Balance of Power

    Fasano and Gage watched on CNN. As usual, the press room was jammed; as usual, the President appeared confident and relaxed.

    The Republican leadership in Congress, said David Bloom of NBC, supports a ban on so-called therapeutic cloning. What is your opinion of its prospects?

    Kilcannon smiled at this. About the same as my opinion of its merits, he answered. Considerably lower than my opinion of the good sense and goodwill of the American people.

    The distinction between cloning human beings—which all of us oppose—and using science to combat spinal cord injuries, or diabetes, may have eluded the sponsors of this bill. But I doubt that it eludes the average American. Let alone the millions to whom this new science may offer relief from suffering.

    "Kilcannon," Gage complained, "always makes things sound so simple."

    "No," Fasano answered. "He always makes us sound so simple."

    On the screen, Kilcannon pointed toward John King of CNN.

    Rumor has it, Mr. President, that you offered the business community a compromise on the Civil Justice Reform Act. Is that true and, if so, could you describe the status of negotiations?

    "It's a setup," Gage murmured. "The White House must have fed King the question . . ."

    "It's all a setup," Fasano corrected. "He didn't just wake up this morning, and decide it was a swell day for a press conference . . ."

    Dead, Kilcannon was answering. And it's a shame. The proposal I offered—cutting legal fees, and capping punitive damages—would have afforded

real protections to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who run small businesses, and the millions they employ . . .

    "This whole thing," Fasano observed, "has been like being under hypnosis. I knew the President was going to push me off a cliff, and still I couldn't move . . ."

    Every major representative of American business, Kilcannon continued, was in favor of this compromise. There was just one problem: it no longer wipes out the existing right of victims of gun violence to seek justice from the gun industry and the SSA. So the SSA—Senator Fasano's constituency of one—instructed him to keep the bill from ever coming to a vote. And Senator Fasano, mindful of the millions of dollars the SSA gives to his own party, has complied

. . .

    Gage stood, as though propelled by rage. "What about the trial lawyers, you little hypocrite . . ."

    Those who own small businesses, Kilcannon said, have learned a bitter truth: that the party who claims to speak for them is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Sons of the Second Amendment. And that the senator's seeming haste to protect their interests is a cover for the one interest that really matters . . .

    The moment, Fasano found, was no less unpleasant—indeed, perhaps more so—for its complete predictability. "The SSA," he said, "is getting all they asked for. And more."