Willie and Barry found themselves in the park on a late Sunday Morning. Both needed some relief and some reflection on recent goings on as well as remembrances of things past.  It was late spring, the sun was out and so high in the sky. A little chilly to the southern boy and just right to the survivor of the Chicago machine. 

They had met each other quite by accident.  As a matter of fact both men wondered how they had arrived at this destination. They found themselves quite out of breath for some reason and both sat on a roomy park bench.

Neither of us really belong in the role we found ourselves in; I mean we both ascribed to something greater than ourselves, our families, our roots mused Willie.

You got that right Reb.  I mean I always knew there was something out there for me. But Harvard, I mean lets get real.  Willie, how the hell did you ever end up at Oxford.  And were you not supposed to be in the big war anyway?

Well that is a long story Barry. Okay if I call you Barry.

Oh for sure.  We kind of find ourselves on the same level of society now I spose. As long as I may refer to yu'all as Willie.

Of course, of course. Us Southern Boys do not find it necessary to hang onto formalities. I'll tell ya though, I was always the smartest guy in my little neck of the woods. I did not realize it of course....not at first. I mean the teachers did not push me, they related to me, with me.  Which was strange since I had no regular dad. Just roomers from time to time.  Not exactly a paragon of family values from an origins standpoint. I stayed out of trouble for the most part though. There was the time I clipped one of my 'step dads' once. He left with nary a good by after that tussle.  Ha!

I hear ya. Never had much of a relationship with papa either. Did not see him much. At least you were brought up in America, even if it was the Confederacy. Hahaha. Mama and I just sort of drifted around the world until we settled down in Hawaii and Grandpa and Nana kind of took over. More stable environment. It is strange when your ma is so young. I look back at those times as a child and realize that in many ways she was but a child. Real smart mind you. Real smart.  When did it hit you though, the thought that you could be the one?

I was 19, and on a bus going to visit the White House will all these other young smarts. I tell ya, we drove up to this Manor, something you would see in the confederacy as you say, and I was struck. I was struck with an awe I had never felt before. I shook hands with the President of the United States. And I was so young and so smart I had not idea what I did not know. And we got on the bus and started home and I stood up and said: I'm going to be President of the United States someday. Ha! What do you think of that?

I think it queer that if you had been aware of so many things that you did not know, at that time, you never would have been President of the United States Willie. That is what I think. I mean, you and I both know that its more than a crap shoot. It is a lottery and there are literally a hundred thousand people in this country that could make it to the Oval at any one time. Hehehehehee.

I was thinking Barry. You know there is only fifteen or sixteen years separating us. You look so young now and I look, well I am looking pretty old although not as old as I felt eight years ago. And there is only one half wit separating me from you. Hahahahaha. Family values. Eight years of family values separates us. Think about it. Hahahahaha. I cannot stop laughing at that thought. Irony is what makes life worth living. Is it not?

Well those eight years Willie, make all the difference in the world; at least with regard to irony. I am in it right now. No time for irony which you well know.  It is like when I meet a 30 year old. I think that the newbie pol knows so little. After all, I was thirty once and he has never been 47. And I think about you from time to time. I am just on the five yard line of my presidency and you went the full hundred yards. I have studied your presidency. Every page I could find, mind you. I, too, am a fast study like yourself.  But being on the five yard line, feeling the rush, sensing the urgency....I know something about what you felt.

But tell me, if you can recall, what were you feeling on that five yard line? 

Oh Barry. Those were the days my friend and we thought they would never end. Ha! But they ended real quick. We were going to change DC. We were going to change this country. And we were going to change the world. The first thing we decided was to repeal the ban on gays in the military. I thought, hell, the civilians run this country, not the military. That is what separates us from the totalitarian regimes. And within months of my term, hell weeks, I started questioning myself. Oh this General would say, this just aint gonna work. We got Southern Boys with Southern Values and we got Catholic Boys with Catholic Values and Protestant.....On and on and on. The damned embedded class of bureaucrats came in to 'give us their statistics', to render unto us their 'experience'in such matters. The numbers of gays who just did not make it home, so to speak. The women were having their own problems and the number of gay women were having even a harder time.

