lewdly spread her legs, spreading the wrap skirt apart. “Well, did you want to keep talking about the kids, or do something else?” she asked.
I laughed as I pulled my sport shirt over my head. “Wow! Nothing like a little pressure! What’s gotten into you?”
Marilyn lewdly spread her pussy lips apart. “Nothing! That’s the problem! I need something to get into me!”
I kicked off my shoes and stripped off my pants and briefs. “I’ll see what I can do about the problem.” Then I crawled onto the couch and lay down between her legs.
As soon as I was inside her, Marilyn wrapped her arms and legs around me and began moaning as I fucked into her with long slow strokes. I made sure to throw in some hip wriggles and ground against her clit. “Fuck me! Fuck me!” she was whimpering, and she came twice before I unloaded.