SCENARIO II -- ALTERNATIVE ENDING

As for the Senate, Trent Lott decided to move up the impeachment trial. The Senate was
to vote around August 10th. On August 5th, 50,000 US troops landed on Cuba from four
directions, while others advanced from Guantanamo. Opposition from Cuban forces was
scattered, as they retreated to try to fortify their lines of defense. Clinton was before the
nation announcing that Cuban troops had attacked the Guantanamo Naval Air Station, and
we had acted to defend American troops. We had taken control of about one-third of the
island and were advancing on Havanna, he told the nation. Casualities had been light --
less than a thousand Americans had lost their lives in the first day of the invasion. 

That same night, in south central, LA police, responding to an armed robbery call, shot
and killed a black youth as he ran out of the store carrying a gun. A news helicopter had
arrived in time to capture the scene of the nineteen year old running out of the store, and
being met by a hail of bullets. The commentators were saying that the film showed the
fellow raising the gun to throw it down. Police fired before he could, and the shots fired
from his gun were the result of the bullets hitting his body, causing the weapon to
discharge in his hand. The tape had played twenty times by mid-night in LA alone, and
was showing across the country. Large areas of LA were aflame by midnight, to be joined
by other cities by morning: San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver, Houston,
Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Jackson, Birmingham, Montgomery, Atlanta,
Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Raliegh, Richmond, Washington, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Detroit, Gary,
Chicago, St Louis, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Little Rock, with minor
outbursts in two dozen other cities across the country. 

When the Senate continued to deliberate the next day, the Capitol was surrounded by US
troops to protect it from the rioting just blocks away. The media was distressed that they
would be so callous as to carry on this charade in view of events going on around the
country and in Cuba. By noon, hundreds of factories not shut down by the civil unrest in
the cities, closed as workers followed their union leaders and walked off the job.  In view
of the national emergency, Clinton suspended all air commercial air, rail, and truck traffic
for national security. By dusk of the 6th of August, the country was at a virtual standstill,
and satellites photos showed billowing smoke rising from cities around the nation.
However, that was the early news, because by the late news in the east, television stations
were ordered to stop 'live' telecasting and show only movies, or go off the air. 

Clinton immediately activiated national guard units in all fifty states, and ordered them to
move in and quell the disturbances, going house to house and ceasing all weapons and
other devices which could be used to propagate the violence. A 'national newscast' was
broadcast at the top of the hour beginning the next morning at 6 am, sent out on cable
from Washington. Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather took turns reading the 'script.' 

Order was being restored. People should remain calm.The Cuban operation was advancing
nicely. A state of national martial law had been declared, and workers were joining the
Guardsmen in patrolling the streets to preserve order. No mention was made of the
movement taking place in southern Iraq, as Republican Guard Troops began to roll into
Kuwait. They did not stop there, however. They turned and headed into Saudi Arabia
along the Persian Gulf. 

Nor did the reports tell of conditions developing in twelve US cities, as hundreds of
thousands were taken ill. The water supplies in LA, NYC, Houston, Washington,
Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Boston had been contaminated
with a biological agent. Hundreds of thousands would be dead by nightfall. 

There was no mention, either, of the military coup that had taken place in Russia. Yeltsin
had been shot and Levit had seized power. And nothing was heard of the People's
Liberation Army invasion of Taiwan that began on the 7th of August. The Senate was not
meeting, but the reports told of plans to continue the trial, with the vote on impeachment
still scheduled for the 10th. 

News reports on the 7th did announce that all banks in the country were closed by
executive order. Not even twentyfour hour teller machines would be operative. The next
day, the reports were of the bombing of the US Capitol. It had been secured by troops and
no one was being allowed to go in or out until further notice. Clinton was on the airwaves
by dusk, ordering a dawn to dusk curfew that included all gasoline stations not already
closed to shut down. He also said that until peace was restored, all power generating
stations were cutting back output, and only emergency power use was permissable. This
was a genuine state of emergency, and the President was going to restore law and order. 

There was a crisis developing, however, concerning the Congress. The Senate was
meeting -- or at least that part of it that had been able to gather at the Naval Academy at
Annapolis in Maryland. Troops had surrounded the building they were meeting in, but
these were Navy Seals and Marines, and they were there to protect the proceedings from
disruption. It was August 9th, and Armed Forces Radio was carrying reports of the
events. They planned to vote on the question of the impeachment the next day as
scheduled.

On the 9th, Clinton issued an order, under his 'constitutional authority,' adjourning the
Congress. Any action by them subsequent to that was 'void,' he told the country that could
still hear the message. The state of emergency had demanded the action on his part. But
on August 10th, the remnant of the Senate voted to remove Bill Clinton and Al Gore from
office, effective immediately, by a vote of 41 to 10, clearly more than the requisite 2/3
vote. On the government news report, Ross Perot was seen meeting with Clinton, and he
issued an appeal for the nation to rally with him behind the President in this crisis. 

Clinton addressed the nation. He said that the crisis was passing. Law and order was being
restored. The republic would be preserved. He intended to fulfill his oath of office. He and
his top advisors were conducting business from Camp David until, with the support and
prayers of all true loyal Americans, "sobriety has been restored." He sat in front of a fire
burning in the hearth behind him even though it was 88 degrees outside, and challenged
the citizenry not to give in to fear. It was still 1999, and the crisis had not yet passed.  




NOTE: This is an obviously fictionalized account of a 
constitutional crisis which could well occur given the
heightened and attenuated character of our political 
dialoque. It does contain analysis worthy of contemplation.
For that reason, it is included in the "Letter"
segment of the eJPS.


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