They told us Barry, we were opening a can of worms. I threatened to fire the whole bunch of them. But the calmer heads, my friends, my cabal, they put the reins in on me.  I could feel my power being sapped AND I HAD NOT EVEN BEGUN! Damn I was mad. But I see, with no glee in my heart Barry, that you are runnin into the same powers that be, the same need for the status quo to remain in force on all fronts at once.

Willie, my cabal--as you put it--is far more 'liberal', at least as I see it. You and I both know the press has no idea. No idea at all, although I am really impressed with this Web and its power...but that is another subject. We came in thinking that we would change the discrimination of the gays just like you. EVEN THOUGH I READ EVERYTHING I COULD GET MY HANDS ON REGARDING YOUR TRAVAILS IN THIS MATTER. I was enraged that I could not breach the wall. I have filed it away...and I feel I can get back on that bus later.  Maybe I am fooling myself Willie. What do ya think?

We were gonna do that; that is we filed it away also...but as you are learning, on disaster after another, one urgency after another, one impending omen of doom after another....Just remember, everytime you get that feeling remember I had that same feeling a thousand times. And guess what?  We are still here, are we not? Ha!! My hero was Johnson. Lyndon was a Southern Boy just like, from nowhere. He got into office and immediately changed this country forever, changed his party forever, change the world forever.

It is not like I forgot, Barry, that Lyndon had gotten into office with more support than anyone in history since Truman. But, speaking of Truman, he waited and then sent out HIS ORDER. The end of racial segregation in the armed forces. Now he had his own precedents. I mean FDR had sent out all those Executive Orders banning discrimination in the separate but equal vein and those orders that affected the contractors whose very existence depended upon the good will of the government and its taxpayers.  But geeez, we just did not have the backing of the northern churches on this Barry. They did not give a damn about the gays...Ah, I am being too harsh. Generalize. Yet I was President of the United States and generalization was the best, er...the point of it all. Is that not the point of it all, to have the power and generalize and hope it  all turns out for the best/

As a matter of fact Willie, I have received some promises from the Military and we are slowly putting our peeps in there. But I digress since you certainly planned upon that somewhat and then got lost. We are keeping our options open, someone will say at a daily briefing as I bit my tongue...

Oh get used to that Barry. Green tea helps that a lot. I spent much more time really biting my tongue than my lip as those asshat comedians always have me doing. Ha

Oh good. I am not the only one. Hehehehehee. But as I was saying, we wish that details be given to Congress. Uncle Joe is really helping me with that. Between he and Rahm it is not like we were coming in as 'The Outsiders' another of Wayne's terrible flicks. We wish, certainly to keep Grandma Pelosi on our side. You know Willie, I really like her. I mean I respect her certainly. But the way she can work with Stenny and Obey and poor Murtha....Our idea was to hand the detail work to our Leaders over there on the Hill. It gives them power, real power. And they do not feel we are being preemptory.

That was one of our mistakes, one of many Barry. We came in with our real proposal, one that really would change America. W had so little going for him cranium wise, but he was right in one thing. DC has its own power structure, its own strength. I mean I came into 'power' (so to speak, powerful as the office is it really is not what it is cracked up to be as they try to demonstrate on Meet The Press) and I was going to change the world and found the oligarchy that really controls everything. It was not that I did not realize power problems, I mean I was Governor forever. But it was a small state and I could just threaten to revoke some licenses, disclose some state secrets so to speak about some business goings on, and I got what I wanted. In the Oval we could just threaten and they would threaten back. My dalliances were bad enough. But you already know, I am sure, there are actual traitors in power who can be purchased with a few pieces of silver....

At any rate Barry, Hilary and I worked and worked on this health care package. And I really did work with her, it was never some plan to get her out of the house after all. I mean we had not slept together in years really.  But we have always had an incredible partnership. But those bastards in Congress had their own little spheres of influence. I mean Commerce wanted in on it besides Health and Human Services. And the Fed wanted into it...so much money you know--and that money problem is much worse for you after sixteen years of giving the bastard moneyed class all that profit....Oh geeeez

You got that right Willie. The pressure is enormous. But we have had the opportunity to confuse it all so well. Just read the papers, watch cable. Oh we have no plan, they tell you. Oh the White House is confused, they tell you. Like the '50's films. Black and white. Cowboys and Indians. Freedom and Communism. The West and Asia.....A director takes on a script. He carefully plats the movie, scene by scene. Some even work with a comic book like structure.  And that is what the press has to do or they could put no order on the chaos.

