Double Play by Mike Weiss

Double Play by Mike Weiss

Author:Mike Weiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vince Emery Productions
Published: 2012-04-23T16:00:00+00:00


Saturday, November 18

“TO DATE,” THE MAYOR’S PRESS SECRETARY told a reporter who called on Saturday to ask what was happening with the Dan White situation, “the only person who has come into this office indicating that Dan White should be reappointed is Dan White himself.”

While the statement was not literally true, it was a good indication of the problem George faced. The city attorneys had already made it clear to George that the power was his; under the charter Dan could not rescind his resignation. The seat was George’s to fill and the meeting with Goldie’s people the previous afternoon had made it equally clear that to appoint Dan White would not necessarily be politically popular, not even in Dan’s own district. The time had come to play a little hardball. George had Cyr Copertini arrange for Dan to drop by at noon.

The two men met alone in the mayor’s ceremonial office. In the eight days since Dan resigned both men had wavered; Dan changed his mind once, and now George was ready to give Dan an opportunity, an opportunity to help him so that he wouldn’t have to change his mind too. The mayor explained to Dan the problem he had. There was a lot of opposition to Dan regaining his seat, opposition in his own district, and not just from his enemies but from people who had been behind him in the past. In light of that, it might not be prudent to reinstate him.

George explained that his sympathy was still with Dan, he wanted to be able to appoint him, but Dan had to make that possible, he had to come up with concrete evidence of support. To begin with, support from his constituents, letters, petitions, that sort of thing. But there was more involved.

Politics, George explained, made for hard choices. As a supervisor Dan understood that, didn’t he? Dan, he pointed out, had opposed him when his vote would have made a crucial difference; Dan’s vote, in fact, had impaired his ability to govern effectively. On the business taxes, for instance, Dan had reneged on his commitment to vote with the mayor. Then there was the Officers for Justice consent decree, just to pick an example at random. George would dearly love to resubmit that item to the Board if he could be assured that it had a sixth vote. Those were his problems, George explained, and of course Dan had a problem too, and George wanted to help.

If he appointed Dan—and, he explained, that was still what he hoped to be able to do—then that would be a political favor, and such a favor meant that Dan would be incurring a political debt. In order for him to appoint Dan, George continued, Dan must assure him of his support. As mayor, with an election coming up, faced with political pressures of his own, he had to be sure of Dan’s support when he needed it. Dan understood that, didn’t he?

All along Dan had viewed this as a personal rather than a political situation.



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