Chapter 87

87
THE WHITE HOUSE

Tom Hanneman was waiting when the President entered the back office. This would be a meeting without the tape recorder that ran continuously in the Oval Office. He rose, "Good morning, Mr. President."

"What do you think, Tom? Pretty good press conference, huh?" President Haskill spoke with an upbeat tone.

"It was promising in a couple of ways. He didn't do any hell raising, and He could have with that string of weird questions. The other thing was that it was interesting. People who haven't had a definitive thought about religion for years ate up the reports like they were candy." Hanneman continued, "But your Boy did something during that press conference. We've got a dozen newspapers carrying an account of everything that was said, but none of them really agree with each other. Granted, there's no significant variation in the material that was reported, but not a single one of them could quote ver batim what He said. It's almost as if He gave each reporter something a little different. He's a hard bird to figure out."

"I didn't think I would ever hear you say that, Tom." the President commented.

"Well now that we finally have Him talking, our next move is to begin to control what He says. We can put words in His mouth if we can get our people into the press conference. My people have prepared a number of loaded questions and other dialogue. All we need is to get into the press conference." Hanneman was constantly aware of whether or not he was being recorded.

"Well, I asked Veemer to handle that for me and he wouldn't do it. He rolled out all this crap about campaign contributions. That's one rock we ain't turning over, Tom. The problem is that fourteen thousand reporters are in the lottery pool for every press conference. Nothing scares me like getting investigated for dirty campaign contributions." the President suddenly seemed more serious.

"Speeches that aren't written by your speech writer should scare you just as much, Sir." Hanneman jabbed.

"Yeah, yeah. That's all behind us now. No constituency in the country can remember anything I said two weeks ago." Haskill spoke as if trying to convince himself.

"Mr. President, we really need to control what this Guy is saying. We need to put words in His mouth, and the sooner the better. Do you think Tower would help?" Hanneman asked.

"General Tower doesn't like me. Anyway, he makes me feel crooked -- which I'm not. I'd replace him at the Watergate, but the State Department goonies warned me not to. They told me that he is getting close to Jesus Robeles, you know, bonding." The President sometimes used Hanneman as a combination of mother and psychiatrist.

"The last thing I wanted to tell you is that we're seeing a slight reduction in the violence after the press conference. There are probably just as many people rioting, but we're getting larger groups in fewer cities. Peace seems to be breaking out in scattered areas." Hanneman reported.

"Let's just hope that it will continue to improve as we move toward the election. I'll take any good news there is, and that seems like good news." the President rose from the table, "I have to meet the Algerian Prime Minister."

"I'll continue to work on this, and I'll keep you informed." Tom Hanneman spoke as he was once again distracted by his headset.

"Thanks, Tom. I know I can count on you." President Robert Haskill waved weakly as he left for his appointment.