Tom looked over at Denny Hastert, the Speaker of the House and a Republican, and Denny nodded back at him. Tom took a deep breath and said, “We need to have you sworn in, sir. We both talked to Harry and John, and we had a few others in the room with us. They were pretty convincing. There’s nothing left, and no chance.”
I nodded and looked at them. “I forget whether it was John or Harry who said that there were plans to start putting all the rubble and the dust through sifters and sieves to look for bones and anything to identify people by. I’ve never seen anything like that! I don’t think I could do it myself.”
Denny muttered something in disbelief and then shook himself of the thought. He looked at me and asked, “Carl, when do you want to do this? How do we do this?”
I gave him a brief smile. “I’m making this up as I go! Hell, how do we have a state funeral without the guest of honor? Answer me that one?” Both men’s eyes popped a little at that. “Anyway, today is Thursday. I’m not sure, but I think we’ll need the approval of the Cabinet, just like when they named me the Acting President. If we had absolute proof the President was dead, it wouldn’t be necessary, but that might take years.”
“That would be good. We can call them together and Denny and I can attend the meeting with Chief Justice Rehnquist handy,” replied Daschle. “As soon as the vote passes, he can swear you in.”
“I’ll call for a full Cabinet meeting in the morning.”
“Very good, Mister President,” agreed Denny.
They were on the verge of leaving when I had a thought. “Hold up a second, gentlemen. Let me bounce an idea off of you.” They looked at each other and settled back into their chairs. “I have a worry. There are going to be people, some in Congress and some out there in the real world, who will not think I am the legitimate President of the United States. I wasn’t elected, I’m jumping the gun, the real President is in the rubble and I’m stopping the rescue — I mean, you guys can fill in the rest. Will you grant that this has the potential to be a real problem, and not just for me, but for the nation? When we figure out who did this, we are going to war, and we do not need any questions raised.”
“I understand you, sir,” answered the Speaker. Senator Daschle was slower to respond, but he nodded and agreed also.
“Well, it’s not like I am going to get an Inaugural Ball out of this disaster, but we can’t be seen to be hiding this in a conference room in the White House. We need, all of us need, this to be public, as public as possible.”
“Perhaps at the Capitol and on television,” suggested Hastert.
“How do we do the vote? What if somebody gets a bug up his tail and votes no? You don’t need that on television!” countered Daschle.
“Yikes! No, that would be lousy!” I agreed. “How about this? You guys come to the Cabinet meeting in the morning. You tell them what you’ve agreed to, and they take a vote. If everybody is unanimous, we do a public version tomorrow night in the Capitol on live television and Rehnquist swears me in.”
“You planning to speak afterwards?”
“I can. It won’t be big, but I probably should. Something about how democracy continues to march on or something like that. I am not figuring on a major speech or State of the Union Address,” I told them.
“Speaking for myself, I think we could go along with that,” he agreed. “Denny?”
“Same here.”
I stood up and thanked them and ushered them out, and then ordered up a Cabinet meeting for the morning. Then it was back to work.
I got home at a relatively decent hour that night. I was still living at the Naval Observatory, and Marilyn and the girls (and Stormy) were home in Hereford. They had gone back to school today, and if everything went as planned, they would be at school tomorrow. Afterwards, they could come back down for the swearing in ceremony. I ate a late supper and watched CNN for a bit.
The news was a mixed bag. It was all about the 9-11 attacks, of course, but it was about a bunch of different things. You had reports from Ground Zero (and virtually nothing from the Pentagon) with footage of rescue teams and guys in hard hats trying to sort through the mess. They were constantly rerunning any footage of anybody being pulled out, but there were damn few of those. On top of that was vast speculation about the status of the President, which segued into my status as Acting President and my visit to the site earlier in the day. Also discussed was my visit with the first President Bush, as well as some footage of Harry Reid and John Boehner talking to reporters in New York. There was intense speculation about what they were doing there, and who they were discussing their findings with.
There was also discussion of my actions the other day in cleaning house at the FAA, FBI, and CIA. Rush Limbaugh had declared my actions (on the basis of his extensive legal background, no doubt) unconstitutional and justified my impeachment. That prompted all the mainstream networks to call out their guest lawyers to report on the constitutional implications. They needed something to fill in 24 hours of air time.
I was getting out of my chair to head towards bed when they called a late breaking story. “We are now getting a report — this is unconfirmed but from a reliable source — a report that tomorrow the Congressional leadership will report to the Cabinet that President Bush is to be considered missing in action and presumed dead, and that they are recommending that Acting President Buckman be sworn in as President!” I stopped at that and listened. The report was about 90 % accurate, and it was obvious that one of the Congressional leaders was leaking the story. After that I headed to bed.
Friday morning found me back in the Cabinet Room at 9:00. This time we had Tommy Thompson and Ann Veneman with us in person, and I made sure to thank them for getting back to town. Dick Cheney was present and looking mulish as ever, but I had talked to Frank Stouffer and he had confirmed that President Bush had talked to Cheney before heading to Camp David. Hopefully he wouldn’t be an asshole today. Also seated in the room were Denny Hastert and Tom Daschle. By now all the networks were reporting that there was going to be a major decision in the Cabinet today related to the 25th Amendment.
We started with my greeting our guests from Congress. “Speaker Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Daschle, thank you for coming. When we talked yesterday you were getting in touch with the rest of the Congressional leadership. Have you done so?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure if they had rehearsed this or not, but Denny Hastert replied, “Yes, Mister President, we have. We talked to both John Boehner and Harry Reid yesterday and have concluded that President Bush is missing and should be presumed dead. We are here to recommend to the Cabinet that they vote to make you the President.”
There were some murmurs at that, and Cheney turned red and looked like he would explode, but he kept his mouth shut. With his heart problems he was about one outburst away from a heart attack!
The Attorney General spoke up. “Mister President, I have been in contact with Chief Justice Rehnquist about this, and I would like to bring him in at this time.”
“He’s here?”
“Yes, sir, along with some of the other Congressional leaders. I think we should have everyone in.”
I blinked for a second, but nodded. “They’re here too? Fine by me.”
Ashcroft turned to a Secret Service agent and motioned him over, and then spoke quietly to him. He left and a couple of minutes later the rest of the Congressional leadership trooped in, less Harry and John, along with Bill Rehnquist. I stood and greeted them. I had known the Congressmen and Senators for years, but I don’t think I had met the Chief Justice more than a handful of times. “Mister Chief Justice, I am glad you could make it. I gather the Attorney General has been keeping you abreast of what has been going on.”