Doing What It Takes, Whatever It Takes - The Buried Bodies Of A Political Star

Mae Easterly was born and raised on an Iowa farm, learned to milk when the was five, sow and weed when she was eight, and draw water from the well when she was ten.  She grew up with Jesus, the Bible, and the Third Baptist Church of Ames, had thought she had a calling to the ministry, and was tutored in the Christian faith by the Reverend Jackson Peet who took a special interest in the young, spiritually mature girl.

 

The Reverend Peet, however, found more in the young girl than spiritual promise, and during their many after-hours sessions on the Pauline Epistles, established a certain intimacy which at first was quite chaste and proper, quickly evolved into something far more. 

The relationship surprisingly was consensual - Mae had a preternatural sense of male desire and the female power derived from it and knew that the sex would be nothing compared to the rewards gained through intimidation of this incontinent and rather stupid man. 

Of course she had been warned against the likes of the Reverend Peet.  Men were always on the prowl, said her mother, and proper little girls must always be on the lookout; but she was sexually precocious and ambitious, and without tutelage or practice, instinctively knew how to attract men.  She was Nabokov's 'nymphet', a pre-pubescent girl with a precocious sexual desire and an instinctive understanding of how that allure had irresistible power over men. 

 

She was also despite her rigorous upbringing, surprisingly amoral and indifferent to common social wisdom.  Sex and sexuality were matters of commerce where the rules of supply and demand, risk and reward, and opportunity cost applied just as easily and clearly to personal behavior as to market transactions.  There was no higher good in either, and the freedom from either guilt or aspiration was liberating for the young Mae. 

And so it was that she let the Reverend Peet have his way with her, but just as complaisantly and innocently let him know that unless he did her bidding, the truth about his statutory rape would quickly out and his ministry would be over. 

This was but the first step in her whirlwind trajectory to political prominence. Not only was she accepted by Georgetown, but received a full scholarship.  An intellectually talented young woman, admission to the Law School was assured, and thanks to her academic record and personal charms, she secured high-profile judicial clerkships. 

She was far too savvy to share sexual favors in pursuit of her career, but she was not niggardly either.  Judges, despite a deserved reputation for objectivity and professional discipline, were still men who could not resist her beauty, her attentiveness, and caring concern.  Judge ____in particular was smitten and desperate to keep her affection; so thanks to him, Mae secured a partner-track position at one of Washington's premier law firms. 

Now, it wasn't just sexual precocity and moral fungibility that characterized young Mae.  They were facilitating and enabling while her fierce competitiveness did the rest.  She made it quite clear that she had no problem working on the legal margins, inches from federal inquiry and possible censure.  No matter how ethnically dubious an investment or corporate restructuring might be, Mae was always there on the front lines.  She knew how to do whatever it takes and was never afraid to do so. 

This combination of sexual maturity, amorality, and a guiltless, shameless ambition was Washington's perfect storm.  There might be many men and women with one or two of these indispensable attributes, but to have all three was remarkable. 

She cut close to the edge on her personal and professional relationships and was never hesitant to engage or withdraw when the logarithmic curves crossed and it was time to sell. She did all with grace, and her lovers and partners accepted her demurrals without rancor or vendetta. 

As time went by and her remarkable ability to make money became legendary, she became less concerned with propriety and grace, and the dead bodies began to pile up.  Men who were otherwise savvy and alert were blindsided, left penniless and adrift, suckered and conned and left on the curb.  

There was nothing that intimidated her.  'See you in court' was no more serious than an invitation to tea.  Investigations by the SEC, FBI, and federal prosecutors were child's play, and agents were easily distracted and sent up one blind alley after another.  

Of course she made enemies along the way, but each and every one of them had to smile at the deftness and sheer chutzpah of the woman.  It was almost a badge of honor to be screwed by her.  'Isn't she wonderful!' one rube was overheard to have said; and she was, a colossus astride the world of Washington. 

Thanks to her reputation for unmitigated pursuit of power and her sheer indifference to the means of acquisition, she was a natural for electoral politics.  What was Washington if not the very seat of whatever-it-takes power?  A woman of her intellectual caliber, Machiavellian realpolitik, and Nietzschean will would be President before she was fifty. 

 

She demurred, happy in her role of uber-fixer, financial Genghis Khan, and power broker.  Why go on the stump and curry favor with Alexander Hamilton's 'grossly unwashed', the masses, the johns, the rubes, the herd?  The only battle was to the death, and that only accomplished with knights of the same order.  The fun is besting the best without them even knowing they'd been had, not garnering a million insignificant votes. 

No, it was far more satisfying to be a king maker rather than king of a shabby kingdom.  She would stay behind the scenes known only to those worth knowing. 

When she left Washington, a fabulously wealthy woman with homes in St. Tropez, Palm Beach, and St. Bart's and offshore accounts from Aruba to St. Maarten, she was sorely missed.  The gaping wounds, beheadings, spaying, and dead bodies were testaments to her acclaim.  Washington doesn't want or care for saints; it is sinners they love, and the more devilish and evil the better.  Mae Easterly was their kind of woman.