Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 09 Read Free

most important economic partner in Europe . We consider Germany to be at the core of European integration.
As such, our conversation with the chancellor has a double significance for Russia .”
     
             Ukraine Hosts Big NATO Exercise , Russia Missing
     
                 —
KIEV (Reuters) — 6/19/00 — Ukraine begins unprecedented 10-day naval exercises
with NATO and several former communist nations on Monday, but Russia, still
deeply suspicious of the Western defense alliance, plans to stay away.
                 .., Russia , Ukraine ’s former imperial master, resents Kiev ’s warm ties with NATO and regular military
exercises in the Black
Sea region, where Moscow ’s might and influence have waned
dramatically since the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991.              
•
     
             /
his is no time to hear that we have violated human rights. This is not true. It
is not good for my hearing. It is not good for my hair. I know the real
situation and think that Russia needs to be more cruel... We will resist
and use weapons, and not only nuclear ones. We will throw you into the English Channel We will drive all the human rights
advocates to the tunnel between London and Paris and brick them up in there.
     
                 — Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
     
                 RUSSIAN
ULTRA NATIONALIST
                 LEADER
                 (REUTERS, APRIL 7 , 2000 )
     
             

           PROLOGUE:
     
    Blair House, Washington , D.C. 20 January 2001
     
     
                 “Well,
what the hell are they doing in there?” the chief clerk of the United
States Supreme Court whispered excitedly. He knocked again on the door of the
Truman Quarters, the master guest suite of Blair House. Behind him waited the
chief justice of the Supreme Court, along with several aides. Secret Service
agents, and Blair House staff. Who the hell would keep the chief justice and
most of the rest of the world waiting like this?
                 A
few moments later, the President-elect himself opened the door. “Come in,
please, gentlemen,” he said, his everpresent half-smile on his face. “Welcome.
Hope we didn’t keep you too long.”
                 “Of
course not, Governor Thom,” the chief justice responded, with a faint smile.
“Don’t be silly—I’m the one disturbing you. This is your time. Probably
the last real peace and quiet you’ll have for a very long time.”
                 The
president-elect shook his head and smiled as if he was completely oblivious to
what was going to happen soon. “Nonsense, Your Honor. Peace is a state of mind,
not a function of time, place, or sound.”
                 “Of
course.” The chief justice and the clerk looked at each other and exchanged a
single silent comment as they entered: Yep, he’s a strange one, all right.
                 The
clerk looked at his watch, then at the chief justice with not a little concern
as they were admitted inside. The president and vice president-elect were
supposed to be at the west portico of the Capitol in twenty minutes for the
start of the inauguration-day ceremonies. The festivities had in fact already
started: a military pass-in-review in honor of the outgoing president and vice
president, a concert by the Marine Band, the invocation, and various poetry
readings celebrating the first peaceful transition of power in the United States of the new millennium.
                 The
vice president-elect would be sworn in first at ten minutes before noon,
followed by a song or march of the vice president-elect’s choice while the
players on the dais repositioned themselves. The vice president-elect, who
happened to be one- half Seminole Indian, had chosen the “John Dunbar theme” by
John Barry, from Dances with Wolves, with Michael Tilson Thomas
conducting the