Preserve and Protect (43 page)

“I believe we do,” Cullee said with a sudden attentiveness. Cymru said in his inimitable accent,

“The Council is now seized of SC/127, introduced by France and the Soviet Union, on the situation in Gorotoland. I believe the People’s Free Government of Gorotoland has petitioned to address the Council, and I believe”—he peered around brightly with his sharply twinkling little eyes—“I believe that government’s special envoy is ready, is it?”

“Is it, indeed,” Lafe remarked as Prince Obifumatta, gorgeous in his giant height and flaming robes, stepped suddenly into the excited, buzzing room and came with his long, loping stride to take his seat at the table. “Yes, yes. Is it, indeed.”

“Now, Mr. Presiding Officer, Mr. Temporary Speaker or whatever you are, sir,” Jawbone Swarthman cried as a packed and worried House began consideration of A Bill to Further Curb Acts Against the Public Order and Welfare, “now, Mr. Presider, sir, I want to state right here and now at the beginning that this bill, this measure that comes here under this pious title, sir, is repugnant to every instinct of a democratic people! Yes, sir, it is plumb, downright re
pug
nant, and this House ought to toss this crazy ol’ bill right out the window, sir, I submit it just should toss this ol’ bill right—”

“Your Honor,” Bob Leffingwell said, and from his comfortable smile no outsider could ever have guessed the mood or the conditions in which he and Tommy had faced each other last, “I think I too shall avail myself of your kindness to the aged, and remain seated. It is not that I don’t value the dramatic advantages of being on my feet, and perhaps may avail myself of them before my time is up, but I don’t really feel, Your Honor, that a sound case needs too many dramatics.

“I do believe,” he said quietly (George Harrison Wattersill and Roger P. Croy shifted in their chairs and looked suitably superior), “that the case I represent is sound.

“You are aware, Your Honor, that it has been a good many years since I actively practiced at law. And yet it seemed to me that this was an issue in which a certain personal dedication might overcome any slight rustiness. It is also an issue in which common sense, a modicum of fairness, and a reasonable care for the habits and customs of this democracy, would seem to equip almost any decent citizen to argue this side of it.”

(“Throwing a few knives today, isn’t he?” the
Arkansas Gazette
whispered to the
Newark News.
“And Georgie Wattersill isn’t?” the
News
inquired.)

“We are confronted here with an attempt, quite blatant, to make use of Your Honor and this Court simply as mechanisms to secure a political advantage. It is quite clear that those who are manipulating”—and again he ignored the restlessness of George Wattersill and Roger Croy, except to repeat calmly—“those who are manipulating—the very narrow majority which existed in the National Committee yesterday are not really interested in appealing against the temporary injunction. They are here in the obvious hope that Your Honor will overturn the appeal and thereby uphold the injunction, which would, of course, paralyze the Committee until such time, possibly much later in the summer, when the pending suit might be decided in the court below.

“But, Your Honor, even if there should be a swift decision by the court below, say even within a week, directing the Committee to reconvene the convention, is anyone so naïve as to think that the sentiment within the Committee which I represent” (At ‘Vagaries’ Orrin said softly, “Good man.”) “and am proud to represent—would not immediately appeal from that decision? And there we would be again, with who knows what delays then, and who knows when there might be a chance, then, to select candidates?

“No, Your Honor. This is the time it it’ll be decided, right here and now, once and forever. Consequently we on our side intend to be brief and, I hope, both pertinent and constructive.

“As Your Honor truly says, this is a matter of overriding importance to the country and the world, and to judge it fairly it must be placed in context. Context of a most bitter convention, lately concluded, at which the delegates freely made their choice” (“By damn,” ’Gage Shelby remarked to Sue-Dan Hamilton at DEFY headquarters downtown, “listen to that man lie.”) “context of the tragic and unexplained death of the late President of the United States—context of a war”—and his choice of the singular was not lost upon the world—“context of carefully managed and completely unprincipled violence through the country and in this capital—context of other recent tragic events”—and he stared thoughtfully at the little Justice, who for just a second looked sad, worried and harassed, but the camera did not swing to him quite quickly enough to catch it—“with which Your Honor has lately been made familiar.”

