Girl Power (21 page)

Sally inadvertently stirred a controversy

Though Sally weighed her comments and considered them innocuous,

unfortunately, the National Firearms Association considered them anathema.

Despite having an acceptable NFA rating while serving in the House, the NFA

immediately declared war on Sally and her whole party, sending talking heads

throughout the conservative media world. The conservative blogosphere soon

jumped aboard.

Seeing a blitz of anti-Pink publicity, the key members of SAFE worried and

prepared for the worst. And the worst seemed to come when on her show,

Winfred Opry played a clip of Sally's View comment. "I ask you, is what she said so terrible?"

Her audience replied with a resounding, "No!"

"Then what's all the fuss about?"

Predictably, the gun lobby went ballistic, demonizing the Pink party as even

worse than the evil, liberal Democrats. Not surprising, SAFE found themselves in the crosshairs of the NFA with a broadside of anti-SAFE advertisements.

Surprising, the demonizing and the ad blitz seemed to have no effect on SAFE

membership.

Lindy heard someone come in and looked up. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Yes, Melissa?"

"Here's the latest stats." Melissa set the pages in front of her.

Lindy sighed. "How bad is it?"

"Actually, it's pretty good."

"What?" Lindy scanned the papers. "Well, I'll be. We gained 2500 members."

"I know."

Lindy looked up at Melissa. "And we gained a couple new candidates." She scrutinized the second page. "We gained friends and followers on the social networks too."

"I see."

"What gives? I was sure after all the trash talk and lying negative ads we'd take a bath, but we've actually gained ground. Let's go see Lee. I want his take on this." Lindy and Melissa strolled across the hall. "Lee?" Lindy continued when he looked up, "Melissa and I would like your take on these latest stats."

Lindy handed the sheets to Lee, who took the sheets and perused them.

"Not that surprising if you think about it. Our members and other like-minded individuals, for the most part, aren't firearms aficionados."

Lindy cocked her head and frowned. "No? I have a gun."

Lee chuckled. "I noticed you said a gun."

"Yes one gun, a Walther P22 with a ten-shot clip."

"That's understandable. You're an attractive, single woman, living alone

and, on occasion, you probably feel vulnerable. But, tell me, are you in love with guns? Are they a big part of your life? Are you a lifetime member of the NFA?"

Lindy scrunched her nose and shook her head. "No, of course not. But—"

"But nothing. I never really gave this much thought before, but this…" He held up the stats. "…has opened my eyes. Their people and our people are poles apart. Different goals, different ideals and different lifestyles, and never the twain shall meet. So when they cry we're anti-gun, our constituents say, so

what?"

He shook the papers again. "I was expecting our poll numbers to go down,

but now I wouldn't be surprised if they went up."

After they left Lee's office, Melissa accompanied Lindy back to her office.

Melissa stood as Lindy sat. "Yes, Melissa?"

Melissa's eyes darted around the room. "Ah. I have a gun."

"That's nice."

"Yes, a Walther, like you."

Lindy set the papers she was glancing at down. "Do you like it?"

"I don't know. I never shot it."

Lindy frowned. "You never shot it?"

"No. I really don't know much about guns. A situation came up where I

worked at the time and I thought I needed it, so I bought the gun. It's kind of a long story, but the problem went away and I never learned to use it."

"Lucky you. Do you want me to instruct you?"

Casting a huge smile, she nodded. "Would you?"

"Of course. I'll tell you what. I'll buy you a drink at Phase 1 after work. You can tell me your long story and we can make arrangements to meet at a firing

range."

Melissa pursed her beautiful red lips. "The story is kind of embarrassing."

Lindy chuckled. "I'm not surprised. Is it a deal?"

"Yes. Phase 1. What is it?"

Lindy sighed. "It's a women's bar."

"Women's? Are you gay?"

"Yes. Does that bother you?"

Melissa's smile widened. "Actually, I don't know. I'll tell you what it doesn't do though."

"What?"

"It doesn't make go eeewwww!" Melissa scrunched her nose.

