“The charges that were never actually brought? Or were they brought and then officially expunged?” I asked. “That was the end of my career, so I never paid it any attention.”
“The records are there, but buried deep. If you had pushed this to the limit, they wouldn’t have stayed buried.”
I sighed. “I thought as much. As I said before, if there is a price to pay, I will pay it. I just couldn’t allow Hawkins back in. Should I be contacting a lawyer?” Theoretically, if the Army wanted to pursue this, they could ‘un-retire’ me for the purposes of a court martial.
“No. This is done for now. Unlike some of our esteemed colleagues, I actually believe that some secrets should be kept secrets. I have no interest in digging it up, and neither did the Army. Newt knows, but you play for his team, so that won’t be a problem. One of these days, though, it will probably surface. You might want to give that some thought. No good deed goes unpunished, that sort of thing,” Boren said.
I sighed again. “Senator, I just did what I had to do. I got my men home. Nothing else mattered. It was my fault we were there to begin with. If I had refused the jump maybe somebody else would have refused, and we could have gotten the whole mess cancelled.” I shrugged and looked at him. “I’ve thought a lot about it over the years.”
“Son, don’t overthink it. You weren’t the only officer that jumped that day, and they weren’t your men to command. Don’t go looking for trouble. Just remember that it will all come out some day. Nothing stays secret in this town, at least not forever. I mean, I love these conspiracy nuts who think the CIA had Kennedy killed. There’d have been a dozen eyewitness books out by now if that had happened!” He laughed at the idea.
I had to smile at that and nod, and with that, the meeting was over. He stood, so I did, too, and he ushered me out, shaking my hand at the door. I had dodged another bullet.
At the end of the day I went home. I was taking off for a couple of weeks until after the New Year. We reconvened on January 5 and I needed to be present to be sworn in with the 103rd Congress. Until then, we would take the Christmas break and visit Marilyn’s family and then go to Hougomont for a little sand and sunshine.
Meanwhile, however, what Gingrich had spoken about was running through my mind. It got to the point that by the time we were in the Bahamas, I found myself sitting on the beach watching the kids run around, but with a notepad and pen in my lap. Marilyn was at my side, in a one-piece bathing suit, straw hat, and oversized sunglasses, laying on a beach lounger and catching some rays. I was in swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and my own straw hat. Between us in a bucket was a bag of ice with a six pack of Coronas. Charlie was down trying to body surf the miniscule waves, and his seven year old sisters, Holly and Molly, were working on a sandcastle.
Marilyn reached between us to open a beer. “What in the world are you working on?” she asked.
I smiled at her and waved my pad. “This is my plan for global domination.”
“Feeling ambitious, are we?”
“Today Hereford, tomorrow the world!” I intoned.
“Give me a break!” she said with a snort.
“When I’m done, the Democratic Party will be in full retreat. Your parents will have to move to Canada or be charged with treason.”
“What about me?” my wife asked. “I’m a Democrat, remember!”
I waved my pad at her. “We have a provision in the party platform to allow for sleeping with Republicans.”
“Keep it up, wise guy. Sleeping will be all that goes on.”
I grabbed my pen. “I think I’m going to modify the platform, require something a little more concrete, maybe involving kneepads and handcuffs.”
“I don’t want to know!”
I grabbed a beer and yelled, “Hey, you two, Mommy wants to be buried in the sand!”
Marilyn popped up and began to argue, as Holly and Molly scampered over eagerly. They were sent back towards the water. I could see their brother just shaking his head in our direction. Grownups!
In between teasing Marilyn and chasing the kids, I managed to write some notes down. I knew what would work to put the party back into power. My problem was that I wanted it to be done on my terms, and not the terms of the hard right wing of the party. I was personally part of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, which was about the only way I could get elected in Maryland. Unfortunately, while some of my personal feelings were in line with the Democrats, the leadership in the Democratic Party was much more interested in maintaining power and the current status quo. Changes needed to be made, and the only way that would happen was a palace revolt. The Republicans had to regain control of Congress, something that hadn’t been done since the Fifties!
I spent the rest of the time in the Bahamas making notes. Marilyn glanced at them from time to time, but in most ways she just didn’t care. Yes, she was a Democrat, but she was much more conservative than her parents. Politically, we met very much in the middle, which allowed us to tease each other constantly. The standard joke was that we had to go to the polls together, so that we could cancel each other out.
When we flew home, I called John Boehner and Jim Nussle and told them about my conversation with Newt, and about getting together in the clubhouse for a strategy session. We made a date for the Tuesday after the session started, the 12th, and they promised to corral the rest of the Gang of Eight plus Newt for a meeting at the house. I started fleshing my ideas out in the meantime, typing them up and figuring things out. I also picked up a couple of whiteboards, easels, and easel pads.
Marilyn and the kids came down to D.C. that weekend and I spent part of Saturday setting up some things in the den and prepping one of the easel pads into a flip chart. Charlie came in at one point and asked, “What are you doing, Dad?”
“Homework!”
“You’re not in school.”
“That just makes it even more important,” I told him.
“That sucks!” he replied.
I rolled my eyes but tried to keep it from my son. Marilyn might say he was too much like me, but he wasn’t an academic. It was a little more like Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold proudly talking about his son Rusty in Vegas Vacation — ‘He’s a C+ student!’ It was time to put my foot down. I looked down at him and said, “What about you? Have you done your homework?”
He gave me a look and said, “I don’t have any homework.”
“You don’t have any homework, or you don’t have any homework here?”
“Dad!” he protested, with a very guilty look on his face.
I put my hands on my hips and gave him the stare down. “You ever try to pull a stunt like this again, you won’t be able to sit for a week. You think I’m tough? I learned from people who would eat you alive! Until you hear otherwise, I will be checking your homework nightly. You want me to start calling your teachers and asking them if you have any homework?”
“Dad!” He had a panicked look in his eyes at the suggestion.
“Out! And don’t try this one again!” I pointed towards the door and he scooted out at high speed.
Marilyn came in about a minute later. “What did you say to your son?”
I gave her a wry smile. “Just that he had to do his homework.” She gave me a curious look. “He tried to pull a fast one on me by telling me he didn’t have any homework, when he meant to say he didn’t have any here. He really left it home.”
Marilyn replied, “That little shit!” but she was smiling as she said it.
“So I chewed his ass and asked if he wanted me to make daily phone calls to his teachers.”