(1976) The R Document Read Online Free PDF Page B

carpers like that Ishmael Young, or even doubters like Karen - these men were responsible human beings. At once, he felt comfortable in this circle of
    power. He felt he belonged. It was a wonderful feeling. He wished he could thank the person who had put him there - Colonel Baxter, who was missing, who was lying in a coma on a hospital bed in Bethesda.
    Collins had believed he owed everything to Colonel Baxter, but actually, examining it now, he saw that it was a series of accidents and mistakes that had elevated him to Attorney General. For one thing, he had been his late father’s son, and Colonel Baxter had been his father’s college roommate at Stanford and his father’s closest friend in their early, struggling years after graduation. Collins’ father, who had wanted to practice law, had turned to business instead and had become a wealthy electronic-parts manufacturer. Collins remembered the great pride his father had taken in his son, the lawyer. His father had always kept Colonel Baxter and other friends apprised of his son’s advancement and growing legal reputation.
    Two distinct events, a few years apart, had further brought him to Colonel Baxter’s attention. One was his brief but well-publicized tenure as an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in San Francisco. He had successfully defended the civil rights of a thoroughly fascist right-wing American organization, because he believed in free expression for all. It had been a matter of highest principle rather than principals. Colonel Baxter, a conservative, had been impressed for the wrong reasons. Shortly after, when serving as the new District Attorney in Oakland, Collins had gained national attention by successfully prosecuting three black killers who had committed particularly horrendous crimes. This had impressed Colonel Baxter even more, showing that he was no bleeding heart meting out more compassionate justice for blacks than for whites. What had never got into print was Collins’ true feelings: that these impoverished, ill-raised, illused blacks had been the real victims, the victims of society. The law, unfortunately, had no mitigating provision for the lucklessness of possessing the wrong genes.
    Yes, it was the headline achievements that had impressed Colonel Baxter. The fact that Collins, in private practice in Los Angeles, had also successfully defended the rights and lives of several organizations of blacks and Chicanos, and
    saved the necks of dozens of white dissenters had been regarded by Baxter as a youthful aberration or a sop to a rising young attorney’s conscience. Thus, backed by these credentials and his father’s old friendship, Collins had been summoned to Washington to become, eventually, Colonel Baxter’s Deputy Attorney General, and thus by chance, by a flaw in the Colonel’s arteries, he had become Attorney General of the United States and a part of this elite company.
    The thoughts in his head seemed unnaturally loud, and then he realized this was because the Cabinet Room had become unnaturally hushed. He started to look around, when suddenly he saw the President leap from his chair, and heard a tremendous cheer go up in unison.
    Bewildered, he looked at the screen, then at Karen, who was not cheering, and she whispered, ‘It just passed. The New York State Assembly ratified the 35th Amendment. Can you hear the announcer? He’s saying that means only one more state is needed to put the 35th over. They’ll be switching to Columbus after a station break and a brief sum-up by the network panel.’
    Everyone was standing, jubilant, and Collins’ view of the screen was momentarily blocked by Steedman, who was addressing the President. ‘Congratulations, Mr President!’ the pollster was saying. ‘I will admit that was a definite upset, a surprise. Our percentages allowed for it, but there was no clear indication that it would happen the way it did.’
    Director Tynan gripped Collins’ shoulder until he winced. ‘Great