Several people wanted me to delay Carl being sworn in as President. In one case, if Carl delays long enough, he can run for reelection twice. Mind you, a constitutional argument could be made that his term of office began when he became the Acting President, but I’m not a lawyer. In another case, the argument was that the end of the week was too soon for people to accept. My response is that nature abhors a vacuum. For right or wrong, leaving Carl as the Acting President denies him legitimacy, and makes him into a caretaker. Somebody else, probably from Congress or the Cabinet, is going to move to seek political power at his expense. No, he needs to nip that in the bud immediately.
Several readers pointed out that in real life FBI Director Freeh had been gone for a few months, and that Mueller was in at the FBI by a week or two. That doesn’t work out so well for me firing people off. Therefore, we are holding onto Freeh for a few months longer, and that got written into the story.
The reader who reminded me of Asimov’s Foundation made me curious, so I spent a couple of nights rereading my well-worn copy. The reader attributed the quote (“Never let your sense of morals stand in the way of doing what's right.”) to the character Hober Mallow, but that didn’t seem right to me. It was actually said by the character Salvor Hardin, who had other pithy comments credited to him. Others which might prove helpful to Carl would be: “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”, “An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.”, and “It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”