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  I stayed at home with Emilie watching the endless video replay of the president collapsing at the podium and the scene of reporters mobbing the gates outside the Kremlin hospital. When the president’s American doctor emerged to announce McCain’s death, around nine in the morning in New York, I felt a grip deep in my gut and bent over slightly to relieve the pain.

  Emilie, who focused intently on the unfolding story, did not notice my reaction. After a while, no new details were released and the coverage became completely repetitive. “I’m going to work,” Emilie said. “See you tonight.”

  I too went to work, but not before calling Sanjay.

  “San. What do you think?”

  “It was my worst fear. And now that it has happened, it somehow feels like it was inevitable.”

  His voice sounded weak.

  “You OK?”

  I heard a deep breath.

  “Talk to you tonight” was all that he said in reply.

  Not a lot of work got done that day. The firm tuned the plasmas in the conference rooms to CNN and allowed the lawyers and staff to watch. All the protocols for this situation had been executed efficiently. Palin had been spirited away to the White House Situation Room from her home at the Naval Observatory (where a cleaning lady later revealed that the vice president had been watching reruns of a television reality show, Bridezillas, and not the president’s address). One hour after the announcement of the president’s death in Moscow, Palin appeared on television reading remarks announcing that she had been sworn in as president by the chief justice, that all the cabinet members and Joint Chiefs not with the president in Moscow had gathered with her in the Situation Room, and that the US military had gone to DEFCON 4, as is prescribed by protocol, although no enhanced threat to the United States was known or anticipated.

  By midday, the news coverage had shifted from the medical aspects of President McCain’s death to a considerable state of confusion over the location of his body. In these circumstances, everyone expected that the president’s body would be promptly removed to Air Force One and returned with the rest of the official delegation to the United States. The president’s staff, cabinet members, and others had returned to Vnukovo International Airport. The president’s doctor was apparently still at the Kremlin hospital, and none of the press had seen the president’s ambulance leave the facility.

  At 5:00 p.m. on the East Coast, the Kremlin released a one-line written statement to the effect that under Russian law an autopsy and inquest were required before the president’s body could be released. These would be scheduled and conducted in accordance with normal procedures, and the public would be advised of the results when complete. In the meantime, the president’s body would remain in the custody of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

  Few people in the United States slept much that night. The Russians held the president of the United States, dead or alive, and refused to release him. Commentators speculated wildly on the motives of the Russian government in what could only be construed as a remarkably bold and aggressive affront to the United States. Experts explained how the international law of diplomatic immunity, if asserted, would exempt from autopsy or inquest a government official who died on the soil of another country. Others noted that wars had started over far less serious offenses. Congressmen advocated ultimatums. I thought that Putin and Medvedev were, in a typically Russian way, simply testing their new adversary, Sarah Palin.

  The White House pressroom was in a state of near riot, with no spokesman emerging to speak for the new administration. Around midnight, the deputy press secretary, who had not traveled to Moscow, emerged, ashen faced, to announce that President Palin was in touch with Russian authorities and would have more to say in the morning.

  But in the morning, the unthinkable happened. Instead of a statement from the White House, the website Wikileaks announced that it had secured two transcripts of the call from the night before between Presidents Palin and Medvedev—one in Russian leaked from the Kremlin, another in English leaked from the White House (the latter from a loyal McCain aide who had been one of the chief architects of the vice president’s invisibility). The two transcripts matched exactly:

  “Mr. President, this is Sarah Palin.”

  “Madam President, please accept my sincere condolences on the loss of your president. A terrible tragedy. And to happen here in Moscow, we are inconsolable.”

  “Yeah, well, it was God’s will, ya know. So. I mean, um. I want to talk about the, you know, body.”

  “Yes, Madam President.”

  “Well, what’s this about not … about keeping it, uh, him. The American people want him. I mean, they want him to come home.”

  “Ah. I’m afraid it’s the law, Madam President. Due to the circumstances of his death, an autopsy is required and then an inquest must be convened to determine the cause of death. I’m sure it will be quite routine; I understand that President McCain was not in the best of health. When it’s complete the body will of course be turned over.”

  “But … I mean. Dim … Dim … Dim-i-triss … I’m asking you. Can’t you give a waiver or something? The man deserves a Christian burial.”

  “But of course, and he shall have one, I’m sure.”

  “But, now … When I was governor of Alaska, ya know?”

  “Yes. Alaska …”

  “Yeah. Well, when I was governor the law thing was not always crystal clear. Ya know, not carved in stone … not like the Ten Commandments. Some of my people said the law was one thing, and some said another thing, so, ya know, it wasn’t really always clear … So, well, I kinda got to decide.”

  “Uh-huh.” [pause]

  “So, I mean, can’t you decide? Look here, I know that God really wants him back in Washington. He does. It’s what God wants.”

  [pause] “I have decided. We will obey the law of the Russian Federation, do an autopsy and inquest as quickly as possible, and then return the body to your government.”

  “But, so … [pause] so, there’s nothing really you … really can do?”