Barry, the reason you have been 'getting away with it" so relatively long is your celebrity status. As the producers of these silly narratives know, you are the star of this cowboy series. Oh they get to put Rahm in rove's place and stead. But there is no Cheney. Sorry about Pinnetta by the way. Hahahaha. By the way how are you handling the oligarchy?

Well Willie, the Military cabal to the side for the moment, they are not getting too far with us, so far, regardless of what the pundits say. As if you ever listen to pundits. Heeeehehehhe. The moneyed class is keeping their pressure on the individuals in Congress. If they could all be like Jim Webb....and he is in the middle of what used to be a 'red state'. It was really the luck of the draw to get rid of the real Confederacy led by Allen down there.

Anyway, Willie, the capitalist oligarchy is so entrenched. You saw how we broke through with the web. All those small contributions given by millions. We are attempting to keep that communication going, for real and we pay attention, whether anyone believes it or not, to some of the real 'players' in that gig.  Petitions and email drives abound like never before. The we tried that Lincoln model, grab a few letters everyday and respond. At least, unlike you, I was on the hill for at least a short period. And most of our people anyway, are good solid god-fearin men and women.  That is why Joe and Rahm are such assets. And even they, from time to time, piss people off. Of course they did before when they held seats in both Houses of Congress. A health package will be delivered to me in the Oval, regardless. I know this. And we will work from there beginning next year. But when you look over eight years (sorry, but that is the plan) we are challenging trillions upon trillions of dollars in pure power. And we have decided WE JUST CANNOT SUCCEED without ceding a lot of responsibility to Congress.

What does Joe think about the Senate Barry? I mean he was always the greatest. I enjoyed it every time we met. In person, on the phone or through underlies. I mean Speaker Pelosi has the edge in the House. But will it not take Franken to give us real power in the Senate. I know that is naïve upon first view, but Dems cannot all of a sudden be hit by an epiphany and run to the aid of a republican filibuster. Can they?

We are there Willie. Every day, I promise you. We let nothing go unattended. Just like you we smooth them over, caress, promise if we have to. You know this stimulus package gives us a little room to work. I mean this Congressman needs extra for a bridge, This Senator needs to come home with something.  But as you know...the thrill of it all. The gamesmanship. It never gtoes away and I hope it keeps giving me this adrenaline rush.  I know we will hit the normal potholes. I know we will have the normal amount of scandals. But Bill, they never left you alone. Never once, all the while pretending that they were the liberal press. What a joke.

Oh, even before the impeachment. You are a reader of history, just like me.  They never once cut me a break. And they went after my wife like there was no tomorrow.  They attempted to use that tactic on your wife Barry, but right now they are stuck in the approach they took with the Texas school teacher...hahhahaaha. Give her my best Barry and tell her to keep on keeping on in that role.  I lost numbers over Hillary and it was not her fault. Not one bit. Oh geeeez, you can tell I am getting mad. learned to deal with that over the years. How are you handling it, besides the tongue I mean?

It is the adrenaline Willie. Just pure adrenaline. And I keep to the schedule and Rahm is so goddamnably good at that. (blesses himself) He can be the meanest son of a bitch I ever knew, but he can also be quite charming. I mean he not only respects Nancy, he has love and respect for her. And he understands what Reid is up against both at home and on the hill. He accuses me of 'bitch slappin' him sometimes, but he does it with a smile. We both 'come from' Chicago politics and that helps.

Barry, I just hope the very best. I know Hillary has never been happier. You know Madeline was always her close friend and she fills her shoes quite well, do you not think?

Bill, she is the one in charge. Communication is great. I know when she is out there spreading the message that I am not going to read something in the papers and spend an hour in the bathroom. Speakin of the bathroom. Wow. I have never seen a bathroom like that in all my life. They actually leave me alone in there. Heheheeee.

You got that right Barry. Just do not find yourself alone with an intern in the Oval. Hahahahahahah!!!

With that everything returned to er...normal, for awhile.