Coming in June
1
In 32 minutes, the
Attorney General of the United
States
7:45 P.M.
The Attorney General pulled his 6
foot 4 frame out of his chair, stood up and stretched. He looked around his small paneled office and
sighed. Tomorrow he was scheduled to
appear again before the Senate subcommittee that was investigating alleged
money laundering on the part of the President’s election campaign. He
could feel the noose tightening.
For the umpteenth
time, he thumbed through the thick briefing book his staff had prepared for the
hearing and shook his head. When is this going to end, he thought.
He slammed the
binder shut and told Louise Barry, his longtime secretary, as he walked out of
his office. “I’m calling it a night.”
“I’ll
phone the FBI detail to let them know you’re ready.”
The detail
accompanied the Attorney General wherever he went, inside or outside of the
building. Even when he was home, they
stood guard outside his house.
“Steve, I’m leaving.” He stuck his head into his aide’s office
across the hall.
Steve Cunningham
was another one of the loyalists who had come to the Justice Department with
the Attorney General. He had served as
his chief of staff when he was on the Hill and now served in the same capacity
at DOJ. “What are you working on?”
“Your
Senate subcommittee remarks.”
Attorney General
Jim McCarthy could feel his back tensing up. “I thought they were good to go.”
“Just need to
polish it a bit more. I’ll drop it off
at your house when I finish.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
McCarthy sighed
and swept back a lock of his curly graying-red hair that had fallen over his
eyes. “Polishing doesn’t matter. It’s what happens after you give your opening
statement when they bombard you with questions you weren’t prepped on. That’s the part I wish we could be ready for
in advance. I know you guys try to put
together possible questions and answers, but they always throw in a few we didn’t
think of. If I had my way, it would be a
long time before I had to go up there one more time.”
“Don’t worry, “Cunningham
smiled. “We’ll have you prepped for any
possibility.”
7:52 P.M
James Peter McCarthy hadn’t shown much
interest in politics until school busing became a hot issue in the 1970s. His daughter attended a neighborhood school,
but under the district’s proposed plan was going to be bused to attend classes
practically on the other side of Houston
McCarthy started
attending school board meetings. He was
incensed that the members had acquiesced without a fight to the federal
government’s order to integrate the school district by busing children. He felt it was wrong to force children to go
to schools so far away from their homes in order to integrate classes. The issue gave him the impetus to run for the
board, as did a number of like-minded parents.
He was elected by
a wide margin and led an effort to fight the Justice Department’s order in
court. The school district fought the
order all the way to the Supreme Court and lost.
Despite the
defeat, his taste for political office and the power that went with it grew. A year later, he ran for city council and won.
After four years on the council, he ran
for an open congressional seat and when the votes were all counted, McCarthy
was headed for Washington
In Congress,
McCarthy made a name for himself as a conservative Democrat, who voted a lot of
the time with the other side of the aisle. Because of his voting record, McCarthy won the
trust of the Republicans and eventually he caught the eye of the President.
McCarthy was a
surprise pick for Attorney General.
It was poetic
justice when he was nominated to head the department he detested.
“What is the President
up to?” the talking heads who populate Washington
There were many
questions, but the only answer came from the President. “I believe he’s the best person for the job.”
The political
junkies in Washington
The President told
his inner circle exactly why he nominated Jim McCarthy; he was a lightning rod
for the administration. “No matter how
bad I might screw up, I always have McCarthy to deflect the criticism.”
While most people
in the country couldn’t name any of the other cabinet members, they all seemed
to know Jim McCarthy. The most recent
opinion polls said that Attorney General McCarthy was the most despised member
f the administration.
8:01 P.M.
“You
ready, Mr. Attorney General?” FBI agent
Carl Vinovsky asked.
McCarthy
nodded as he reached for the thick, black briefcase that Louise had filled with
papers for his review at home. Never a free moment, he thought.
The two men walked
out the door to the fifth floor corridor where their footsteps echoed in the
emptiness of the late evening. They
walked past the portraits of former Attorneys General and a wall scroll of
Justice Department employees who fell during World War II.
A second agent fell in with them
as they turned in the direction of the law library’s entrance.
Jim McCarthy hated the constant
protection, never being left alone, even in his own agency’s supposedly secure
building.
The A.G. and the two FBI agents
arrived at the elevator near the entrance to the law library. Agent Mallory
McCormick was waiting and held the elevator doors open, then joined the others
as it made its way down to the building’s courtyard where the black SUVs would
be waiting.
10th & Penn