(“Now, what do you suppose he means by that?” the AP asked of no one in particular.)

“It is against this background that the appeal, the injunction, and the case below, must all be considered.

“Now, Your Honor,” he said, and his aspect was still calm, comfortable and relaxed as though he were at his own poolside, “we do not intend to dwell upon facts which are known to everyone. The basic fact is, of course, that the convention, freely and regularly called, legally bound at every point by its own rules of procedure, did in fact select the late Harley M. Hudson as its candidate for President and the Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, as its candidate for Vice President. No challenge can ethically or legally be laid against that proceeding. The convention was open, democratic, and free” (“Oh, come
on!”
the general director of the
Post
exclaimed. “Come
on.”
“George will take care of it,” Walter Dobius promised.) “as all American Presidential nominating conventions,” Bob Leffingwell went on blandly, “are open, democratic, and free, and I think that too can be stipulated on the face of it. Certainly to open up a line of argument to the contrary,” he said softly, “would be to force us to produce evidence of various attempts to intimidate, harass, threaten, and—in the case of the daughter-in-law of the Secretary of State—actually to beat a pregnant girl and cause her to lose her baby. This would not, perhaps, be a profitable line of argument for opposing counsel to pursue.”

Again George Wattersill and Roger P. Croy bristled and stirred, but there was something about the way they did it which indicated that this physical restlessness for the record would be their first and final comment on that particular point.

“It is clear, Your Honor,” Bob Leffingwell continued, not even bothering to look at them, “that the convention faithfully reflected its own majority opinion as conventions do. There is no reason now, except political adventurism, to try to establish the thesis that the opinion of the majority of the delegates somehow was not their opinion, or that their opinion has substantially changed as a result of the tragic and unexplained death of President Hudson.

“Therefore, there is no reason or need to reconvene the convention. More fundamental than that, there is not only no reason to reconvene, there is no authority whatsoever, vested in this Court, the court below, any court or any body of any nature whatsoever, to direct, command or require the National Committee to do so.

“The National Committee, Your Honor, stands supreme under its own rules and regulations. If it wishes to reconvene the convention, it may do so. If it wishes to dispense with that procedure and reserve to itself the choice of new nominees, it may do so. Each method is democratic, each guarantees a free democratic vote, each provides exactly the same democratic choice.

“Now, Your Honor,
if
one method were dictatorial and the other democratic, there would be a genuine argument. But both are democratic. The sole difference lies in the number of votes to be cast, and even that is for all practical purposes a quibble, since in choosing nominees under these circumstances, the votes of members of the Committee are given a weight equal to the number of actual delegate votes cast by their states in the convention.

“So, Your Honor, the choice is equal, and it is a choice which the Committee has a perfect and unchallengeable right to make.
The matter is entirely in its discretion.
It is a private body, not subject to the jurisdiction of any authority as long as it abides by its rules, faithfully conducts the party business according to those rules, and does not engage in any financial malpractices in the use of party funds.

“No evidence has yet been presented here, nor, I suspect, can be presented, supporting any challenge to the Committee on any of these three points.

“What the opposing side seeks to do by engaging in this action, and what its argument, I venture to predict, will attempt to support, is to establish the entirely new thesis that the National Committee not only can be held accountable for misdeeds under its own rules—which is not in dispute—but can actually be forced to choose between two options which its own rules clearly and absolutely confer upon it with no restrictions whatsoever.

“True, Your Honor, the Committee under its rules is required to select new nominees in this situation. This it
must
do, and if, for instance, it were to gather again tomorrow and vote that it would adjourn and go home without selecting anyone, then, certainly, we would be here side by side with our friends across the table seeking an injunction. And an injunction could be fairly laid.

“But that is not the issue. The Committee
is
going to select new nominees. That is as certain as that we sit here. The sole issue is our friends’ contention that, being given two options by its own rules—rules freely adopted, freely established and sanctified by many years of unchallenged and successful operation—the Committee can arbitrarily be forced to choose one of them.

