rlfj: Blog

At the end of 131 we see something come up that quite a few people have been expecting before now. I always expected to have this surface but just wanted to play with the timing. There will be a lot more to come in future chapters.

Several people commented on the various illegalities committed during the leak of the classified information from 1981. This law was broken or that law was broken. The critical thing is that this is about politics, not the law. The odds of anybody actually going to jail are incredibly low. If this were to actually happen Carl would be dumped from the ticket, so he could ‘focus on fighting the unjust allegations.’ Dumping Carl almost certainly dooms the Bush ticket, no matter who takes Carl’s place. Meanwhile, with Carl out of the way, the spigot of leaked info is shut down, since no more needs to be leaked. The papers and networks will never give up who gave them the info. Carl can’t fight it because he can’t fight a ghost. He is out of politics completely, after he loses reelection. On the other hand, if Carl doesn’t quit all bets are off! Whoever leaked the info will probably be forced to double down. It should be…interesting.

Leaking information is a spectator sport in D.C. It happens on a daily basis, and almost never gets prosecuted. For one thing, the reporters and media have an ironclad get-out-of-jail-free card in the First Amendment. It is nigh on impossible to force a reporter to divulge a source. Politicians and staffers leak info to show how important they are, to impress people, to seal the deal with a girl – information is power and power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. The only sin is in getting caught, which simply proves you aren’t ready to play the game.

The average Washington politician or staffer has the attention span of a beagle. They don’t think of long-term consequences. Long term is the span of the next news cycle. Most of them would sell their mother in a Moroccan bazaar if it bought them favorable coverage on the evening news today. There is no penalty if they do. If they get caught they can weasel out of it based on their ‘principles.’

So, in reality, nothing will happen to whoever leaked Carl’s file. It just won’t happen. If Carl quits the race in disgrace, the spigot gets shut off and his enemies go away happy. The only way it gets worse is if Carl doesn’t go away. Hmmm…what might happen then?

For the readers who commented that a single 60 Minutes episode wouldn’t be enough to fix the problem – of course not! Never said it would. I hope you’re happy now.

Does the Presidential candidate really want the Vice-Presidential candidate to be such a good speaker at the convention? Doesn’t that detract from his own performance? The answer is NO. He wants every speaker to be great, for several reasons. First, if everybody else is good, the pressure is less that he has to be great. Second, if the VP candidate nails it, the Presidential candidate looks wise and statesmanlike for picking the VP. Third, an exciting and well-run convention can boost donations and poll numbers significantly. Bush ran good and well-organized conventions both times. McCain’s was good. Obama’s were better. Romney’s wasn’t good. These are just my opinions, but it shows there are good conventions and bad ones.

Everybody seemed to like the convention speech. Have I ever been a speechwriter? No, but I have heard my fair share of speeches. An important thing to remember is that there are different types of speeches. With a convention speech one of the biggest goals is to amp up the energy level. It isn’t a policy speech like a State of the Union address or a service academy graduation. You are in front of thousands of fellow true believers and the real goal is to fire them up on national television. They will be prepared ahead of time with posters and signs, and you want them rocking and rolling by the end, ready to go out and riot in the streets. Sound bites, syncopation, and catchphrases are critical. It is not the time for calm and cool-headed thought. Most real politicians who do these things practice them for hours ahead of time in front of critics (which we saw Carl doing.)

I think I will take this opportunity to report to everybody that neither Carl nor I are Communist, Socialist, or sleeping with Nancy Pelosi. Since I don’t think Carl was very different in political thinking in the last chapter than in any of the preceding chapters, I find it amazing that anybody would last through 126 chapters before proclaiming Carl is too liberal to keep reading. Please, don’t write me on this. If Carl is too liberal or too conservative, just stop reading and don’t complain.

Several readers were disappointed that Carl didn’t take his knowledge of the bribe to the Justice Department or the newspapers in order to destroy George Bush. I actually considered doing that but didn’t think it would work for the story for several reasons. Yes, it would have destroyed Bush’s Presidential run. It was a very tight election, and even though lawyers would have kept it clouded and confused, only a few percent of voters would need to be switched.

On the other hand, let us assume that Carl manages to really pull it off, with George doing a perp walk and getting thrown in jail. If he gets arrested before the convention, the Republicans will end up nominating McCain. (Carl is not officially on the ticket until the convention.) If George gets arrested after the convention, it’s not 100% clear to me, but Carl might be the Presidential candidate by default but will undoubtedly lose. Either way, Carl will be a pariah to his party and undoubtedly lose his position as Whip.

Finally, does Carl really want Bush to lose, if the alternative is that Al Gore wins? Gore is much more liberal than Bush or Clinton. Carl probably would prefer to be the voice in Bush’s ear than the Whip in a Gore presidency. We’ll just have to see.

Everybody seemed to like Chapter 128, although a few thought it was a bit contrived and over the top (well, okay, it was!) One person complained that there is no real Springboro, Oklahoma. Nor was there a tornado on July 20. This is fiction, and I make shit up. There is no real Westminster Diner, either. Again, I make shit up.

Several people wonder about the level of the political crap that gets thrown at me, and I thought I would pass along an email I got from somebody. I mean, I’m inventive, but even I can’t write stuff like this!

“Yeah, he "thinks only of other people" that's why he's a billionaire with a jet and vice president, because he couldn't think of any way to help others with all those billions except of course himself. What a crock of shit.

Your protagonist, AND YOU, are Lawful Evil. You believe in laws, in the system, in hierarchy, but deep down, you're evil and rotten to the core. You have no ideals, you have no principles, you have no core values. There is nothing you believe in or CAN believe in because your brain is totally fucking broken and can't support any such thinking.