~ * * ~

Crowe and his groveling underling, Willie Joe were enjoying lunch among

the nude and semi-nude ladies of the Body Shop when he received a text

message from his secretary.

Rouge wants you to call. Important!

P

Crow left their booth and went outside to make the call.

"American Crossburnings."

"This is Crowe Magnon. May I speak to Karol, please."

"Thank you, I'll put you through."

"Rogue."

"Hi, Boss. Crowe."

"Hi, Crowe. Hope you're doing better than I am."

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is we invested millions and millions and a lot of time and

effort to blast the Pinks into smithereens and they went up two percent in the

polls."

"No kidding, I figured we had them on the run."

"So did everyone else, and I'm feeling the heat from the money people. I

don't get it. If we'd've done this to the hapless Demos, they would have gone

down six or seven points."

"Maybe we've got the wrong message."

"Don't say that Crowe. That's heresy."

"What's your answer, then?"

"I don't know. Throw more money at them, I guess. It's always worked

before."

"Insanity," Crowe mumbled.

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing, Boss. Is there a reason, beside the polls, you wanted to talk?"

"Yes, a couple things. Have we started our intimidation program yet?"

"Ah-huh, the mischief makers have already started and the Tea Partyers are

scheduled to start picketing like only they can."

"Great. Did our mole come up with any kind of scandal yet?"

"Yeah sort of, but I don't know if we can use it."

"Why?"

"The whole episode is supposition. There's no proof anything actually

happened. In fact our source says she doubts anything did happen."

"That's all right. Run it by me. Let me decide."

~ * * ~

By July 7th, Secret Service agents began protecting Sally and Winfred.

A week later, a patrol car sat with lights flashing in front of the

headquarters building as Sally pulled in the parking lot. Lee stood talking to an officer while a second officer surveyed the damage. Graffiti had been scrawled

on the walls and windows, with slogans like Baby Killers, SAFE equals

Whore/Bitches and No Witches in Govt. Eggs and toilet paper had splattered

against the glass.

She parked and rushed to Lee as a second, and then a third patrol car

arrived. Two secret service agents soon joined Sally.

Lee turned to Sally. "Sorry, vandals got us good."

"Sorry? You didn't do this!"

"I know, but I kind of felt something like this was coming and I never

warned you."

Lindy's SUV pulled into a close space, as did Brenda's Corolla. Both ladies

hustled over.

Sally asked Lee, "If you had told me, what could we have done?"

As Lindy and Brenda joined them, Lee answered, "Lots of things, but they

all cost money."

"What happened?" Brenda asked.

Lee answered, "Vandals, probably bought and paid for by the Democratic

or the Republican National Committee."

Sally told Lee, "We don't have a money problem. What would you have

done?"

"Install a video system on a motion or infrared detector, hire security."

"Then do it. Lindy, would you call Kelly and tell her what happened? Ask

her to get Tino and Herman to clean up and repair this mess."

Lindy nodded. "Certainly."

"Good. Brenda, when I go inside, I'm going to call and warn Winfred and I

want you to warn all of our affiliate offices. If they ask what they can do,

recommend what Lee just suggested."

Like clockwork, a TV van drove into the parking lot followed by two cars,

which were probably reporters. "Lee, Lindy, I'm not up to handling journalists right now. Can you talk to them while I go inside and call Winfred?"

As Sally began to walk away, Brenda rushed up. "Can I tell Mickey?"

Sally smiled at her young enthusiastic girl Friday. "Of course, he's our

media coordinator. Give me a couple hours and I'll give your boyfriend a

statement."

Chapter Eighteen – Ten Weeks to Election

Politics’ comes from the Greek ‘poly’ meaning ‘many’ and ‘ticks’, which are

blood-sucking parasites." -
Rep. Davy Crockett

Immediately after the vandalism of SAFE headquarters and other SAFE

locations, they hired full time security and installed security cameras in most

sites. When August rolled around, the latest polls showed the unthinkable.

