(Ed. note: On 30 September 2017 President Donald Trump threw up his hands and said “I quit!”. And meant it. Before the sun set over the Washington Monument, Mike Pence had been sworn in as the 46th U. S. President. What follows are two meetings that took place a few days later.)
(Oval office; present were President Mike Pence, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Majority Leader of House, Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell — all Republicans.)
“Thanks for coming, Speaker Ryan . . .”
“I believe we should dispense with formal titles when in meetings like this, Mike. Out in public, we must maintain some sort of ritualized civility, but all of us have known each other too long to have to be cramped by stilted language.”
This met with enthusiastic approval from all present, and Pence then got down to the business at hand.
“Mitch, the first business is filling the vacancy on the Court. When Kennedy resigned, Trump was having trouble getting any help from the Dems on a suitable candidate who would not be grilled like Gorsuch. What I propose is to nominate one of the first slate of 21 that the President put forth in his campaign, and then flood the Senate with conservative judges for the other slots in the federal judiciary. What is your take on this?”
“Well, Mike, I believe it is time to really flex our muscles on these nominations. With all of the ones you suggest already vetted and given high marks by the ABA, I am ready to push through all of them. In addition, I have heard that Ginsberg is about to resign because of severe health reasons. Just nominating another strict constructionist will give Democrats nightmares!”
“Good. Paul, where are we on taxes?”
“Ready to go, Mike. We have a plan to put the corporate rate at 15% and lower rates on everyone else, especially the middle class. I believe we can get this through the House, and then pass it in the Senate, using reconciliation if needed.”
“Health care, Kevin?”
“Since the Senate has passed their version of a health bill, the AHCA, we have already been able in private talks to come to almost all needed compromises with ours. It should be done in a month. And it will include the defunding of Planned Parenthood.”
“Great! Immigration is next. Do we believe we can get a comprehensive bill passed in both houses?”
McConnell and Ryan both agreed that with the trauma of Trump’s resignation it made passage of such a bill much easier.
“This will be one that a lot of liberals will squeal over,” Ryan said. “But we can get this behind us, and I believe before the snow flies in Madison it will be done.”
“Now comes the most pressing problem. Who should I nominate for Vice President? We really ought to have one in place as soon as possible, and we need someone who will be easy to confirm.”
“My suggestion,” McConnell began, “is a person of high-profile and a staunch conservative from my state — Representative Marsha Blackmon. Not only will she be acceptable to my caucus, but she will blunt the oft heard diatribe about how we are “anti-women”. She is pro-choice and has been a vocal supporter of shrinking government and getting rid of regulations that strangle our small businesses.”
“Mitch, you are stealing one of my most valued members,” Ryan put in. “But I don’t believe you could get a better qualified candidate. And I agree that she would be fairly easy to confirm.”
Pence and McCarthy chimed in with their approval, and the President set the next Thursday for the announcement.
“Our opponents believe they will retake the house in next year’s elections. Does anyone have any comment on this?” was Pence’s next question.
“No one believes the Senate is any danger of flipping,” McConnell opined. We are defending only eight seats, while the Democrats are defending 25. My sources on the ground in the states believe that we are going to pick up from 8-12 seats, for there are many who are incensed over the treatment of Trump.”
McCarthy picked up on this from McConnell.
“Yes — that is what I hear also. We have had more conservatives who have not been politically active who want to run than ever before. What I have seen of these, I believe the Dems are going to be surprised at the strength we have, due mainly to the overreach of the “resistance” that drove Trump to such frustration he gave up.”
Those four men then sat around and reminisced over the events of the past year, and when the meeting finally broke up, plans had been made to introduce legislation into each house as was needed. For these Republicans, the future looked promising indeed.
(The other meeting took place in the spacious offices of the Minority Leader of the U. S. Senate, Chuck Schumer. Present were Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the U. S. House, and the next in line after Pelosi, Steny Hoyer.)
“I didn’t believe we could do it, but we did!” exulted Schumer. “We put so much pressure on Trump he couldn’t stand the heat. Well done!”
“We couldn’t have done it without the help of the press,” admitted Pelosi. ‘We owe so much to them, for they drowned out by sheer volume anything that came from Fox News.”
Hoyer couldn’t contain his glee. He had been one of the leading behind-the-scenes agitators against the former President, and he took a special pride in the process that ousted Trump.
“This shows what a committed minority can to in this system. We now have the Republicans on the run. Next year we will retake the House, and in three years the White House.”
“Right,” Pelosi added. “Tom Perez and Keith Ellison have been working hard to identify good candidates, and have reached out to Sanders’ supporters, making sure there are several of his followers who have committed to running for House seats. We feel we have identified about fifty seats we can flip to our side. And look at the strong candidates we see ready to run for the Presidency in 2020. Joe Biden has indicated he might try again, and all know Hillary wants the nomination next time. Someone has suggested that Bernie is up for another campaign. Looks strong to me.”
“Until then,” Schumer put in, “what do we do? I suggest we reach out to the other side and try to get some bipartisan legislation passed. We are going to resist (I love that word!) any true gutting of the tax code, for the GOP wants to slash the amount of money from taxes, keeping some social programs from operating as well as they should. We can also slow walk any appointments we don’t like, which should get us more suitable candidates. I don’t think any on the other side of the aisle have the stomach for much more of what they suffered under Trump.”
More happy chatter took up the rest of the meeting. All of them were to go back to their caucuses and give the marching orders about how to deal with the new administration.
Hoyer left, and Schumer and Pelosi sat for a few minutes, each alone with their own thoughts.
“Nancy, we still have a problem.”
“I know, Chuck. Pence is a more doctrinaire conservative that Trump ever was. He is pro life, pro Second Amendment and a tax hawk. Those who knew him in Indiana claim he is also pretty inflexible when it comes to something he believes in. The grapevine has it he is ready to nominate very conservative judges, and McConnell is said to be willing to ram the names through the Senate. Thanks to Harry, they only need 51 to seat all of them.”
“Perhaps we are being a little too optimistic about our agenda,” Schumer concluded. “I hope we do not underestimate the strength of the Republicans.”
(This look into future is just one scenario that might be played out. The old saw about being beware about what you wish for might just apply to the Democrats as they continue to try to drive Trump from office.)