Service Dress Blues Read Free Page B

stopped, glanced to her right, and looked back at the audience as an unseen voice invited questions.
    â€˜That was a symposium at NYU four years ago,” Carlsen said. “Before the lady there came to Milwaukee to head up a goo-goo outfit called The Wisconsin Policy Project.”
    â€œâ€˜Goo-goo’?”
    â€œGood Government. It’s independently financed and administratively autonomous, but loosely affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.”
    â€œThat’s where my wife, Melissa, teaches,” Rep said.
    â€œI know. That UWM connection is one of the reasons you made the short list for this gig. Now listen carefully. The fun part is just about to start.”
    An off-camera male had been asking a question—or, more accurately, making a speech punctuated by occasional upward inflections suggestive of interrogation. He spoke in an urgent tone somehow made even more indignantly earnest by a heavy New York accent. In court the “question” would have been called argumentative and compound. Something about the United States government subsidizing and otherwise coopting Euro-American cultural organizations to use as fronts for undermining progressive parties and unions and otherwise interfering with internal affairs in European democracies and did she deny that the ICAL had taken secret government money and didn’t she think this was outrageous and didn’t it make her ashamed to be an American? Unfazed, the woman waited three beats before answering.
    â€œThose things happened during the Cold War. The Cold War is over. The good guys won. The bad guys lost. You’re welcome. Next question.”
    That’s where the DVD stopped.
    â€œThat’s Veronica Gephardt,” Carlsen said. “She was general counsel for the US branch of ICAL when that tape was made. She moved to The Wisconsin Policy Project three years ago. WPP’s theme this year is the End of Domestic Violence.”
    â€œShe’ll fit right in at UWM.”
    â€œUWM provides office space and infrastructure as long as WPP raises its own money. What UWM gets out of the deal is some national visibility and attractive intern slots for a few graduate students every year. Now: Guess how Ole got his hands on that tape.”
    â€œNo idea.”
    â€œHe started discreetly floating the idea of Gephardt as a dark horse Democratic candidate for attorney general. Nothing public. Low-key hints to political insiders and a whisper here and there to political reporters in Madison and Milwaukee. Within a month one of our party’s standard-issue suicide bombers started circulating the tape to discredit Gephardt.”
    â€œ
Discredit
her?” Rep asked in genuine surprise. “Maybe it’s just me, but I’m kind of glad we won the Cold War.”
    â€œThat’s because you live here on planet Earth and function in the real world—like most voters. Ole wants Democratic candidates who appeal to people like you instead of to hard-left ideologues who’d rather sit on the sidelines polishing their halos than win elections.”
    â€œThat doesn’t sound like it should really be a controversial position.”
    â€œYou’re not a Democrat, are you?”
    â€œAs I said, noboby’s perfect.”
    â€œThe true believers think they have a vested right to run the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Ole begs to differ. He thinks Gephardt is perfect for an end-run around the party’s institutional apparatus.”
    â€œEven though she’s never held public office?”
    â€œ
Because
she’s never held public office. She has the closest thing to a feel-good career that any lawyer can claim. She’s a progressive who goes to church now and then. As you saw on that tape she gives good sound bite. And she’s an outsider.”
    â€œAn outsider who’s not afraid to wave the flag a little,” Rep said.
    â€œGold star for Rep! Ole is very big on