“This, we submit, is bad logic and disastrous doctrine. We do not say it is bad law, for no law has ever touched this point. Nor, we submit, can it touch it, as long as both options open to the Committee guarantee an equally democratic selection of nominees.”

(“It’s just that some democratic options are more democratic than other democratic options,” the
Boston Herald
whispered to the
Newark News.)

“That in essence, Your Honor,” Bob Leffingwell said, sitting back and stretching his legs comfortably, “is our case. We will reserve the remainder of our time on argument, for the time being.”

“Mr. Wattersill?” Tommy said promptly.

“Yes, Your Honor,” George Harrison Wattersill replied, and once more he was on his feet, flexing his arms and shooting his cuffs like some dandified prize fighter. “We shall now show that opposing counsel’s arguments are unfounded, untenable, undemocratic, and hostile to the hopes and wishes of the nation and the world.”

“Mr. Chairman,” Prince Obi said in his clipped, British-African accent, looking like some gorgeous elongated beetle in his flowing robes against the somber business suits around the table, “distinguished delegates to the United Nations Security Council: you are all aware of the sad result of American aggression in my country. American imperialism, intervening in a situation which was none of America’s business, has temporarily halted the advance of the liberation of the free people of Gorotoland.

“American imperialists have won a battle.

“Only if your distinguished body concedes them an easy victory will they have won the war.

“I am here today, distinguished gentlemen, to appeal to the collective conscience of mankind against this vicious, inexcusable, horrible American imperialistic aggression. But more than that”—he stared straight at Cullee Hamilton, who returned the look with an impassive distaste—“I am here to appeal to the collective conscience of the American people at a moment when America is deciding whether she will choose a man of peace or a man of war to guide her destinies.

“Yes, in this fateful moment, I am here to say to America: give us your man of peace. Give us your statesman! Give us your great leader who wishes to save mankind from further war and trouble!”

“Do not give us—your warmonger! Do not give us—your imperialist! Do not give us—your world criminal, who has launched aggression and encourages aggression—and expands aggression—and separates America from all her friends around the world—because he loves aggression—because he loves war—because he loves hatred and bitterness—and horrible things—against innocent people!”

“Oh, Christ,” Lafe murmured with a tired disgust. “Everybody’s in the act, aren’t they?”

“Why not?” Lord Maudulayne inquired dryly at his side. “You’re in everybody else’s.”

“Now, Mr. Temporary Speaker, sir, or whatever you are,” Jawbone Swarthman cried, while the crowded House and crowded galleries chuckled, “what is the main feature of this in-ex-cu-sable bill, this monstrous ol’ measure that comes in here bearing the endorsement of the White House, though I suspect, Mr. Presider, yes, I do suspect, that somebody else had a hand in it. I do suspect that there might be what-we-used-to-have-an-expression-for in the woodpile; yes, sir, I do suspect that. And I suspect his initials are O.K., Mr. Temporary, sir, but I tell you he is
not
okay. He is not okay at all, particularly when he uses our sweet old innocent unsuspecting President—”

But this was too much for the House, and a roar of genuine laughter interrupted him.

“You may laugh,” he cried undaunted, rushing on, “you may laugh now, yes, distinguished members here may give ol’ Jawbone the ol’ haw-
haw,
but the fact is, the fact most certainly is, that you: beloved former Speaker who now by tragic fate sits in the White House could not possibly have sent us such an
evil
bill, such a
monstrous
measure, if he hadn’t had Mr. O.K. hisself doing the dirty work, there, puttin’ in these little bitty words and clauses that just twist and turn it and make it something this free democracy just can’t stand.

“Why, I ask distinguished and honorable members, what is distinguished and honorable about this bill? Just take two clauses, here, Mr. Temporary, sir, just two: this one that says a National Riot Control Board got to be set up to approve use of any facilities within one mile of any Federal building or installation for gatherings of three or more people, for instance; and this other one that says any gathering of three or more people is illegal ‘if there is obvious intent to create civil disturbance and/or riot.’