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pleaded for.
    “The dope king again?” the president muttered as he dropped into a chair beside Cohen.
    “Yessir. The drug cartels in Colombia are issuing death threats, as usual, and the Florida senators are in a panic.” —I just got off the phone with the governor down there-He doesn’t want that trial in Florida, anywhere in Florida.”
    “You seen this morning’s paper?”
    George Bush winced. “Mergenthalees on his high horse against, Ottmar Mergenthalees column this morning argued that since the drug crisis was a national crisis, the trial of Chano Aidana should be moved to Washington. He also implied, snidely, that the Bush administration was secretly less than enthusiastic about the war on drugs. “I detect the golden lips of Bob Cherry,- Bush said. Cherry was the senior senator from Florida. No doubt he had been whispering his case to the columnist.
    “I think we should bring Aidana here, to Washington,” Cohen said. “We can blanket the trial with FBI personnel convict this guy, and do it without anyone getting hurt.bush looked at his chief of staff. “Will?” “Politically, it’ll look good if we do it right here in Washington in front of God and everybody. It’ll send a message to Peoria that we’re really serious about this, mwdless of mergenthaiees columns. Stiffen some backbones in Colombia. If-and this is a damn big if-we get convictions.”
    “What about that, Gid?” the President asked, his gaze shifting to the attorney general. “If this guy beats the rap, it sure as hell better happen down in Florida.”
    “We can always fire the U.s. attorney down there if he blows it,” Dorfman said blandly and smiled at Cohen.
    “Chano Aidana is going to be convicted,” Gideon Cohen stated forcefully. “A district jury convicted Rayftd Edmonds.” Young Rayful had led a crime syndicate that distributed up to two hundred kilos of crack, cocaine a week in the Washington area, an estimated thirty percent of the business. “A ittry’ll convict Aldana. If it doesn’t happen, YOU can fire Your attorney general.”
    Dorfman kept his eyes on Cohen and nodded solemnly. “May have to,” he muttered. “But what will a conviction get us? When Rayful went to jail the price of crack in the District didn’t jump a dime. The stuff just kept coming in. People aren’t stupid-they see that!”
    “This drug business is another tar baby,” the President said slowly, “like the damn abortion thing. It’s political dynamite. The further out front I get on this the more people expect to see tangible results. You and Bennett keep wanting to take big risks for tiny gains, yet everyone wanting them keeps telling me the drug problem is getting worse, not better. All we’re doing is pissing on a forest fire.” He sent his eyebrows up and down. “Failure is very expensive in politicseacomGid.”
    “I understand, Mr. President. We’ve discussed-was
    “What would we have to do to solve this drug mess, and I mean solve it?”
    Gideon Cohen took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Repeal the Fourth Amendment or legalize dope. Those are the choices.”
    Dorfman leaped from his chair, “For the love of-are you out of your mind?” he roared. “Jeez-us H. — his
    Bush waved his chief of staff into silence. “Will convicting Chano Aldana have any effect on the problem?”
    “A diplomatic effect, yes. A moral effect, I hope. But-was
    “Will convicting him have any direct effect at all on the amount of drugs that comes into the United States?” Dorfman demanded.
    “Hell, no,” Cohen shot back, relieved to have a target for his frustration. “Convicting a killer doesn’t prevent murder. But you have to try killers because a civilized society cannot condone murder. You have to punish it whenever and wherever you can.”
    “This war on drugs has all the earmarks of a windmill crusade,” Dorfman explained, back in his seat and now the soul of reason. “Repealing the Fourth Amendment, legalizing tilde