Going Too Far
Cheeks round, pudgy fingers fumbling, Ellmer took a newspaper article out of his briefcase, pushed it across the table toward me: ‘I’ll bet you disagwee with Trump on this?’ Sputtering, unable to pronounce r’s, he turned them into w’s.
Sitting beside him Wiley’s lips curled in a crooked grin – at the end of the table shoulders hunched Fred frowned puzzled.
After college, setting out to climb the political ladder rung by rung, Ellmer landed a job at the Republican party headquarters in Washington, then at the state Republican Party, then worked for the State House Speaker – helping the Speaker elect candidates landed him in the world of campaigns. Once an impoverished world, times had changed – campaigns were flooded with money. Joining arms with other consultants, making deals, Ellmer pocketed money.
More mercurial than Ellmer, and more clever, Wiley found himself working beside Ellmer in a campaign. The candidate won. He and Ellmer worked together again. Allied.
Fred’s a different story – leaving college after two years he took a job managing a smalltown shop, fell in love, married, went back to college, got invited to a Republican event, a social animal, enjoying himself, started going to Republican conventions, dinners, got elected local county chairman – candidates started knocking on his door, seeing a way to make money he fell into campaign consulting. But, at the end of the day, while Ellmer and Wiley are stereotypes, Fred’s a sort of aardvark.
I turned Ellmer’s article around – read a children’s hospital in Texas had promised to stop doing transgender surgeries on children but went right on doing the surgeries. A young surgeon gave children’s medical records – but not their names – to a journalist. The story landed in newspapers.
Transgender activists howled, turned up the heat on Democrat politicians, Biden’s Justice Department indicted the surgeon, said he’d violated the HIPPA law.
Trump took office. Trump’s Justice Department dropped the case.
Ellmer sat slowly drumming his fingers on the table, waiting, knowing I frown on Trump’s tale spinning. I laid down the article.
‘You have to give credit when credit’s due. I do agree.’
I asked him 2 questions: What he thought of Trump pardoning January 6th rioters? And if he agreed with Trump taking away John Bolton’s Secret Service protection after Iran offered to pay an assassin to kill him?
Ellmer stared down at his hands, shrugged.
I turned to Fred. ‘What do you think – was Trump right when he took away John Bolton’s Secret Service protection?’
Burley, square shoulders, grinning, Fred rocked back staring across the table at Ellmer’s pale face chortling. ‘I like ole Trump a lot – but I’d say when he did that he went too far.’
(Note: This story’s a roman à clef. The history’s real but some characters mirror cartoons – which fits politics today)
*******
Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.
Going Too Far
Cheeks round, pudgy fingers fumbling, Ellmer took a newspaper article out of his briefcase, pushed it across the table toward me: ‘I’ll bet you disagwee with Trump on this?’ Sputtering, unable to pronounce r’s, he turned them into w’s.
Sitting beside him Wiley’s lips curled in a crooked grin – at the end of the table shoulders hunched Fred frowned puzzled.
After college, setting out to climb the political ladder rung by rung, Ellmer landed a job at the Republican party headquarters in Washington, then at the state Republican Party, then worked for the State House Speaker – helping the Speaker elect candidates landed him in the world of campaigns. Once an impoverished world, times had changed – campaigns were flooded with money. Joining arms with other consultants, making deals, Ellmer pocketed money.
More mercurial than Ellmer, and more clever, Wiley found himself working beside Ellmer in a campaign. The candidate won. He and Ellmer worked together again. Allied.
Fred’s a different story – leaving college after two years he took a job managing a smalltown shop, fell in love, married, went back to college, got invited to a Republican event, a social animal, enjoying himself, started going to Republican conventions, dinners, got elected local county chairman – candidates started knocking on his door, seeing a way to make money he fell into campaign consulting. But, at the end of the day, while Ellmer and Wiley are stereotypes, Fred’s a sort of aardvark.
I turned Ellmer’s article around – read a children’s hospital in Texas had promised to stop doing transgender surgeries on children but went right on doing the surgeries. A young surgeon gave children’s medical records – but not their names – to a journalist. The story landed in newspapers.
Transgender activists howled, turned up the heat on Democrat politicians, Biden’s Justice Department indicted the surgeon, said he’d violated the HIPPA law.
Trump took office. Trump’s Justice Department dropped the case.
Ellmer sat slowly drumming his fingers on the table, waiting, knowing I frown on Trump’s tale spinning. I laid down the article.
‘You have to give credit when credit’s due. I do agree.’
I asked him 2 questions: What he thought of Trump pardoning January 6th rioters? And if he agreed with Trump taking away John Bolton’s Secret Service protection after Iran offered to pay an assassin to kill him?
Ellmer stared down at his hands, shrugged.
I turned to Fred. ‘What do you think – was Trump right when he took away John Bolton’s Secret Service protection?’
Burley, square shoulders, grinning, Fred rocked back staring across the table at Ellmer’s pale face chortling. ‘I like ole Trump a lot – but I’d say when he did that he went too far.’
(Note: This story’s a roman à clef. The history’s real but some characters mirror cartoons – which fits politics today)
*******
Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.