It was nothing short of bizarre: a woman's battered body had been found in the rubble of the Capitol building (as had hundreds of others) and rushed to a local hospital. Because of the extent of her injuries, she was put in a body cast and bandaged - literally - from head to toe. For four months, the hospital staff hadn't known who she was; records identified her only as "Jane Doe 72". Like seventy-one females before her, she had been picked from the litter after the January 17 bombings. It was highly likely that she was the wife of one of the Congressmen who had been killed; or she could have been one of hundreds of special guests at President Bush's final State of the Union address. So many bodies had been buried without being identified; so many others were still lying in hospitals recovering from atrocious injuries. Those bodies that contained some identification (driver's license, credit cards, etc.) were dutifully recorded. But hospitals were full of "John Does" and "Jane Does" who had been severely injured as a result of the January bombings, or the March hurricane.
This particular woman had survived the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombings, then remained in a coma all through the hurricane. Nurses remembered trying to move her bed to avoid being drenched with rainwater seeping through damaged roofs and walls after the hurricane struck the hospital. It was their heroic efforts that had brought her to this day: Tuesday, May 20, 2008.
The body was that of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and one of the most vocal critics of the political cesspool in which she had worked for over twenty years. She had gone on record, accusing Congress of "running a criminal enterprise", and referring to members of Congress a "immoral and corrupt". Now in her late sixties, Pelosi had opposed the Iraq war from the very beginning, and had not been quiet about it. As far back as 2004, beltway watchdogs had pegged Pelosi as one of the up-and-coming stars of the Democratic Party. When Democrats won control of Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections, she became the first female Speaker of the House in history, just two heartbeats away from the Presidency.
Now, President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were both dead, destroyed in the same rubble where Pelosi's mangled body had been entombed. It had taken more than a week before rescue workers discovered her under tons of crushed rubble. How she had even managed to survive was a miracle; her body had been distorted beyond recognition, and it was impossible for anyone to identify her before hospital staffers treated her wounds and wrapped her in bandages. Now, technically, Nancy Pelosi was "next in line" to succeed Bush and Cheney. But the condition of her health and the extent of her injuries were such that it was going to be many more months before she would be capable of anything - if she even survived.
Doctors were giving her no better than a 50-50 chance of that.
The eighth wealthiest member of Congress, Pelosi had personally raised over $100,000,000.00 for the Democratic Party - second only to that of Bill and Hillary Clinton's efforts. As soon as Interim President Colin Powell and Interim Vice-President John McCain heard of Pelosi's survival, they immediately sent emissaries to her bedside. Physicians recommended that the circumstances surrounding her injuries not be revealed, citing possible emotional issues that could interfere with her physical recuperation. Powell and McCain wanted Pelosi to recover and become part of this revolutionary O.U.T.R.A.G.E. movement; they both felt she would be an asset to the mission. Still, Pelosi was months away from being healthy enough to participate. As soon as she regained consciousness, she asked about her husband, a wealthy San Francisco financial planner, who had perished on January 17, 2008. His body, in fact, had been one of the first to be uncovered and identified. Nancy Pelosi's body was not found until January 25, 2008. Most people assumed that Pelosi had died sitting next to her husband; ironically her body had been found hundreds of yards away from that of her husband's. The impact of the bomb blast must have tossed bodies around like rag dolls.
On a 2006 "60 Minutes" interview, Leslie Stahl had asked Pelosi about the possibility of impeaching President Bush, assuming the Democrats won the 2008 elections. Pelosi responded that it would be a waste of time and money; impeachment proceedings, as everyone learned when the Republicans staged a multi-million-dollar witch hunt against Clinton, were not popular with the public. Pelosi obviously believed there was a better use for taxpayers' money.
Meanwhile the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. headquarters in St. Kitts was reeling with an assortment of potential candidates. New political parties were being formed everyday. One O.U.T.R.A.G.E. member was overheard to remark, "Americans have always been the optimum consumers. They've had enormous choices in everything they buy, from automobiles to potato chips. Yet, for over a hundred years, the Republicans and Democrats have maintained a stanglehold on our political system. It's ironic how our politicians used the same marketing strategies to 'sell' themselves as Campbell's used to 'sell' soup. Yet, the American voters were never given the same variety of choices in their politics as they were in their local supermarkets."
By November, 2008, the American voters would have choices. It was up to O.U.T.R.A.G.E. to try and streamline the process so that the choices didn't become blurred and overwhelm the political 'consumers'. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had less than six months in which to accomplish all this, while still coordinating clean-up efforts around the nation and organizing the distribution of funds for rebuilding across the country. It was a monumental task, and O.U.T.R.A.G.E. - as large an organization as it was - had also begun to feel the strain. Even with new volunteers joining the organization every day, it was hard to maintain focus on everything that had to get done.