The Prodigal Daughter (57 page)

She later
discovered that Danny One-Leg’s real name was on the computer and that someone
else had been caecting his money for the past thirteen years. It didn’t take a
lot longer to discover that Matt the Grain and several of his friends from parking
lot sixteen were also on the computer although they had never received a penny
themselves.

Fiorentyna went
on to prove that there were over a million people entitled to aid who were not
receiving it, while, at the same time, the money was going elsewhere. She
became convinced that there was no need to ask Congress for more money, just
for safeguards designed to ensure that the annual pay-out of over ten billion
dollars was reaching the fight people. Many of those who needed help just
simply couldn’t read or write and so never returned to the government office
once they had been presented with long forms to complete. Their names became an
easy source of income for even a small-time crook. When Florentyna presented
her report to the President ten months later, he sent a series of new
safeguards to Congress for its immediate consideration. He also announced that
he would be drawing up a Welfare Reform Program before the election.

The press was
fascinated by the way Florentyna had got the President’s name and address onto
the unemployment computer; from MacNelly to Peters, the cartoonists had a field
day, while the FBI made a series of welfare fraud arrests right across the
country.

The press
praised the President for his initiative and the Washington Post declared that
Senator Kane had done more in one year for those in genuine need than the New
Deal and the Great Society put together. This was indeed a “fresh approach”;
Florentyna had to smile. Rumors began to circulate that she would replace Pete
Parkin as Vice President when the next election came around. On Monday she was
on the cover of Newsweek for the first time and across the bottom ran the
words: “America’s First Woman Vice President?” Florentyna was far too shrewd a
politician to be fooled by press speculation. She knew that when the time came,
the President would stick with Parkin, balance the ticket and be sure of the
South. Much as he admired Horentyria, the President wanted another four years
in the White House.

Once again,
Florentyna’s biggest problem in life was in determining priorities among the
many issues and people that competed for her attention. Among the requests from
senators to help them with their campaigns was one from Ralph Brooks. Brooks,
who never lost the opportunity to describe himself as the state’s senior
senator, had recently been appointed chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, which kept him in the public eye. He had received
considerable praise for his handling of the oil tycoons and leaders of big
business. Florentyna was aware that he never spoke well of her in private, but
when proof of this came back to her, she dismissed it as unimportant. She was
surprised, however, when he asked her to share a TV commercial spot with him,
saying how well they worked together and stressing how important it was that
both Illinois senators be Democratic.

After she had
been urged to cooperate by the party chairman in Chicago, Florentyna agreed,
although she had not spoken to her Senate colleague more than two or three
times a month during her entire term in Congress.

She hoped her
endorsement might patch up their differences. It didn’t.

Two years later
when she came up for re-election, his support for her was rarely more than a
whisper.

As the Presidential
election drew nearer, more and more senators seeking re-election asked
Floretyna to speak in their behalf. During the last six months of 1988 she
rarely spent a weekend at borne; even the President invited her to join him in
several campaign appearances. He had been delighted by the public reaction to
the Kane Commission report on welfare, and he agreed to the one request
Florentyna made of him, although he knew that Pete Parkin and Ralph Brooks
would be furious when they heard.

Florentyna had had
little or no social life since Richard’s death, although she had managed to
spend an occasional weekend with William, Joanna and her three-year-old
grandson Richard at the Red House on Beacon Hill. Whenever she found a weekend
free to be back at the Cape, Annabel would join her.

Edward, who was
now chair-man of the Baron Group and vice-chairman of Lester’s Bank, reported
to her at least once a week, producing results even Richard would have been
proud of. On Cape Cod he would join her for golf, but unlike the results of her
rounds with Richard, Florentyna always won. Each time she did she would donate
her winnings to the local Republican club in Richard’s memory. The local GOP
man obligingly recorded the gifts as coming from an anonymous donor because Florentyna’s
constituents would have been hard put to understand her reasons for
switch-hitting.

Edward left
Florentyna in no doubt of his feelings for her and once hesitantly went so far
as to propose. Florentyna kissed her closest friend gently on the cheek. “I
will never marry again,” she said, “but if you ever beat me at a round of golf,
I’ll reconsider your offer.”

Edward
immediately started taking golf lessons, but Florentyna was always too good for
him.

When the press
got hold of the news that Senator Kane had been chosen to, deliver the keynote
speech at the Democratic convention in Detroit, they started writing about her
as a possible Presidential candidate in 1992.

Edward became
excited about these suggestions, but she reminded him that they had also
considered forty-three other candidates in the last six months. As the
President had predicted, Pete Parkin was livid when the suggestion came up that
the keynote speech be delivered by Florentyna but eventually calmed down when
he realized that the President had no intention of dropping him from the
ticket. It only convinced Florentyna that the Vice President was going to be
her biggest rival if she did decide to run in four years’ time.

The President
and Pete Parkin were renominated at a dull party convention, with only a
handful of dissenters and favorite sons to keep the delegates awake. Florentyna
wistfully recalled livelier conventions, such as the GOP’s 1976 melee, during
which Nelson Rockefeller had pulled a phone out of the wall in the Kansas City convention
hall.

Florentyna’s
keynote speech was received by the delegates in decibels fewer only than those
accorded the President’s speech of acceptance, and it caused posters and
campaign buttons to appear on the final day with the words: “Kane for ‘92.”
Only in America could ten thousand campaign buttons appear overnight, thought
Florentyna, and she took one home for young Richard. Her Presidential campaign
was beginning without her even lifting a finger.