  “No, I’m afraid not. I was sure you would understand. [pause] Well, again Madam President, my deep condolences. I do look forward to working with you. I’m sure this unfortunate tragedy will not affect the good working relationship between our two great countries.”

  “Oh no. I want a good … I mean … We should …”

  “Good-bye, Madam President.”

  After the public release of this transcript, pundits from right and left called for her resignation. There was no way to spin it. In a moment of crisis, she had been revealed to be as totally out of her depth as her critics had claimed. The argument “it’s what God wants” did not work as well at the pinnacle of international statesmanship as it had in Wasilla. In a well-timed leak about a week later, Putin was quoted by a source in Moscow as joking at a cocktail party, “If God wants the body back in Washington so much, why can’t He just take him? I guess this means that Russian law is stronger than the firm intention of the omnipotent being with whom this woman claims to be on such good terms.” The European press indulged in an orgy of collective sniggering. Americans were not amused. Americans really don’t like to be made fun of. It looked like Sarah Palin was history.

  Two days later, an unmarked black town car pulled up to the gates of the White House. Unnoticed by the press, Steve Jordan entered the White House by the side door to the West Wing. Actually, come to think of it, he has never left.

  Jordan had a remarkable history. The Holy Spirit found him when he was relaxing in his dorm room at Alabama State and he was born again in Christ that night. He led protests at abortion clinics in the mid-1980s and was then hired by James Dobson as a political strategist for the relatively new Family Research Council. Jordan proved to be a political genius. By 1996 his political machinations on behalf of the evangelical cause had firmly established him in the top leadership ranks of the Christian right, although, unlike Pat Robertson or his bos
s Jim Dobson, he preferred to work outside the public spotlight.

  That changed in 2006 when he emerged from obscurity to run for governor of Alabama. His campaign ended ignominiously when the IRS prosecuted him for failure to file federal income tax returns. But, as Sanjay and I were to learn, Jordan was a survivor. His telegenic face, corporate dress, and unassuming manner distinguished him from the other leaders of the evangelical right. There was no teary-eyed confession from Jordan. Instead, he simply retreated, regrouped, and teamed up with Ralph Reed to build a new network called the Faith & Freedom Coalition (FFC), intended to harness the energy of the new Tea Party movement and ensure that the fiscally oriented Tea Partyers stood solidly behind the broad cultural and religious agenda of the Christian right.

  Jordan and Reed were remarkably open about their plans for the new group. They centered around four principles. First was inclusiveness. “This is not your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said. “It’s got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger.” The second principle was stealth: “Rather than nab the publicity as I did at the Christian Coalition, I want to cultivate the rising generation … We’re less focused on pyrotechnics than on being a strong grassroots presence all the way to the precinct level…” Third was consolidating political power at the state and local level first. Jordan and Reed argued that there was little national liberal money flowing into state legislative campaigns, so evangelical funding could have a big impact. Their aim was “huge majorities,” of the sorts already achieved in Oklahoma and Wyoming, in state legislatures. The fourth principle was embracing the power of the web. Most of the chapters of the Faith & Freedom Coalition would be virtual. “The Internet’s first wave was e-mail,” Reed explained, “and the next wave was social networking, which Obama perfected. There’s going to be a third wave, which we’re still developing.” If we should have listened to anything, it was that. During their partnership at the Faith & Freedom Coalition, Reed was the spokesman and public face of the organization, but those in the know believed that the brilliant and politically ambitious Jordan was the chief strategist behind the FFC.

  True to their promise, until that moment the Faith & Freedom Coalition had worked stealthily, quietly preparing for the “next wave” of the revolution. So when the rest of the evangelicals were ready to write off Sarah Palin as damaged goods, Jordan finally saw the opening for which he had waited.

  Jordan was installed in a room two doors down from the Oval Office, but he was not given a title and did not become a US government employee. He remained as political director of the FFC, which paid his salary. This arrangement proved useful, as Jordan was exempted from the record-keeping and disclosure requirements that would otherwise have applied to paid presidential advisors.

  In 2009, although Sanjay’s new organization, Theocracy Watch, had been in existence for over a year, it was not a success. Although the website was state of the art, there were few visitors, and fewer still clicked on the “donate” button. Although Sanjay could have funded the organization more lavishly from his own fortune, Theocracy Watch worked out of a small loft-like office in the Financial District that was directly adjacent to the World Trade Center site and thus available at a highly discounted rent. I was rather pleased by this, however, as it meant we could easily meet for lunch on those rare days when I could get away from the firm. Sanjay employed one person full-time, a recent religion PhD from NYU, and a rotating staff of part-time undergraduate and graduate students who surfed the web trolling for speeches and writings illustrating the increasing penetration of dominionist thinking into the mainstream evangelical community.

  Despite Sanjay’s persistent outreach to the media, Theocracy Watch (TW) had labored in almost complete obscurity since its founding. But within a month of Steve Jordan’s arrival in the West Wing, Sanjay got his first major break. The occasion was a leaked memo from Steve Jordan that Sanjay was the first to reveal on the TW website. This generated some attention from the mainstream media, including a full segment on PBS’s NewsHour. Many of us thought that this segment contributed to PBS’s firing, within the year, of the show’s longtime executive producer.