Democratic candidate, Clovis Taylor had faded to twenty-six percent, while

upstart SAFE party candidate, Sally Cummings had pulled within one point of

mega-millionaire, Cooper Richardson III, with 33% to Richardson's 34%, a

statistical dead heat, with 7% undecided.

However, that didn't last. Sally's poll numbers dropped four points when

conservative radio hosts and bloggers leveled unsubstantiated charges of

impropriety at Sally and her associates.

The fuss subsided somewhat when SAFE representatives responded and for

the last week of August, the news media focused on Orlando, Florida where the

Republican Convention took place.

~ * * ~

"We have a breaking news story, so we're taking you to Chicago where

Jenna Kenner is standing by. What's going on Jenna?"

"Good afternoon Jeff. I'm here in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton, Chicago

where, according to the Sludge Report, a scandal took place the night before

Presidential candidate Sally Cummings announced her candidacy. With me is

Egbert Ditz, the concierge who was on duty that day, and Ima Grant, a maid."

Jenna turned to the young man. "Egbert, please explain to the audience what you remember from that day."

She held the microphone for the concierge to speak. "I remember that day

very well. Two women and a man came and checked in to the two rooms that

had been reserved in their names by The Winfred Opry Show."

Jenna spoke into the mic. "And what were those names?"

Flatly, Egbert said, "Sally Cummings, Lindy Rollins and Lee Casey."

"Why weren't three rooms reserved?"

Egbert shrugged. "I'm not sure. You'll have to ask the Opry people."

"Did they verify that's who they were? Did they show you I'd?"

"Oh, yes, they all showed driver's licenses."

"And what kind of rooms were these?"

"They are deluxe rooms. Winfred Opry always provides the best for her

guests."

Jenna shook her head, her straight blond hair trailing behind. "No, I meant how many beds did they have and were the rooms adjoining?"

"Yes, each room features a deluxe King sized bed and the rooms are

adjacent, accessible through a common door."

"Thank you."

Jenna turned to the maid, "Ima, tell us what you saw?"

The maid's eyes darted around. "I don't know who they were at first. I had

to clean mess guest made in room 1614. When I come out to get something off

my cart, I see them get off the elevator and walked other way. The man in center and had arm around each of woman. It look like they been drinking."

"That's good. How did they act?"

A smile formed on Ima's lips. "They act friendly and look like having…good

time."

"How friendly?"

Ima shook her head. "Nothing…ah, improper unless kissing them on the

cheeks is improper."

Jenna showed photos of Sally, Lindy and Lee to the witness. "Was this the

threesome you saw?"

She nodded. "Sí. Nice looking threesome."

"Did you see which rooms they went into?"

"No, had to finish cleaning up mess so I could go home. Sorry."

"That's all right. Thank you Ima." Jenna turned to the camera. "There you have it, Jeff. Nothing definitive, but it's possible our first credible woman

Presidential candidate was caught up in some hanky-panky."

"Yeah, I suppose it's possible, but it looks pretty weak to me. Thank you

Jenna."

"Now, we go to Erica Hilton who's at the Republican National Committee.

Hello, Erica. What do you have?"

The camera panned in on Erica, an attractive, thirty-something brunette

correspondent. "Good afternoon, Jeff. I'm standing here with Crowe Magnon, the Republican National Committee Chairman. She angled toward the burly

spokesman. "What do you make of the Sludge Report's commentary?"

"I take it very serious. God knows what went on there, but let's just take the most innocent scenario. Candidate Cummings spent the night with Lindy

Rollins, her lesbian campaign manager. Even if they did nothing but sleep, it

shows bad judgment. I won't even go into the less innocent permutations which

are tumbling through my mind."

"You don't think—?"

Crowe moved his hands around. "I don't know, Erica, and we may never

know what shenanigans went on that night. All I know is, whoever becomes the

next President has to be beyond moral reproach, like our candidate, Cooper

Richardson."

"Ah… Thank you, Mr. Magnon. Back to you, Jeff."

"Thank you for that enlightening exchange, Erica."

The announcer turned to face the camera. "I should tell you that we're