The Prodigal Daughter Read online

  Within a few days Don Short and his $24,300 seemed to be a thing of the past as Florentyna returned to her normal hectic congressional schedule. She had moved up two more notches on the Appropriations Committee and when she looked around the table, she began to feel like an old-timer.

  Chapter

  Thirty

  When Florentyna returned to Chicago she found that Democrats were voicing aloud their fears that having Jimmy Carter in the White House might not necessarily help their chances. Gone were the days when an incumbent could take it for granted that he would be returned to the Oval Office, and take with him those of his party who were fighting marginal seats. Richard reminded Florentyna that Eisenhower was the last President to complete two terms in office.

  The Republicans were also beginning to flex their muscles, and after the announcement that Jerry Ford would not seek the Presidency, George Bush and Ronald Reagan appeared to be the front-runners. In the corridors of Congress it was being openly suggested that Edward Kennedy should run against Carter.

  Florentyna continued her daily work in the House and avoided being associated with either camp, although she received overtures from both campaign managers and more than her usual allocation of White House invitations. She remained noncommittal, as she wasn’t convinced that either candidate was right to lead the party in 1980.

  While others spent their time campaigning, Florentyna put pressure on the President to take a stronger line when dealing with heads of state from behind the Iron Curtain and pressed for a firmer commitment to NATO, but she appeared to make little headway. When Jimmy Carter told an astonished audience that he was surprised the Russians could go back on their word, Florentyna said despairingly to Janet that any Pole in Chicago could have told him that.

  But her final split with the President came when the so-called students took over the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and held fifty-three Americans hostage. The President appeared to do little except make “Born Again” speeches and say his hands were tied. Florentyna proceeded to bombard the White House by every means at her disposal, demanding that the President stand up for America. When eventually he did attempt a rescue mission, it aborted, resulting in a sad loss of reputation for the United States in the eyes of the rest of the world.

  During a defense debate on the floor of the House soon after this humiliating exercise, Florentyna departed from her notes to deliver an off-the-cuff remark. “How can a nation that possesses the energy, genius and originality to put a man on the moon fail to land three helicopters safely in a desert?” She had momentarily forgotten that the proceedings of the House were now televised and all three networks showed that part of her speech on their evening news bulletins.

  She didn’t need to remind Richard of George Novak’s wisdom in insisting on not renewing Lester’s loan to the Shah and when the Russians marched over the Afghanistan border, Richard canceled their holiday to watch the Olympics in Moscow.

  The Republicans went to Detroit in July and chose Ronald Reagan with George Bush as his running mate. A few weeks later the Democrats came to New York and the party confirmed Jimmy Carter with even less enthusiasm than they had showed for Adlai Stevenson. When the victorious Carter entered Madison Square Garden, even the balloons refused to come down from the ceiling.

  Florentyna tried to continue her work in a Congress that was not certain which would be the majority party in a few months’ time. She pushed through amendments on the Defense Appropriations bill and the Paperwork Reduction Act. As the election drew nearer, she began to fear that the fight for her own seat might be close when the Republicans replaced Stewart Lyle with an enthusiastic young advertising executive, Ted Simmons.

  With Janet prodding her, she once again pushed her voting record up to around eighty percent by only accepting invitations to speak in Washington or in Illinois during the last six months prior to the election.

  Carter and Reagan seemed to be living in Chicago, flying in and out of Illinois like two cuckoos in one clock. The polls were declaring it was too close to call, but Florentyna was not convinced after she had seen the candidates debate in Cleveland in front of a television audience estimated at 100 million Americans. The next day Bob Buchanan told her that Reagan might not have won the debate, but he sure as hell hadn’t lost it, and for someone trying to remove the White House incumbent, that was all-important.

  As Election Day drew nearer, the issue of the hostages in Iran became more and more a focal point in the minds of the American people, who began to doubt that Carter could ever resolve the problem. On the streets of Chicago, supporters told Florentyna that they would return her to Congress but they could not back Carter for a second term. Richard said he knew exactly how they felt and predicted that Reagan would win easily. Florentyna took his view seriously and spent the last few weeks of the campaign working as if she were an unknown candidate fighting her first election.

  Her efforts were not helped by a torrential rainstorm in Chicago which poured down on the streets right up until Election Day.

  When the last vote had been counted even she was surprised by the size of the Reagan victory, which took the Senate with him on his coattails and only just failed to capture the House for the Republicans.

  Florentyna was returned to Congress with her majority cut to 9,031. She flew into Washington, battered but not beaten, a few hours before the hostages returned.

  The new President lifted the spirit of the nation with his inaugural address. Richard, in a morning coat, smiled all the way through the speech and applauded loudly at the section he would quote to Florentyna for several years after.

  We hear much of special interest groups, but our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries, crosses ethnic and racial divisions and political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes and heal us when we’re sick. Professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies and truck drivers. They are, in short, we the people, this breed called Americans.

  After the speech had been enthusiastically received the President gave a final wave to the crowd in front of the main stand, and turned to leave the podium.

  Two Secret Service men guided him through a human aisle created by the honor guard.

  Once the Presidential party had reached the bottom of the steps, Mr. Reagan and the First Lady climbed into the back of a limousine, obviously unwilling to follow the example of the Carters and walk down Constitution Avenue to their new home. As the car moved slowly off, one of the Secret Service men flicked a switch on his two-way radio. “Rawhide returns to Crown” was all he said, and then, staring through a pair of binoculars, he followed the limousine all the way to the White House gates.

  When Florentyna returned to Congress in January 1981, it was a different Washington. Republicans no longer needed to beg support for every measure they espoused, because the elected representatives knew the country was demanding change. Florentyna enjoyed the new challenge of studying the program Reagan sent up to the Hill and was only too happy to support great sections of it.

  She had become so occupied with amendments to the Reagan budget and defense program that Janet had to point out to her an item in the Chicago Tribune which might eventually remove her from the House.

  Senator Nichols of Illinois announced this morning that he would not be seeking reelection to the Senate in 1982.

  Florentyna was sitting at her desk, taking in the significance of this statement, when the editor of the Chicago Sun-Times called to ask her if she would be entering the race for the Senate in 1982. Florentyna realized that it was only natural for the press to speculate on her candidacy after three and a half terms as a representative.

  “It doesn’t seem that long ago,” she teased, “that your distinguished journal was suggesting I resign.”

  “There was an English prime minister who once sai