Four Days In February Page 9

CHAPTER NINE

  The Army Secretary answered his phone: "Strate here."

  On the line was his boss Secretary of Defense Mitch Ishnik. "This is Ishnik, I have been to see the President, and he rebuffed me. He told me a wild story that the House of Representatives is appointing a new Speaker, who will be ready to assume the presidency."

  "What! ...The President said that. How can that be? Did Speaker Burlson die?"

  "No, Burlson resigned, so they could elect a hand-picked new Speaker who could eventually assume the presidency. ...Yes, and you will never guess who they elected."

  "Who?" It wasn't Tenner or Ezel was it? They have always been against spending on the military."

  "No. Bull Pinchon!"

  "What! Bull has not been elected to Congress. He is not a Congressman. That will never stand up, he cannot be Speaker. It's illegal! It's unconstitutional! It's wrong!

  "That's exactly right! I will be back at the Pentagon in ten minutes; I want a meeting of the Patriot Council within the hour. Be assembling the staff, and get Yates there too. We have got to stop this before it becomes an accomplished fact."

  "Right. I will get on it immediately." Strate presses the intercom and speaks to his secretary: "notify Secretary Ishnik's Senior Staff and personal advisors to meet in Ishnik's private conference room, in forty-five minutes. Make sure General Yates comes too."

  The secretary replies, "Do you want the Chairman, and the rest of the Joint Chiefs too?"

  "No this will be sufficient for right now."

  Hanging up Strate phones Senator Olds. "Strate here, Senator, what is going on? ...Yes, yes, I have heard all that, its outrageous! ...Yes I know it's illegal and unconstitutional. The Secretary has called a meeting of the Patriot Council in his office in forty-five minutes, notify Senator France and get yourselves here ASAP.

  A few minutes later Secretary Ishnik walks into his office, and Strate comes in right behind him.

  "The patriots are coming, they will be in the conference room in the next few minutes. I have notified Senators Olds and France as well."

  "Good. I cannot believe that the President is trying to pull this off. Does he think that anyone is going to accept Bull Pinchon as Speaker, let alone succeeding him as President? Bull is a retired General; he was never one to push himself in the media, he has been retired for three years, so no one will even know or remember him. That is good for us. The public will be shocked at three Presidents inside of three weeks, they will want somebody they know, and who they have confidence in, to run the whole government and face down trouble. Who better to do that than me. I have run the Pentagon for over four years, under the last three Presidents, even if the last two only served a week or two each. They found me indispensable, and so will the nation. I will not sit by while some accidental President brings in another one, and one I forced to retire at that."

  "Bull was always somebody we could never trust. Yates liked him, but I did not. He was too independent, he took orders, but he let you know what he thought was wrong with them. We never could have included him in the Patriot Council."

  "No, you're right. When I started the Patriots, that's when I got rid of Pinchon. He could have been the proverbial 'bull in a china shop.' I would never trust him to stand on our ideals. He doesn't have the same determination to protect the Constitution that we do. He is not only not a 'Patriot,' he has become a danger and a menace, and we have to take care of him."

  "Generals have got to be loyal too, and he wasn't loyal to you."

  "No, Bull wasn't! I will meet you in the conference room. I have to get my secretary to get me something to eat, can you believe I was in the White House for over two hours, and nobody offered me lunch."

  Strate heads out to the conference room to make sure everybody is ready. There are two Army MP's, armed, standing outside the door. Strate clenches his right hand, and they let him enter the room. He sees an aide standing near the head chair, and holding a rolled up red sash. The Under Secretary of Defense, and four Assistant Secretaries of Defense were already there. Senators Olds and France had not gotten across town yet.

  "Where are the rest; what is taking them so long," Strate said.

  "The Under Secretary said, the Assistant Secretaries for America's Security, and for International Security are in Atlanta and New York. The rest of the Secretaries will be here soon."

  The Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs said, does this meeting of the Patriot Council have to do with the scuttlebutt I have been hearing from my media contacts about the House of Representatives. It is the strangest thing I have heard, that Speaker Burlson stepped down, and that the House elected General Bull Pinchon to replace him."

  Strate interjected, "You heard right, and Ishnik is ready to go to war over it."

  "Why, it's weird, but what is going on? Why is this happening?"

  "This was done, because there is no Vice President right now; and President Woods is sick enough that he wants to make General Pinchon President. The Speaker of the House most people think is next in line to be President."

  "Isn't that what the law says is the order of succession?"

  "Ishnik will deal with that, and lay out his agenda in just a few minutes. Just don't anybody get used to the idea of Pinchon being Speaker of the House, or President of the United States, ...unless you want to be taking orders from that uncontrolled renegade."

  Other members of the Patriot Council come into the conference room and wonder at the events they are just hearing about. Ishnik then comes walking in, and an aide places the red sash over his shoulder. In the middle of the sash is a large gold medallion with the engraving of a clenched fist. He sits down in a large chair, at the head of the conference table.

