Advise and Consent Read Online Free Page A

Senator, somewhat against his better judgment, is doing his best to oblige. After the standard processes have produced the standard result, the young lady will shower, dress, and amid many tremulous farewells and mutual pledges will peek nervously out the door and then hurry away down the corridor, hoping she has not been seen. The Senator, who thinks he knows something the young lady does not know, which is that he will never see her again, will also shower, shave, examine himself critically in the mirror, be amazed as always at how his unlined and engagingly boyish visage manages to stand the gaff, and then will depart by cab for the Hill, where he is scheduled to meet two elderly constituents from Council Bluffs for breakfast. These kindly folk will be suitably impressed by his air of All-American Boy, and they will go away bemused and bedazzled by their meeting, never dreaming that their All-American Boy, like many another All-American Boy is one hell of a man with the old razzmatazz.
    As this tender scene, so typical of life in the world’s greatest democracy, is unfolding at the Woodner, Walter F. Calloway, the junior Senator from Utah, is also standing before the mirror in the bathroom of his house near Chevy Chase Circle just inside the District-Maryland Line, muttering and whistling through his teeth in his reedy voice just as he does on the floor of the Senate. “It iss my opinion,” he is saying (downstairs Emma Calloway, preparing the usual eggs and bacon, hears the faint droning buzz and wonders tiredly what Walter is practicing this time), “that the confirmation of Mr. Leffingwell to thiss vitally important posst would seriously endanger the welfare of the United Statess in thiss most critical time...” None of Walter’s colleagues would be surprised to hear this, and later in the day, when he issues the statement to the press and takes the time of the Senate to read it into the Congressional Record, they will shrug and look at one another as much as to say, “What did you expect?” They will be convinced then, prematurely as it turns out, that it is not among the Walter Calloways of the Senate that the fate of Robert A. Leffingwell will be decided, and they will promptly dismiss the opinion of the junior Senator from Utah, who is likable as a person, mediocre as a legislator, and generally ineffective as a United States Senator.
    Also practicing, although unlike Walter Calloway not on his own superb voice, is Powell Hanson, the junior Senator from North Dakota. Powell is sitting in his study in Georgetown surrounded by Powell, Jr., twelve, Ruth, seven, and Stanley, four, and he is practicing the violin, an instrument he played in high school and hadn’t touched since until about six months ago when Powell, Jr., began to play. Now by popular demand of the younger generation, he has resumed it; and since he never manages to get home from the Senate Office Building much before seven or eight, and then only for a brief meal before either going out again socially or locking himself up with legislation, it is only in the half hour before breakfast that he can manage to really see the children. The violin was Powell, Jr.’s own idea, which the Senator feels should be encouraged; under the impetus of their joint scratching Ruth now thinks she may want to start piano, and Stanley bangs a mean drum, purchased for his recent birthday. Elizabeth Hanson, who gave up a promising future as a research chemist to marry the young lawyer in whom she saw the same possibilities he saw in himself, is quite content with the uproar created by the maestro and his crew, even though it makes breakfast a rather catch-as-catch-can meal. The price exacted by public office sometimes seems more to the Hansons than they are willing to pay; but since they know perfectly well that they will go right on paying it just as long as Powell can get re-elected, they are doing what they can to protect their children and their home. As long as