I couldn’t hear shit from the movie in this position, and certainly my vision was extremely limited. On the other hand, Marilyn wasn’t complaining, and after a few minutes was becoming rather vocal in her appreciation. Even before the movie went to the vaginal sex, Marilyn had moved down and decided to sit on me and bounce on my cock. “Couldn’t wait for the movie?” I teased.
“Just shut up and fuck me!” she hissed, lowering her tits down to my lips.
I licked at her nipples teasingly, and added, “What’s with you today? Not that I’m complaining. Just curious.”
“I only get to see you a few days a week now. I really need you. Now shut up and fuck me!”
I glanced over at the screen, and found they had changed positions, to doggy style, so I rolled Marilyn off of me and moved into position behind her, and that was how we finished. Afterwards, I lay on my back, with Marilyn cuddled up against me, as the movie finished. “Now, let’s do that again,” she sighed.
I snorted a laugh at that. “Give me a few minutes, okay? By the way, were you aware that the President is always under surveillance?”
“Huh?”
“Well, you’ve seen the cameras around the West Wing and downstairs, right?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Well, they are monitored in real time downstairs. You don’t think that’s the only part of the White House being monitored, do you?” I asked innocently.
Marilyn’s eyes snapped open and she grabbed at the bedcovers we were unfortunately lying on. “No way! You don’t… no!”
“Marilyn, ask any cop, ask Suzie’s husband, John, they’ll all tell you that most murders are by the spouse.” This was probably bullshit, but it sounded like something off of Law and Order. “They have to protect me. Look, there’s a camera over there.” I pointed at the molding up by the ceiling at the foot of the bed. “And another over there.” I pointed across the room. I was just pointing at the molding; there were no cameras inside the Residence.
“You bastard! You are full of shit!” she said poking me in the side. “There’s no cameras here. Besides, we’ll just do it at night, then.”
“They have infrared cameras, too. See in the dark. And they probably are keeping a record of what channels we are watching,” I added.
“You are so full of shit!”
I shrugged, and pushed on her shoulders again. “We just might as well give them a show.” She was right. It had been a week or so. Longer really, since last week back in Hereford, it had been that time of the month. We both needed to relieve some stress.
Marilyn and the girls and Stormy went back to Hereford Sunday evening. I promised to come home Friday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon I received a call from McCain, telling me he was onboard with the choice. He told me he had discussed it with Cindy and gotten her agreement. I thanked him and asked him not to tell his colleagues yet, but that we would do something this week.
Monday morning I talked to Josh Bolten about some of the Cabinet choices. Tom Ridge was the governor of Pennsylvania, and like me and a few others, had been on the short list for Vice President. He had prior Congressional experience, and I knew that in a different life he would be picked to head Homeland Security after 9-11. I thought about Frank Keating for a moment, but set him aside. I liked Frank and had met him several times during the Springboro tornado pleasantries, but his background was law enforcement. I like the idea of having him on tap as a possible replacement for Ashcroft. The current Attorney General was considerably more conservative than I was, and his overt religious tendencies tended to grate on my nerves, but his performance in the aftermath of 9-11 was superb. He had showed considerable strength and integrity, and I had no good reason to get rid of him.
I discussed all this with Josh, and asked him to invite Ridge down for a chat. By lunchtime he reported that the Governor would be in my office Tuesday morning.
I didn’t have a replacement for Freeh at the FBI yet, or for Garvey at the FAA. In the case of the FAA, I was tending towards naming the Deputy Director to the spot. He seemed to be capable and was tightening things up over there. As for the FBI, I was at a loss. We needed somebody with law enforcement experience, and I just didn’t know that sort of thing. I hadn’t been impressed with Freeh, and while both his Deputy and Barnwell seemed capable, I didn’t see either of them as being the Director. I was going to have to talk this over with a few people.
My meeting with Tom Ridge went well, and he accepted the offer of Defense on the spot. At that point I called in Josh. “We need to make some announcements about this,” I told him.
“Then we need to get Ari in right now.”
“Good point!” I picked up the telephone and asked Ari to step in, and he joined us a couple of minutes later.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Ari, this is Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania. I asked him to become Secretary of Defense, and he has agreed, so we will need to make an announcement. Several, in fact. I think you know what’s been happening, but let me make it clear. Colin Powell will move from Defense to State. Richard Clarke will be nominated for CIA, and John McCain will be coming onboard as the Vice President. What would be the best way to handle this?” I asked.
He was nodding to himself as I told him what was happening. Ari wasn’t dumb, so he must have been considering some of the latest comings and goings as possible appointments. “Have you discussed this with Congress yet? Not the whole Congress, but the leadership?”
“No, but I should. The Senate is going to have to sign off on Colin, Tom, and Richard Clarke, and both houses have to vote on John, as I recall.”
“Let’s kill two birds with one stone,” commented Josh. “Get the Group of Eight over here for lunch and tell them. I don’t care how much you stress this has to be kept quiet. One of them is bound to talk to somebody. That primes the pump, so to speak. You make the formal announcement by the end of the week. You aren’t expecting any grief on this are you?”
I shook my head. “Colin’s already been through a Senate confirmation hearing, and I don’t see them refusing John McCain. Tom used to be in Congress himself, so again, I don’t expect problems. The only one I wonder about is Clarke, and I think we can push the fact that we need to shake up the agency.” I looked over at Josh. “Can you make a few phone calls and set up a nice lunch over here, tomorrow or Thursday, so we can let them know?”
“Even better, have the nominees here as well. Give them a chance to meet and greet,” added Ari. “Do you plan to do a broadcast on this?”
“Do you think I should? I’ll be doing another broadcast next week, and I don’t need to wear out my welcome with the networks.”
“Afghanistan?” he asked.
“We’ll talk later, Ari. One problem at a time,” I answered.
“Okay. Then Friday morning you read a prepared statement in the Press Room naming your choices, with them in the background. They each read something short and sweet. No questions.” I raised an eyebrow at that, and he explained, “The first question everybody is going to ask is when are we invading Iraq, and the second will be why did you fire Dick Cheney. We don’t need either.”
I looked at the other two and nodded. “He makes a certain amount of sense.”