It doesn't take youth to be passionate and idealistic. It takes a *superior kind of brain*. Whereas you have an INFERIOR kind of brain. One which is always 100% focused on ME ME ME ME ME. Egotistical selfish fuck.

Just because you're passive or submissive, like 99.5% of the human population, just because you're a COW, doesn't mean that you're any less evil and self-centered. 'Good' is beyond you as the whole NOTION of Goodness is totally and utterly incomprehensible to you. You probably think that Teresa of Calcutta or Gandhi or Tenzin Gyatso (to you the Dalai Lama) are Good people. The TRUTH is that they are EVIL. Evil in the extreme. They appeal to you only because they're POWERFUL Evil people. And because they're YOUR kind of Evil: Lawful Evil.

(sneer) Ugh.”

Wow! How do I respond to that!? Well, at least I won’t have to worry about explaining it to Saint Peter when I show up at the Pearly Gates, because now I know I’m heading south. It’s like I said, even at my most inventive I can’t write stuff like this! It’s not clear to me whether this reader is liberal or conservative. I guess liberal, since Carl shouldn’t be rich. Some of the stuff I get from the conservatives is just as bad.

Hey, folks, it’s just a fucking story! FICTION!

One interesting note from Chapters 121 and 122. Carl wrote another book at that time about the Republican Party and demographics. I was reminded recently that a critical part of running for President these days is for a candidate to ‘write’ a book about how they grew up and what they believe in (supposedly). Recent ‘authors’ include Governor Shapiro, Governor Newsom, Senator Booker, and former VP Harris, and several other politicians have books coming out shortly. I have serious doubts as to whether they actually wrote them or had them ghostwritten.

Would Dick Cheney have considered what happened in Chapter 126? Everything I have learned about the man says he wouldn’t have thought twice about it. He would have made a fortune off his Halliburton stocks and options during the Iraq War and after the 2005 energy bill with the ‘Halliburton Loophole’ which stripped the EPA of its right to regulate hydraulic fracturing fluids.

Some interesting responses: Everybody thought Cheney would have done this, without hesitation! 99% thought Bush was a real fucking dummy and incredibly lazy. However, not everybody thought Bush was that venal, in some cases because he was too stupid and lazy to be that venal. (Their words, not mine! Don’t write me on this.) This also came from some readers who had actually met Bush and Cheney. Fascinating!

One set of responses was that Bush sold out for considerably less than what the market rate would be. $20 million? It should have been more like $200 million! Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Very, very few people would be able to cough up that much cash on their own, and Carl is one of them. The only other way to generate the $200 million is through a consortium or partnership. This is one of those things where nobody can know. Anybody more than the two people involved makes it guaranteed somebody will talk. (For instance, the partners start arguing about who gets what goodies.) This is a secret you take to the grave! Additionally, whoever buys the VP slot has to be a legitimate contender. If Bill Gates shows up as the candidate, even though he can write a $200 million check, nobody will believe he is legitimate.

I did get a few responses going the other direction, that $20 million was overpriced. I was reminded of John Nance Gardner’s quote that the Vice Presidency was "not worth a bucket of warm piss." I would simply point out that this was under the Presidency of FDR, who, whether you agree with his politics or not, was not a weak President. Bush was far weaker as a President.

Is it possible somebody would do this? Ask Rod Blagojevich, who spent time at Club Fed, for trying to sell Obama’s old Senate seat.

Finally, for everybody who was concerned Carl was just repeating history, I think this proves things can change. It is, however, a slippery slope…

Everybody seemed to like Carl’s response to Clinton’s staff. Chapter 124 is a longer chapter, so people should be happy with that. Also, we start to see some major differences in the timeline from here on out.

As to how much those changes matter, I’m not really sure. I have certainly heard from the ‘butterfly effect’ readers since the story started. That theory is that ever since Carl returned, his least little change would radically affect everything afterwards. In other words, he could not profit by his return, since history would be inconceivably altered. I hold to the ‘ebb’ and flow’ version of history, instead, that there are genuine trends, economic and historical, that hold sway. While Carl can make changes, he cannot alter the history and thoughts of eight billion people. Maybe I read too much of Asimov’s Foundation series when I was a kid.

The scene with the boys and the gun was modified from something that happened in real life. A friend of mine was down in his kitchen cleaning his shotgun when a young man came by to pick up my friend’s daughter for a date. Now, my friend owns a big old country farmhouse, and as is the case with a lot of homes like that, the kitchen is the main focal point. A lot of the driveways and parking lots are near the kitchen, so young Romeo parked there and knocked on the kitchen door. He was greeted by my heavily bearded buddy holding a shotgun. Scared the crap out of the kid! All this happened at roughly the same time the Rodney Atkins hit song Cleaning This Gun came out. I had told my wife the story, and she knew my friend also, so whenever the song plays on the radio we both start laughing!

Do I really think Bush 43 was so bad? This one I had to do some research on, since I didn’t want my personal feelings to interfere with Carl’s. I found a fascinating ranking of the Presidents on Wikipedia. The composite rankings of the Presidents had Bush 43 at # 34, in the bottom quartile of achievement. The names of those below him were a Who’s Who of disaster, including most of the Presidents who led us into the Civil War, and the hopelessly corrupt reigns of Grant and Harding. At least George W. Bush didn’t start a Civil War! His father was a respectable #22, right in the middle of the pack. And don’t get me started of the current #47, who also ranks #47.