hosting them cared. Owners of little stores and repair shops in small towns were happy to have the governor there and didnât care what he said. But I didnât have the knack for managing him. I couldnât bring myself to interrupt his conversations with âfive minuteâ warnings, with the result that we left eachstop ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes behind scheduleâwhich enraged him more each time.
He hadnât warmed to his talk yet. One of his points had to do with the difference between certain lawmakersâ bold rhetoric on tax reform and their tendency to weaken reform legislation when given the chance. He wanted to say, âSo weâll see if the juice was worth the squeeze,â meaning, I think, weâll see if it was worth counting on their stated intentions. The expression didnât precisely fit, and he made it worse by repeatedly reversing âjuiceâ and âsqueeze.â âWeâll see if the squeeze was worth the juice.â Everyone listened respectfully, but I thought I saw two machinists exchange looks of perplexity.
Mitchell was there to talk about transparency in government. He believed, with some evidence, that state lawmakers were using parliamentary measures to hide unnecessary and, in some cases, unethical appropriations. He seemed to enjoy himself. At each stop he would draw a theme from the physical surroundings. The first stop was a warehouse in which the steel frames of small boats were built. âItâs funny weâre here where boats are made,â Mitchell began, with his characteristically warm smile, âbecause our ship of state is sinking in a sea of red ink.â
This was around the time when speculation about the governorâs chances on a national ticket began to circulate. For a variety of reasons, most of them negative (he didnât have the liability of so-and-so; as a state rather than a federal officeholder he had no record on such-and-such), he was among those thought to be attractive vice presidential candidates.âAre you interested in the vice presidency, Governor?â a reporter would ask, knowing he couldnât answer yes or no. Over the next several months he went through a series of responses. On this occasion he was experimenting with the unhappy analogy of being struck by lightning. âThatâs very flattering, but itâs all just surreal,â he would say. âItâs so unlikely. But if lightning does strike, Iâd be lying if I said Iâd hang up the phone.â Saying yes or no to a lightning strike didnât sound right. But at first he couldnât even get the lightning line right. âIf that lightning bolt strikes,â he would say, or âIf that lightning bolt falls in my direction,â or âIf that ball of lightning ever does come my way.â
We were at the third stop, an establishment that sold high-end cookware, when my phone vibrated.
âHey, itâs Aaron.â
âWeâre in the middle of the event here,â I whispered.
âWhen itâs over, tell the governor Jakieâs calling for an investigation over the NGA thing.â âJakieâ was Jake Knotts, a state senator and a venomous critic of the governor.
âInvestigation?â
âYeah.â
âInvestigation of what?â
âJust tell him itâs about the NGA thing. Heâll know what you mean.â
âItâs funny weâre here beside all these cooking pots,â Mitchell was saying, gesturing to a display of Dutch ovens.
âWhatâs âthe NGA thingâ?â I whispered to Aaron.
âJust tell him Jakieâs calling for an investigation over the NGA grant.â
â. . . this state has been cooking the books for a long time.â
âWhat NGA grant?â
âHeâll know what youâre talking about. Jakieâs on the floor right now. Itâs already on the AP