The Prodigal Daughter Read online

  As the Presidential election drew nearer, more and more senators seeking re-election asked Florentyna to speak in their behalf. During the last six months of 1988 she rarely spent a weekend at home; even the President invited her to join him in several campaign appearances. He had been delighted by the public reaction to the Kane Commission report on welfare, and he agreed to the one request Florentyna made of him, although he knew that Pete Parkin and Ralph Brooks would be furious when they heard.

  Florentyna had had little or no social life since Richard’s death, although she had managed to spend an occasional weekend with William, Joanna and her three-year-old grandson Richard at the Red House on Beacon Hill. Whenever she found a weekend free to be back at the Cape, Annabel would join her.

  Edward, who was now chairman of the Baron Group and vice-chairman of Lester’s Bank, reported to her at least once a week, producing results even Richard would have been proud of. On Cape Cod he would join her for golf, but unlike the results of her rounds with Richard, Florentyna always won. Each time she did she would donate her winnings to the local Republican club in Richard’s memory. The local GOP man obligingly recorded the gifts as coming from an anonymous donor because Florentyna’s constituents would have been hard put to understand her reasons for switch-hitting.

  Edward left Florentyna in no doubt of his feelings for her and once hesitantly went so far as to propose. Florentyna kissed her closest friend gently on the cheek. “I will never marry again,” she said, “but if you ever beat me at a round of golf, I’ll reconsider your offer.” Edward immediately started taking golf lessons, but Florentyna was always too good for him.

  When the press got hold of the news that Senator Kane had been chosen to deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in Detroit, they started writing about her as a possible Presidential candidate in 1992. Edward became excited about these suggestions, but she reminded him that they had also considered forty-three other candidates in the last six months. As the President had predicted, Pete Parkin was livid when the suggestion came up that the keynote speech be delivered by Florentyna but eventually calmed down when he realized that the President had no intention of dropping him from the ticket. It only convinced Florentyna that the Vice President was going to be her biggest rival if she did decide to run in four years’ time.

  The President and Pete Parkin were renominated at a dull party convention, with only a handful of dissenters and favorite sons to keep the delegates awake. Florentyna wistfully recalled livelier conventions, such as the GOP’s 1976 melee, during which Nelson Rockefeller had pulled a phone out of the wall in the Kansas City convention hall.

  Florentyna’s keynote speech was received by the delegates in decibels fewer only than those accorded the President’s speech of acceptance, and it caused posters and campaign buttons to appear on the final day with the words: “Kane for ’92.” Only in America could ten thousand campaign buttons appear overnight, thought Florentyna, and she took one home for young Richard. Her Presidential campaign was beginning without her even lifting a finger.

  During the final weeks before the election, Florentyna traveled to almost as many swing states as the President himself and the press suggested that her unstinting loyalty might well have been a factor in the Democrats’ slim victory. Ralph Brooks was returned to the Senate with a slightly increased majority. It reminded Florentyna that her own re-election to the Senate was now only two years away.

  When the first session of the 101st Congress opened, Florentyna found that many of her colleagues in both houses were openly letting her know of their support should she decide to put her name forward for the Presidency. She realized that some of them would be saying exactly the same thing to Pete Parkin, but she made a note of each one and always sent a handwritten letter of thanks the same day.

  Her hardest task before facing re-election for the Senate was to steer the new Welfare bill through both houses, and the job took up most of her time. She personally sponsored seven amendments to the bill, principally placing responsibility on the federal government for all costs of creating a nationwide minimum income and a major overhaul of social security. She spent hours badgering, cajoling, coaxing and almost bribing her colleagues until the bill became law. She stood behind the President when he signed the new act in the Rose Garden. Cameras rolled and shutters clicked from the ring of press photographers standing behind a cordoned-off area. It was the greatest single achievement of Florentyna’s political career. The President delivered a self-serving statement and then rose to shake Florentyna’s hand. “This is the lady whom we can thank for ‘The Kane Act,’” he said and whispered in her ear, “Good thing the VP’s in South America or I would never hear the end of it.”

  Press and public alike praised the skill and determination with which Senator Kane had guided the bill through Congress and The New York Times said that if she achieved nothing more in her political career, she would have placed on the books a piece of legislation that would stand the test of time. Under the new law, no one in genuine need would forfeit his rights, while at the other end of the scale, those who played the “Welfare Charade” would now end up behind bars.

  As soon as the fuss had blown over, Janet warned Florentyna that she must spend more time in the state now that the election was less than nine months away. Nearly all the senior members of the party offered their services to Florentyna when she came up for re-election, but it was the President who broke into a heavy schedule to support her and drew the biggest crowd when he spoke at the convention hall in Chicago. As they walked up the steps together to the strains of “Happy Days Are Here Again” he whispered, “Now I am going to get my revenge for all the flak you’ve given me over the past five years.”

  The President described Florentyna as the woman who had given him more problems than his wife and now he heard she wanted to sleep in his bed at the White House. When the laughter died down, he added, “And if she does aspire to that great office, America could not be better served.”

  The next day the press suggested that the statement was a direct snub to Pete Parkin and that Florentyna would have the backing of the President if she decided to run. The President denied this interpretation of what he had said, but from that moment on Florentyna was placed in the unfortunate position of being the front-runner for 1992. When the results of her Senate race came in, even Florentyna was surprised by the size of her victory, as most Democratic senators had lost ground in the usual midterm election swing against the White House. Florentyna’s overwhelming victory confirmed the party’s view that it had found not only a standard-bearer but something far more important: a winner.

  The week of the first session of the 102nd Congress opened with Florentyna’s picture on the cover of Time. Full profiles of her life, giving the details of her playing Saint Joan at Girls Latin and winning the Woolson Scholarship to Radcliffe, were meticulously chronicled. They even explained why her late husband had called her Jessie. She had become the best-known woman in America. “This charming 57-year-old woman,” said Time in its summation, “is both intelligent and witty. Only beware when you see her hand clench into a tight fist because it’s then she becomes a heavyweight.”

  During the new session, Florentyna tried to carry out the normal duties of a senator but she was daily being asked by colleagues, friends and the press when she would be making a statement about her intentions to run or not to run for the White House. She tried to sidetrack them by taking more interest in the major issues of the day. At the time Quebec elected a left-wing government she flew to Canada to participate in exploratory talks with British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba about federation with America. The press followed her and after she returned to Washington, the media no longer described her as a politician but as America’s first stateswoman.

  Pete Parkin was already informing anyone and everyone who wanted to listen that he intended to run and an official announcement was considered imminent. The Vice President was five years older th