  "Where are the Senators, they are not here?" Ishnik asks.

  "They are coming," Strate says.

  "Who else is not here?"

  "Only two Secretaries? ...for International Security, and America Security. They are out of town. The rest are here."

  Just then, Senators Olds and France came rushing in the door. Sitting down, Olds said: "We patriots have to act quickly or we will not be able to act at all. On the way over here I heard that the President is invoking the twenty-fifth amendment to make Speaker Pinchon the 'Acting President,' almost as we speak."

  Ishnik replied, "Olds, you mean 'General' Pinchon, Bull is no more Speaker of the House than he is King of England. And the Speaker, in any case, is not the constitutional officer to succeed the President."

  "Gentlemen and ladies, as your Patriot Leader I now convene this meeting of the Patriot Council."

  The assembled all stand up and face Ishnik. They clench their right hand into a fist, and place it over their heart, and recite the Pledges of Allegiance:

  "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

  I swear that with this fist I will defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies both foreign and domestic, and will defend the people's government from all who endanger it.

  I pledge true loyalty to the Patriot Council and its Patriot Leader, to protect our form of government, and will maintain its secrets, even to the point of death. Long live the flag, long live the Constitution, long live the Patriot Council, long live the Patriot Leader!"

  "You may sit down. You have all heard the news, and so know why we are here. President Woods is breaking his oath to defend the Constitution, by attempting to make a new order of succession, and installing an unlawful person in the Presidency.

  We cannot allow that; we will not allow that. Probably before this meeting is over Woods is going to implement his plan, and declare that General Pinchon is now President of the United States. Let me state clearly, that is all that Woods can do; declare Pinchon President. He cannot make him President, for the Constitution does not permit that.

  If it
interested us, and there was time, the act of making Pinchon the Speaker of the House could be challenged, as being illegal. He is not eligible to be Speaker because he is not an elected representative! That was a charade. It was brazenly done to try to subvert who should be not Speaker, but President. But there is a more basic illegality.

  Congress has acted unconstitutionally too when they put the Speaker of the House, and President pro tempore into the line of succession. Article 2, Section 6, authorizes Congress to provide successors if both the President and Vice President die or are not able to serve. Congress was to provide by law, what 'officer' was to act as President. Patriots; such an 'officer' of the government, is an "officer of the United States," in other words a member of the President's Cabinet, and the Speaker and President pro tempore are not.

  Furthermore, under the Constitution's separation of powers, members of the legislature may not serve in the executive. The only way for the Speaker to be President would be to resign being Speaker, but then he would no longer be Speaker and still in the line of succession. It is impossible!

  Do you understand, the Speaker of the House, and the President pro tempore of the Senate, can never become the President. First, their legislative constitutional office proscribes them from taking an executive position. Secondly, if they quit their post first, then they aren't in the line of succession even though a law tried to put them there."

  From the end of the table, an Assistant Secretary spoke up and said, "it's an oxymoron, showing the mental weakness of those who would break our Constitution."

  "Yes," Senator France responded, "but do not underestimate the determination of those willing to act unconstitutionally. They hope to do it quickly, have it in place as an accomplished fact, and have everybody shrug their shoulders and go along with it."

  Senator Olds said, "They are counting on our being silent, and doing nothing. Remember Edmund Burke's proverb: 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.'"

  Secretary Ishnik spoke again, "We are good men and women, and we are not going to do nothing. We are going to act. We are going to save the Constitution and nation.

  First of all we must act quickly and keep the military safe. The new President will try and neutralize and keep it out of the political situation. We have to make sure all commanders are reminded of my instruction that all Presidential orders must be directed to them through the Secretary of Defense. If Pinchon claims the presidency he must not be allowed to start giving orders directly to senior military officers. He personally knows, and has commanded many of them, and will probably try and go around us. We must keep a tight rein on command and control.

  Officers beneath the senior commanders must be reminded their duty is to obey orders, and to observe the chain of command. When senior officers tell them to do something that they do not understand, or think unusual; they still must obey. We require strict military discipline. The proper answer they are to give is, 'Yes Sir!' Not 'What Sir,' not 'Why Sir,' not 'No Sir.' General Yates, is there going to be any problems about military cohesion?"

  "The Navy and Air Force combat command will back us. The Marines are a little soft. At some joint meetings, their commandant has been resistant to some of our ideas. We may need to neutralize him."

  "Do what you need to do, Yates, I do not want the Marines to go AWOL from our mission. Why doesn't the commandant get sick and go to the hospital."

  "Yes Sir. I will take care of the commandant, he is going be very sick and contagious, and need complete isolation and bed rest."

  Ishnik goes on, "now we have to make sure the Secretaries of State and Treasury decide they will 'decline' the presidency too."

  "How are you going to get them to 'sign off' on that?" said Olds.