During the final
weeks before the election, Florentyna traveled to almost as many swing states
as the President himself and the press suggested that her unstinting loyalty
might well have been a factor in the Democrats’ slim victory. Ralph Brooks was
returned to the Senate with a slightly increased majority. It reminded
Florentyna that her own re-election to the Senate was now only two years away.

When the first
session of the 101st Congress opened, Florentyna found that many of her
colleagues in both houses were openly letting her know of their support should
she decide to put her name forward for the
Presidency.
She realized that some of them would be saying exactly the same thing to Pete
Parkin, but she made a note of each one and always sent a handwritten letter of
thanks the same day.

Her hardest task
before facing re-election for the Senate was to steer the new Welfare bill
through both houses, and the job took up most of her time. She personally
sponsored seven amendments to the bill, principally placing responsibility on
the federal government for all costs of creating a nationwide minimum income
and a major overhaul of social security. She spent hours badgering, cajoling,
coaxing and almost bribing her colleagues until the bill became law. She stood
behind the President when he signed the new act in the Rose Garden. Cameras
rolled and shutters clicked from the ring of press photographers standing
behind a cordoned-off area. It was the greatest single achievement of
Florentyna’s political career. The President delivered a self-serving statement
and then rose to shake Florentyria’s hand. “This is the lady whom we can thank
for ‘The Kane Act,”
‘ he
said and whispercd in her car,
“Good thing the VP’s in South America or I would never hear the end of it.”

Press and public
alike praised the skill and determination with which Senator Kane had guided
the bill through Congress and The New York Times said that if she achieved
nothing more in her political career, she would have placed on the books a
piece of legislation that would stand the test of time. Under the new law, no
one in genuine need would forfeit his rights, while at the other end of the
scale,
those who played the “Welfare Charade” would now end
up behind bars.

As soon as the
fuss had blown over, Janet warned Florentyna that she must spend more time in
the state now that the election was less than nine months away. Nearly all the
senior members of the party offered their services to Florentyna when she came
up for re-election, but it was the President who broke into a heavy schedule to
support her and drew the biggest crowd when he spoke at the convention hall in
Chicago. As they walked up the steps together to the strains of “Happy Days Are
Here Again” he whispered, “Now I am going to get my revenge for all the flak
you’ve given me over the past five years.”

The President
described Florentyna as the woman who had given him more problems than his wife
and now he heard she wanted to sleep in his bed at the White House. When the
laughter died down, he added, “And if she does aspire to that great office, America
could not be better served.”

The next day the
press suggested that the statement was a direct snub to Pete Parkin and that
Florentyna would have the backing of the President if she decided to run. The
President denied this interpretation of what he had said, but from that moment
on Florentyna was placed in the unfortunate position of being the front-runner
for 1992. When the results of her Senate race came in, even Florentyna was
surprised by the size of her victory, as most Democratic senators had lost
ground in the usual midterm election swing against the White House.
Florentyna’s overwhelming victory confirmed the party’s view that it had found
not only a standard-bearer but something far more important: a winner.

The week of the
first session of the 102nd Congress opened with Florentyna’s picture on the
cover of Time. Full profiles of her life, giving the details of her playing
Saint Joan at Girls Latin and winning the Woolson Scholarship to Radcliffe,
were meticulously chronicled. They even explained why her late husband had
called her Jessie. She had become the best-known woman in America. “This
chan-ning 57-year-old woman,” said Time in its summation, “is both intelligent
and witty. Only beware when you see her hand clench into a tight fist because
it’s then she becomes a heavyweight.”

During the new
session, Florentyna tried to carry out the normal duties of a senator but she
was daily being asked by colleagues, friends and the press when she would be
making a statement about her intentions to run or not to run for the White
House. She tried to sidetrack them by taking more interest in the major issues
of the day. At the time Quebec elected a left-wing government she.
flew
to Canada to participate in exploratory talks with
British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba about federation with America.
ne
press followed her and after she returned to Washington,
the media no longer described her as a politician but as America’s first
stateswoman.

Pete Parkin was
already informing anyone and everyone who wanted to listen that he intended to
run and an official announcement was considered imminent. The Vice President
was five years older than Florentyna and she knew this would be his last
opportunity to hear “Hail to the Chief” played for him. Florentyna felt it
might be her only chance. She remembered that Margaret Thatcher had told her
when she became Prime Minister, “The only difference between the
leader
of a party’s being a man or a woman is that if a
woman loses, the men won’t give you a second chance.”

Florentyna had
no doubt what Bob Buchanan would have advised had lie still been alive.
Read Julius Caesar, my dear, but this time Brutus and not Mark
Antony.

She and E.dward
spent a quiet weekend together at Cape Cod, and while he lost yet another golf
match, they discussed the tide in tht, affairs of one woman, the flood and the
possible fortune.

By the time that
Edward returned to New York and Florentyna to Washington.
the
decision had finally been made.

“...
A
ND TO THAT END I declare my candidacy for the office of President
of the United States.”

Florentyna gazed
into the Senate Caucus Room at the 350 applauding inembers of the audience,
which occupied a space that the sergeant-at-anns insisted should only hold 300.
Television camera crews and press photographers shoved and dodged to prevent
their frames from being filled with the backs of anonymous heads. Florentyna
remained seated during the prolonged applause that followed her announcement.
When the noise had finally ebbed, Edward stepped up to face the battery of
,microphones
at the podium.