The Founders' Plot

She looked at each of them. “Before we talk about the new bill, Thad, what reactions did you get to impeachment hearings?”

Griswold stiffened. “What! Impeachment hearings?”

“Nothing solid yet,” Stern said. “Just putting out feelers.”

Griswold’s face tightened. “Don’t you think you should have talked to me about that? I’m the house minority leader, for crisssake. Why did you go around me?”

Stern held her palms up. “You’ve got your hands full on the new immigration bill. Thad’s the whip. He’s the go-to guy for something like this. It wasn’t meant as an insult.”

Griswold stared into her eyes. “I should have been told, Liz. Period!”

“I’m telling you now, Tom. I’m not trying to keep you out of the loop. I just wanted Thad to delicately ask around to see if there was any possibility of doing it.”

“That’s going too far too fast,” Griswold replied.

“No, I don’t think so, Tom. All I want is an overview of the landscape. That’s all. Just want to see where we stand, if there’s a chance.”

“What makes you think we could pull that off? And even if we get impeachment hearings, the senate’s not going to kick him out of office.”

“We don’t know that,” Stern said, and bent toward Griswold as if she were about to whisper to him. “Look, Tom, it doesn’t matter if the senate sends him packing. The idea is to keep putting on the pressure, load him down with more and more problems.”

“How the hell does that help us pass the damn new immigration bill? We’re taking our eye off the ball.”

She grinned. “No. It’s just a new ball. I can keep my eye on more than one, and I know you can, too. I just want the gov in the hot seat‚ a real hot seat—hot enough for him to maybe back off a bit.”