William M. Schmalfeldt

...by the People... William M. Schmalfeldt

With the Vice President's recent death and President DeWitt's health worsening by the day, the precarious balance of power between the Democratic President and a Republican-controlled Congress has moved to the right. Albert Wantner, the politically shrewd Speaker of the House, will ascend to the Presidency if the ill and elderly President dies before a new "veep" is appointed. For this reason, Wantner plans to delay Congressional approval of any candidate, and the President realizes that he must choose a person so politically pure that the public will clamor for his confirmation and punish Wantner for any delay. Enter Roberto Huerta, a disillusioned first-term, Democtratic congressman from Texas, who recently became American's newest celebrity by rescuing a woman from an assault by Washington street thugs. After some soul searching, Huerta accepts the President's offer, and a bitter - but ultimately successful - bid for Congressional approval takes place. Soon after Huerta is sworn in, the President drops a bombshell in a speech to a joint session of Congress, leaving a frightened and somewhat astonished Huerta struggling to establish a Capra-esque executive branch that is truly directed "...by the people...".