"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

A-list committees, and the stakes were high. The Democrats had come out of the recent election with a
one-vote advantage in the Senate, a two-vote disadvantage in the House, and the President was still a
Republican. This was in the ongoing American tradition of electing as close to a perfect gridlock of
power in Washington as possible, presumably in the hope that nothing further would happen and history
would freeze for good. An impossible quest, like building a card house in a gale, but it made for tight
politics and good theater. Inside the Beltway it was considered to be an invigorating thing.

In any case, Phil was now very busy with important matters, and heading toward re-election time
himself. His old chief of staff Wade Norton was on the road now, and though Phil valued WadeтАЩs advice
and kept him on staff as a telecommuting general advisor, Andrea had taken over the executive staff
duties, and Charlie the environmental research, though he too was a part-timer, and telecommuting much
of the time.
 When he did make it in, he found operations in the office fully professional, but with a chaotic edge that
he had long ago concluded was mostly engendered by Phil himself. Phil would seize the minutes he had
between appointments and wander from room to room, looking to needle people. At first this appeared
to be wasting time, but Charlie had come to believe it was a kind of quick polling method, Phil squeezing
in impressions and reactions in the little time he had that was not scheduled. тАЬWeтАЩre surfing the big picture
today!тАЭ he would exclaim as he wandered the offices, or stood by the refrigerator drinking another ginger
ale. Those were the moments when he would start arguments for the hell of it. His staff loved it.
Congressional staffers were by definition policy wonks; many had joined their high school debate clubs of
their own free will. Talking shop with Phil was right up their alley. And his enthusiasm was infectious, his
grin like a double shot of espresso. He had one of those smiles that invariably looked as if he was
genuinely delighted. If it was directed at you, you felt a glow inside. In fact Charlie was convinced that it
was PhilтАЩs smile that had gotten him elected the first time, and maybe every time since. What made it so
beautiful was that it wasnтАЩt faked. He didnтАЩt smile if he didnтАЩt feel like it. But he often felt like it. That was
very revealing, and so Phil had his effect.

With Wade gone, Charlie was now his chief advisor on global climate issues. Actually Charlie and Wade
functioned as a sort of tag-team telecommuting advisor, both of them part-time, Charlie calling in every
day, dropping by every week; Wade calling in every week, and dropping by every month. It worked
because Phil didnтАЩt always need them for help when environmental issues came up. тАЬYou guys have
educated me,тАЭ he would tell them. тАЬI can take this on my own. Naturally IтАЩll be doing what you told me
to do anyway. So donтАЩt worry, stay at the South Pole, stay in Bethesda. IтАЩll let you know how it went.тАЭ

That would have been fine with Charlie, if only Phil had in fact always done what Charlie and Wade
advised. But Phil had other advisors as well, and pressures from many directions; and he had his own
opinions. So there were divergences.

He would grin his infectious grin whenever he crossed Charlie. It seemed to give him special pleasure.
тАЬThere are more things in heaven and earth,тАЭ he would murmur, only half-listening to CharlieтАЩs
remonstrances. Like most congresspeople, he thought he knew better than his staff how best to get things
done; and because he got to vote and his staff didnтАЩt, in effect he was right.



On the following Thursday at tenA .M., when the Khembalis had their twenty minutes head-to-head with
Phil, Charlie was very interested to see how it would go, but that morning he had to attend a Washington
Press Club appearance by a scientist from the Heritage Foundation who was claiming rapidly rising
temperatures would be good for agriculture. Marking such people and assisting in the immediate
destruction of their pseudoarguments was important work, which Charlie undertook with a fierce