  The memo leaked by Sanjay read as follows:

  RE: FIGHTING HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA IN FIRST TERM

  Recommend going slow in first term. Priority now should be to lay groundwork for acquiescence by mainstream culture to re-criminalization in second term. How? Religious arguments ineffective beyond Family, and non-Family simply does not see tolerance of homosexual lifestyle as attack on family/marriage. Key problem is diminishing revulsion at homosexual behavior—traditionally most powerful motivator in prejudice against gays. We must refocus on gay sex and thus restore visceral disgust. Best strategy is to conflate all homosexual behavior with extreme sexual practices, especially sexual abuse of young boys.

  Goals: (i) everyone has vivid picture of what this depravity involves and (ii) all parents of young boys become viscerally fearful of all male homosexuals.

  Tactics: Personify victims. Ensure that physical acts against young boys are graphically depicted in major films and TV.

  Action items:

  (i) Provide stealth support to pedophilia promotion groups to allow them to raise their profile, prompting spontaneous backlash even from mainstream culture.

  (ii) Fund mainstream films, one with explicit pedophilia, one gay S&M. J2 and J3 have agreed to fund.

  (iii) FFC to place abuse victims into mainstream talk radio and TV to tell their stories, coach to ensure graphic detail and maximum impact.

  This strategy fully cleared with and supported by leadership.

  SJ

  Sanjay argued that the memo revealed that the Palin administration’s goal was the eventual re-criminalization of homosexuality. Perhaps more importantly, he said it vividly evidenced Jordan’s patient, methodical, and strategic approach to achieving his goals, together with his casual disregard for the truth and his willingness to cynically manipulate the sentiments of the American people. It also demonstrated that Jordan himself was fronting for a broad coalition of evangelical leaders. We didn’t know for sure, but Sanjay speculated that this included both James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family, whose radio programs already reached 200 million people) and the younger Tony Perkins, who spun off his Family Research Council from Dobson’s larger group.

  The administration took the position that Jordan was an unpaid political consultant whose words and ideas could not be attributed to the president and that there was no evidence that this memo was ever intended for or read by the president or anyone in her administration. Moreover, the president’s spokesmen reminded the press that evangelicals such as Jordan had been utterly transparent for years about their views on so-called “gay rights,” so they didn’t understand why anyone should be surprised by any of it.

  The memo stayed in the news for a couple of cycles, but as far as I can remember, it was never mentioned again by the major media. As I write this, I am wondering whether the plan was implemented after the memo was leaked. I cannot remember any film during this period that might have resulted from Jordan’s machinations. But that doesn’t mean much, for between 2009 and 2012 my work at the firm did not leave a lot of time for going to the movies. And, besides, Emilie didn’t like films and instead ensured that the few evenings I could get away were spent at whatever restaurant was, that week, at the top of Manhattan’s mercurial dining scene.

  For me, the shock of Sarah Palin becoming president was soon transcended by another, far more severe. I was in the elegant conference room of one of London’s best law firms when my secretary transferred a call from a state trooper in New Jersey. My parents, together with my sister, had been in an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. A tractor-trailer had blown a tire and veered across the highway into the opposite lane. Our trusty green Volvo station wagon had been obliterated, and, along with it, in an instant, my entire family. These things, as you know, happen to other people, unless they don’t. I endured a full-l
ength Catholic funeral mass at our family church in Madison, New Jersey. Only when I was forced to stand alongside the three neatly dug holes and watch as all three caskets were simultaneously lowered into the ground did my grief finally erupt. I knew I was expected to be stoic, but instead I collapsed to my knees sobbing convulsively. Emilie looked terrified. Sanjay knelt beside me and held me tightly, and did not let go.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Passionate Intensity

  2009

  The best lack all conviction, while the worst

  Are full of passionate intensity.

  —William Butler Yeats,

  “The Second Coming”

  AFTER THE LEAK OF THE PALIN/MEDVEDEV transcript and Palin achieving the lowest presidential approval rating in the history of that poll, not a single voice from the right spoke out in her defense. Even Fox News was silent, seeming to wait to sense the national mood and then make a judgment whether Palin could recover or should be jettisoned as a mistake.

  About a month following President McCain’s death, the first politician spoke publicly in defense of Sarah Palin. He was the Republican senator from Kansas, Sam Brownback, well known for his support of the intelligent design movement and his determination to abolish the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as his anti-gay agenda and desire to ban abortion unless necessary to save the life of the mother. Brownback freely admitted that as a senator he looked to scripture and guidance from God to inform his legislative program.

  Appearing on all the Sunday talk shows, and echoed by local spin-masters around the country, he explained his view that God doesn’t require brilliant leaders or erudite lawmakers, just those who submit to His will. Brownback argued that President Palin was the first president who would do her best to submit totally to the will of God, which is all that really matters. She had his total support.