Ed Gorman: Blindside

‘The name is Rusty Burkhart. I checked. There’s a fairly long story about him on Wikipedia. Can you start right away?’

‘If I can’t, Amy can.’

‘Great. You’ve got my cell number.’

‘You got it, Dev. Let’s hope he’s a serial killer.’

Jeff Ward was campaigning in the western section of his voting district when I’d flown into town last night so I’d yet to see him. His headquarters was one of those big, empty buildings that had housed a giant audio store before the economy committed suicide. Now it was the realm of phones, faxes, computers, stacks of campaign literature and posters of a handsome Irish man of thirty-six who liked to be depicted as a runner, a scrub basketball player, a swimmer and a man right at home in his district’s only slum. The young black kids didn’t look quite as taken with him as he might have hoped.

The private offices were on the second floor. Lucy found me a tiny room that had a phone and a small table for my laptop. I spent most of the first hour after seeing Burkhart checking with my people in Madison then with the people in Chicago. This cycle we had four clients up for re-election, including Ward.

I did more work on my Mac. I could see why Tom was convinced there was a spy in Ward’s campaign. Ward and his four most important staffers would have a meeting to decide which theme to push in their next TV and radio campaign. Before they could get their advertising agency to get on the air with it, Burkhart would trump them with his own spot about the same theme. His own angle on it, of course. This always made it appear as if the Ward spots were responses to the Burkhart commercials. In other words, Ward always looked to be on the defensive. Once could be a coincidence. Even twice. But this had happened four times in a month. One of the staffers was on the Burkhart payroll.

I read the backgrounds Tom had sent me on the staffers. Nothing jumped out at me. These days we’re a nation of narrow specialists and the political industry is no different. Each staffer had gone to a good state school; each had graduated with a BA in political science with minors in communications or sociology. Two had gone on to get graduate degrees. Each had started young with our party, spending high school time ringing doorbells and handing out literature and working as volunteers during their college years. They loved politics. It can be heartbreaking but it can also be exhilarating. And it’s a job that matters. Congress is filled with people who shouldn’t be there and I include a good number on our side. Vigilance is the key.

The meeting room was down the hall from me. Lucy said they tried to meet every day at four o’clock. I wandered down there.

The table was old and cigarette-scarred and chipped. Same for the chairs. On a far wall was a giant plasma TV screen. A gallery of Jeff Ward posters covered all the other available wall space. These were more somber than the ones downstairs. Here he was with his gorgeous wife and their two very beautiful little girls. Here he was in front of a cathedral with hard hats of different ethnicities standing around him. Two for one — God and the labor force. And here he was ladling out soup in a soup kitchen. He looked comfortable in the long white apron.

Lucy sat across the table from a young man in an inexpensive brown suit that was about the same color as his thinning hair. When he heard me come in he looked up and frowned.

‘Jim Waters, say hello to Dev Conrad.’

He muttered something that might or might not have been hello.

‘I think you can do a little better than that.’

He said, ‘You’re not here to fire me, are you?’

He was older than I’d thought at first, headed toward thirty. The eyes had the sadness and desperation of the outsider; not the rebellious outsider who taunted but the outsider who suffered. I had a cousin I’d been close to growing up much like that. He was and is a good man whom God or genes cast out in the darkness a long time ago and he hasn’t been let back in since.

‘Not at all, Jim, if I may call you that. I’m just here to check on a couple of things. Nothing about employment at all.’

He had a young, round face. His displeasure made him look petulant. ‘I just don’t like people coming in and telling me what I’ve been doing wrong. I’ve been writing speeches for seven years. I’m not exactly a beginner.’

If he was a dog he’d piss on the floor to mark his territory. That is always the danger of coming into a functioning campaign. They don’t like you, heed you, or trust you. I’d feel the same way. Nobody wants to be second-guessed.

I leaned across the table and offered my hand. He stared at it as if he wasn’t quite sure what it was, then he pouted a bit and finally shoved his hand into mine.

‘Good to meet you, Jim. Let’s get one thing straight, all right? The reason I’m here has absolutely nothing to do with anybody’s job performance or anything like that. I’m just here to check out a couple of things with the congressman. I’m sure you don’t believe that but it’s the truth.’

He didn’t look happy but at least he wasn’t scowling any longer. ‘I was sort of an asshole there. I apologize.’

‘Thank you, Jim,’ Lucy said. ‘I just want him to meet the staff. Me included. If he was some kind of hired gun or something like that, my job would be on the line, too. And it isn’t. And nobody else’s is, either. We’re hoping that Dev might have an idea or two for going up against Burkhart in the debate. That’s one of Dev’s specialties. Debates. He’s handled several big ones.’

Waters was on his feet and headed for an automatic coffeemaker on a stand a few feet from the TV screen. ‘You like yours black, Dev?’ I had to get used to the quick change of tone. He sounded friendly now.

‘That’d be great, Jim. I appreciate it.’

There was a woman’s sweet laughter in the hall and two other people now appeared. This would be, according to Tom’s backgrounder, Kathy Tomlin and David Nolan. Tomlin was the media coordinator and Nolan was Ward’s chief of staff. Tomlin wore a green fitted dress and had a freckled face that was more pretty than beautiful. Nolan was tall, thin, wore wide red suspenders and, with his graying hair and rimless glasses, reminded me of many of my professors in college. He was the opposite of his lifelong friend the congressman. Jeff Ward was a taker with an almost piratical swagger. His number one staffer — and some said the authentic thinker of the duo — was a giver. Though they were the same age, Nolan looked fifteen years older than Ward.

He also looked distracted. He sat down now, glanced around, then opened the laptop he’d set on the table. He immediately began staring at some presumably compelling image the rest of us couldn’t see. He’d either been crying recently or was miserably hung-over. His gaze belonged on a homeless man.

Kathy Tomlin said, ‘I don’t really have much today. I’m sorry. The only news — and so far it’s only scuttlebutt — is that some far-right organization is going to give Burkhart a million dollars’ worth of commercials they’re putting together. These are the creeps who brought down Helen Agee two years ago. The good old lesbian smear. It was ridiculous but they made it work. But fortunately David’s got some ideas to help us.’

She finished, sounding expectant. Nolan would pick up her cue and take it from there. But he didn’t. He was still staring off into the distance. Apparently he could no longer endure staring at the screen.

‘David,’ Kathy repeated softly.

‘Oh.’ He looked neither flustered nor embarrassed. He just seemed confused. ‘Oh, right.’ He sat up straight in his chair. Lucy and Waters studied him. I wasn’t the only one puzzled by his behavior. ‘Right.’ He tried a smile that was more a grimace. Then he turned in my direction. ‘You must be Dev Conrad.’