  "I have set up an emergency meeting with them in my office at 6:00 p.m. They are going to 'sign off,' or they are going to be 'assigned off,' and not return to their job. They are new to office, Carr just appointed them, and Woods kept them on. They have not done anything yet, to get any national visibility. One was a university professor, and the other a Boston banker. They have no experience in government and no political base, except the President.

  They are light weights unable to handle the succession. They should see this reality and willingly sign a document that defers the presidency to me, the Secretary of Defense, as the next in line."

  "But won't they also have to buy into the Speaker and President of the Senate not being constitutionally qualified to be part of the executive," asked a voice from the table.

  "I will help them to understand that fact too. They are not lawyers or constitutional scholars. I have been around Washington and the government a long time, and I will lend them my knowledge and expertise. My power of persuasion can be very strong. I will urge them that they need to join with me to save the nation. I will remind them that Woods hasn't been able to do anything about the assassination, and that a General is not going to be able to handle the political and social fallout from it. What is needed is a leader with an experienced and steady hand, and that I am that."

  "Yes, and you are our Patriot Leader."

  From the back of the room again a voice asked, "And if things go bad with the Secretaries, what then?"

  "If things go bad, it will be bad for them, General Yates will for national security reasons be ready to have his people take the Secretaries to a place of safety, "an unknown location. We will then be able to deal with them when order has been restored.

  Again Patriots, we have to ensure the obedience of the military, and the subservience of the two Secretaries, so that we can put the rest of the plan in action. In the meantime, I want each of you to be alert for anyone in the DoD who may interfere with our plans. There will be some civilians and military who think we have to do whatever someone in the White House tells us. They do not know the Constitution. They are ignorant and unlearned."

  Senator Olds spoke up, "Yes remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.'"

  "I ask all of you to be vigilant and brave, together we will do great good, and bring glory to all. Future generations will talk about this as the time of national salvation. We will be called back to meet again this evening. I call for this meeting to dismiss.

  Again, all stand and clench their fist, and place it on their heart. They speak in unison, "The Patriot fist of unity, the Patriot fist of power, the Patriot fist of freedom. Long live the Patriot Council, long live the Patriot Leader."

  The aide comes and removes the Red sash from Secretary Ishnik's shoulder, and rolls it up and places it and the gold medallion in a small ebony wood box, which has on its lid a carved clenched fist.

  The room empties quickly of everyone except Ishnik, Strate and the two Senators. Olds said, "I wonder if everyone on the Council was as solidly committed as the others. I watched, and some of them seemed to squirm a little bit when you began to talk about the Marine commandant. He is well liked by his men, and many civilians in the DoD."

  Strate said, "Yes that's true, it is almost like the respect Pinchon had with the troops, and the Pentagon."

  "Yes, and this is a big test of the Patriot Council, will all truly be patriotic."

  Senator France said, "we have started acting on the plan, there is no going back. If there is any of the Council shaken a little, they will get over it now that we have begun. It is natural when first going into a battle to be a little afraid. But once the action starts fear is put aside."

  Strate asked France, "were you ever in a war?

  "No, I was not in the military, but years ago I was told about fear before a battle, by Army officers when I was inspecting a military headquarters in Afghanistan. It made a big impression on me."

  Strate said, the guys who told you that must not have seen action but just been in the HQ. It is not wrong to be afraid when going into a battle, just don't let it control y
ou."

  Ishnik said, I hand-picked each of the Council. I first put them in their job in the DoD, then I had meetings with them; learned about them. Then I told them my beliefs. I brought them along and tested them in personal obedience and loyalty, until I was sure I could count on them. Only then did I make them part of the Council. No, I am confident they will not fail us. France is right."

  Olds replied, "Yes, my Leader."

  "Now I need you two to get back to the Senate. When events break, use your influence to have the Congress take a wait and see attitude about who is really President."

  "But the House of Representatives just voted for Pinchon!"

  "Yes, but they were sold a bill of goods. Woods plan was dropped on them by the old Speaker who told them they had to do this or the nation would fall apart and the world would end. Many of them will be having second thoughts right now, and wondering if they did right. If someone can be there at the right moment, they can be shown the right way.

  Appeal to their love of the Constitution. Tell them they have been led away from it by schemers and connivers. Inform them that they can still stand up and tell the nation that when they voted for Pinchon they were deceived; that he cannot be Speaker, nor can he become President of the United States. Now they are going to stand with the American people and do things constitutionally. Now the Secretary of Defense, an executive officer, a Cabinet officer, must succeed to the presidency, rather than a General. Tell them a General taking power apart from a General election, is wrong, and would break down civilian control of the military. Tell them that Ulysses Bull Pinchon is not Ulysses S. Grant.

  "Woods and Burlson did a sneak attack on the House, but we can get the Congress back. We need to be bold, we need to lead them the right way."

  "Yes my Leader, we will not fail you."

  "Don't fail America; don't fail the Constitution."

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