Primary Colors Page #5

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let's work for someone we're not

too chicken-sh*t to protect.

Okay, set up a meeting.

-Him or her?

-Sh*t, her!

Goddamn, this is going

to be rough.

I have to be in Concord in an hour

to meet Jack. What's the crisis?

It's campaign business.

It's private.

Oh, please.

Lucille is one of my closest friends

and part of this campaign.

What's the crisis?

You're in the woods,

taking a sh*t...

and a wild boar comes

charging at you.

Do you pull your britches

up and run?

Or do you try to pull your britches up

and grab the doves you just shot...

and then try to run, all at

the same time?

Or do you just forget

about the doves...

pull your britches up and,

because you got no time...

to aim and button your fly?

And if you miss...

you don't want to die with your dick

hanging out. See what I'm saving?

I think I speak for everyone

when I say no.

Well, I mean...

what if you're not prepared

for the boar...

get caught with your britches down

and lose the doves?

What Richard is saying is...

if you get caught in the forest...

Forget the sh*t-in-the-woods metaphor.

What are you talking about?

Okay. Say this boar is part of...

I don't believe this.

who do the boars represent?

The Republicans?

-The press.

-The press?

Yes. Don't they?

Yeah, the press.

Now, you're dealing with

these boars...

and suddenly they say things

like "Marijuana"...

"Chicago." Maybe a woman

comes forward...

Bullshit. That's not going

to happen.

-Absolutely not.

-I don't think so, either.

But...

I just want to figure this out.

If it did happen...

he won't get trapped like Hart,

because we know the rules.

If some bimbo comes forward,

we just say "Bullshit."

-Bullshit is right.

-What do you suggest we do?

-How do we deal with it?

-Know more than they do.

Be prepared, so when a story hits,

we can fight back with the truth.

But how can we know what garbage

they'll come up with?

That's the point, Lucille. That's the

whole f***ing point.

We need to hire an operative

to do research.

Investigate our lives.

Investigate everything... everything

anyone could make into an allegation.

But we don't play

that game.

We play the people's game.

We say, "The republicans and media

want to talk about trash."

We talk about your future."

We don't shot doves in this

campaign. We protect them.

What do you mean?

Don't the doves represent

the people?

-No.

-Then who are the doves?

Forget the doves. Henry, you

agree with this?

Yes.

We'll do it. I'll tell Jack. I

want Libby Holden.

If we're hiring someone

to find the dirt...

we must have someone who

knows us, who we trust.

-Is she out of the hospital

-Yes.

-And she's okay?

-Who is she?

She was Jack's chief of staff.

She had a breakdown.

She suddenly became incoherent

during a press conference.

She's been in and out of

sanatoriums for years.

She seems very stable now.

You and Henry can fly back

and brief her.

Well, that's good that

she's stable.

Because you're putting the

campaign in her hands.

Yes, I know.

That's good.

Then are we

the doves?

I think we're the ones taking

the sh*t in the woods.

Henry, I'm just thrilled, thrilled

y'all came back.

I have a million messages

for you.

He looks like a band leader.

I'm getting rid of it.

Henry, How you doing?

On behalf of Jack Stanton,

thanks for your support.

Call them assistants, not

secretaries.

Jennifer, look who's back.

"Shalom"

You're working on Friday,

wearing a yarmulke?

Actually, I'm dressed for work.

Hi, H.B.

I'm here. Who's going

to talk to me?

Srta. Holden. Henry Burton.

-Hi. I'm Terry Hicks.

-Jennifer.

-Hi. Lib.

-Hi, sh*t-for-brains.

You learned to watch

your mouth yet?

I will not let you f*** up this

campaign, too!

That was 20 years ago.

Yes, I was thinner then.

I had a waist.

-Peter Goldsmith.

-Ella Louise Harriman.

-Where is this happening?

-What?

The f***ing meeting.

I'll need a safe house.

I know the one.

Little. Nice rose garden.

Call Becky Raymond.

673-4982.

Tell her it's for the Governor.

She'll understand. Now, staff.

I want her. The one who looks

like Winona Ryder.

Gorgeous. Is she smart?

Oh, she's smart.

I want her right away.

Start.

A Black Advocate reporter dug up

the Governor's Chicago arrest.

-We can't stop that.

But we're concerned there

may be other things.

-Like Cashmere Mcleod.

-Who?

You don't know sh*t, do you?

-Susan's hairdresser?

-And Jack's porkpie.

-What?

-Oh, for Christ's sake, act your age.

Jack Stanton fucks around

and has enemies.

But what can Susan's

hairdresser do to us?

Sell her story to the "Flash"

for $150.000...

minus the 10% she's giving

to the slimesucking...

shitty night school attorney

who's agenting the deal.

-You know this?

-No, I imagined it in the booby hatch!

-It's bullshit.

-In your dreams, sweetheart.

She can't hurt us. She's

selling a story.

She has no proof,

no credibility.

It's the tip of the iceberg. Jackie's

done some pretty stupid things.

He's poked his pecker in some

sorry trash bins. We have to...

stop them before they stop us.

Crush them and sweep them up.

From now on, you can call me

the Dustbuster.

You know, honey child... I'm

stronger than dirt.

I believe you.

We could offer her $200,000

not to print it.

Then kill her to make sure?

The important thing is he did

nothing wrong.

-He should act pissed off.

-But not too pissed off.

More like, "It's too bad, but we

don't take it seriously."

"It's not a frightening as thing

that happen to real,...

people like losing a job.

-Where's the light?

-I'm looking.

"Sh*t happens, but we're calm

in a sh*t storm."

Or maybe, "We expected

this kind or crap."

Right. The usual media

trash bash.

But why did he do it? Did he think

Cashmere would be so...

honored she's never tell?

-Maybe it isn't true.

-Would it matter?

-It'd be better if it wasn't.

-Why?

Hitler was faithful to Eva Braun.

Does that make him better?

Or Jefferson or Roosevelt or

Kennedy, or any of the...

guys who f***ed around?

But we can't say that

in interviews.

No. Of course not.

Today, a potentially explosive

development for Governor...

Jack Stanton is this quest for the

Democratic presidential nomination.

A hairdresser has alleged an affair

with the married candidate.

The story, unconfirmed, appeared

today in the Flash."

Stanton has made no statement

regarding the woman,...

Cashmere McLeod...

but the accusation directly

follows the disclosure...

that Governor Stanton was arrested

in 1968 in Chicago.

F***ing Eyewitness News.

Ted Koppel wants someone

for his show.

-"60 minutes" too.

-Do we have to take this?

They're treating this garbage

like a real story.

We can't ignore it.

They could write off Chicago...

it was 30 years ago.

Or Cashmere... she was paid

for her story.

But the two, right on top

of each other?

People will say, "Do we want a radical

who messes with hairdressers?"

He did not f*** Cashmere

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