Irving Wallace - The Man

Since her father was not speaking, and the audio part of the television set was merely an indistinct hum, Sally concentrated on her coffee, as if this concentration would help eliminate her hangover. If she had not drunk so much at the Leroy Poole affair last night, she might have been in better shape now and this might have been an absorbing morning. In twenty-six years she could not remember a morning that gave so much promise of excitement, of an exchange of tidings and rumor.

Sally Watson was a girl who thrived upon turmoil. It stimulated her and gave her empty days meaning. When there bloomed confusion, scandal, the possibility of adventure, she was enriched. She would not have known this about herself, except for three short and almost fruitless efforts at self-understanding and adjustment with three concerned psychoanalysts in the last eight years. She knew also that when life did not provide this stimulation, her days became devoid of meaning, and she sought to fill them with drugs and drink.

She despised this need in herself, this weakness, and envied other women who controlled their restlessness with husbands, children, or careers. She was tangibly marked by her failure. She could see the mark now, as she drank her coffee, the white line across her right wrist, a permanent reminder of the dreadful time when she had slashed her wrist in an effort to solve everything. That had been seven or eight years ago, after she had been dropped from Radcliffe for the marijuana party (Senator Watson had “arranged” to have her quietly withdrawn from the school), and after she had tried to work for the advertising agency in New York City (Senator Watson had “arranged” the job), and after she had eloped to Vermont with the Puerto Rican musician (Senator Watson had “arranged” to keep the marriage out of the papers, and have it annulled, and have the boy deported). That feeble effort at self-destruction had been one institution and three analysts ago, very long ago, but the scar reminded her of what was possible, and for this she blamed her father, although she loved him, really, and her mother, in Rome with that parasite second husband who was a count, whom she hated and admired, and her stepmother, whom she disliked only for being an intruder and a bore.

Yes, she told herself, this morning-with T. C. dead and a Negro in the Presidency-might have been a ball. As one who had nothing but affection for the idea of death, who equated it with peace, she felt no loss at T. C.’s extinction. In truth, she had not cared for T. C. because he had refused, despite her father’s weighty intervention, to give her a job in the White House, and when she had mentioned it at the annual Congressional Dinner the President had given, he had teased her, and she had not been amused, only humiliated. So the events of the last day and night offered not loss but gain on the scales of adventure. A Negro President-my God, what must be going on around the city? If she had not had the damn hangover, she might have been on the phone at daybreak.

She had drained the cup of coffee, she realized, and her father was speaking once more. She tried not to listen to him but to herself, but his voice was too forceful to be ignored.

“All right, I’ll explain it to you, Governor Talley,” Senator Hoyt Watson was saying into the mouthpiece. “As you’ve remarked, the Senate has always reserved the right to approve of the President’s Cabinet appointments. He makes his choice, and we consent. After that, he retains all removal powers. He cannot hire alone, but he can fire alone. You mentioned the Tenure of Office Act of 1867. Hankins has a complete rundown on that. It was vindictive. It was meant to give the Senate complete control of President Andrew Johnson. It was the one and only time the Senate tried to curb the President’s removal powers. But it was known to be unconstitutional at the time, and, indeed, it was pronounced unconstitutional around sixty years later by the Supreme Court. Now, Hankins isn’t falling into that trap, and neither of us wants any repetition of the past. Therefore, Hankins-what? What was that, Governor?”

He listened a few seconds, and apparently interrupted Talley.

“No, hold your horses, Governor. I repeat that if we do something, it has to be under the law of the land. Now, Hankins hasn’t worked the wording out yet-I think we’ll have that in a day or two-but it is his intent to submit a revised-or new-succession bill at once. The idea would be that if this kind of tragedy ever took place again, the successor to the Presidency would merely act as a caretaker, a temporary Acting President, until the Electoral College could be reconvened and a full-time President and Vice-President be elected to finish out the unexpired term. As for our present situation, Hankins wants-and I think I subscribe to this-a retroactive clause stating that in order to preserve the present succession to the Presidency, as set up in 1947, so that this can’t be tampered with politically, those next in line to the office cannot be removed without a two-thirds consent vote of the Senate. In short, Secretary of State Eaton could not be removed, fired, willy-nilly. Neither could Secretary of the Treasury Moody or Attorney General Kemmler, the next two in line, be removed without our approval. I think-”

Abruptly he halted, his white-maned head cocked sideways, and then he resumed.

“No, I don’t know if it is constitutional. But it can serve us until it is tested. I haven’t the vaguest idea if Dilman would sign it or veto it-I don’t know that man at all, Governor, no one does-but if he has good faith, I think he will see the reasonableness and come along. I think this bill can be moved through to his desk quietly, without too much ballyhoo and fuss. I’m the last one to want it to appear that we are trying to manacle Dilman because of his race. As a matter of fact, Governor, I am approaching this New Succession Bill of Hankins’ not as something that may serve us only now, in this emergency, but as something that can serve us in the future, so that other successors cannot recklessly unseat their potential heirs and pack the Cabinet with persons of their own race or creed or party, or with incompetents who happen to be sycophants or relatives. In fact, I’m trotting over to the Hill now to see if I can assist Hankins with the language. I don’t want it to be a vindictive measure, but one that can be useful in the present and future. What’s that, Governor? Arthur Eaton wants to say-all right, put him on.”

With the second mention by her father of Secretary of State Arthur Eaton’s name, Sally Watson had become entirely alert and attentive. Now that her father was listening to Eaton, she bent forward, hoping to hear Eaton’s seductive voice on the phone, but it was impossible to hear a thing at this distance across the table.

At last she shut off the television set, rose, and noiselessly began to gather the breakfast dishes from the table. Normally, on maid’s day off, she and her stepmother did the dishes. But her stepmother had gone early to a Daughters of the Confederacy breakfast, and Sally lacked the patience to do this menial work by herself.

She emptied the leftovers into the garbage disposal, and waited for her father to finish.

Senator Watson was speaking into the telephone. “I concur, Arthur. I subscribe to everything you say. It will be judicious. I shall lend my weight to that. I will keep you closely informed… Let me add, I don’t seem to have had time up to now to tell you how sorry I am about the tragedy. I wasn’t as close to T. C. as you, but I respected him. It is a horrendous blow to the country. Nevertheless, the realities of life. We live with them. Let’s do our best… Good luck today, Arthur, good luck to both of us.”

From where she stood quietly at the sink behind him, Sally watched her father put away the telephone, pull free his napkin, wipe his mouth, and stand up. He appeared too self-absorbed to notice her. Yet she waited, eager to speak to one who had just spoken to Arthur Eaton.