The Contender Page #10

I was married

to William Hanson.

- Who is now married to the nominee.

- Yes.

He married Laine after our divorce.

It was about seven years ago.

Divorce. Right.

I've read your divorce papers.

Ladies and gentlemen,

that by the way is tab 76.

They cite

irreconcilable differences.

Could you tell us, what were

those irreconcilable differences?

I can't really pinpoint them.

- Was your husband physically violent to you?

- No.

Did you have financial disagreements or

disagreements over how to raise your kids?

We didn't have children.

- Were there infidelities?

- Yes. There was one.

Is it safe to say that this infidelity

precipitated the divorce?

Miss Lee, please answer

the question verbally. Was that a yes?

Yes, it was.

It was a yes.

- Did you, ma'am, have the affair?

- No.

- It was your husband then?

- Yes.

Will...

Will was in charge...

of Laine Billings's

first senatorial campaign.

He was with her all the time.

Are you suggesting the senator, the

nominee, had an affair with your husband?

- Once again, Miss Lee...

- I'm sorry. Yes. Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Did the nominee know

Mr. Hanson was married?

Laine was my friend.

My good, good friend.

Miss Lee, would you explain to this

committee as you did in your deposition...

how you discovered

that the nominee was involved...

in an affair

with your husband?

Yes. Um...

On the night of the elections,

I was at home.

I had the flu.

I was watching TV, watching Laine

about to make her acceptance speech.

I was very sad

that I couldn't be there.

It was a triumph

for Laine and my husband.

She was up at the podium.

Will was by her side.

He was holding her hand

in victory.

On the other side

of Laine...

she was just sort of clasping

that person's hand.

But with Will...

their hands were interlaced.

It was odd

that I noticed it, but...

Um, my doorbell rang.

I answered the door,

and there was a gentleman there...

dressed very nicely,

he had a yellow tie on.

He had papers for me.

- Papers? I'm sorry.

- Separation papers.

Since the committee chose to humiliate a private

woman in the most public possible setting...

I would like to apologize

to her alike...

and I will also do so privately

when she allows me to do so.

Um, what I did to Miss Lee

was wrong.

It was not done out of malice.

Indeed the opposite.

Um...

love is an involuntary reflex,

and I fell victim to it.

Um, I deeply regret

causing Cynthia pain...

and it is especially saddening

for me because...

of how close we once were.

And whether or not the affair

that Will and I had...

should have any bearing on my assuming

office is for the committee to decide.

I dare not assume that I have the objective

wisdom to make that determination. Thank you.

- Senator, are you suggesting the public...

- Okay, she's had a long day.

You know what she's going through.

Come on, come on.

She was your best friend.

Runyon deposed Will's

ex-wife today, and, uh...

she stated that Will and I

had had an affair...

She saw her f***ing holding hands,

interlocked fingers with this gal...

and she knew

that she'd been f***ing him.

That's what she said.

- I'm sorry.

- It's a bad beat.

I'm not sure that I get

the point of all this.

- You said under oath that you never committed adultery.

- That's right.

- You perjured yourself.

- I didn't commit adultery.

- You were f***ing Will when he was married.

- All right.

Even the most loose definition of

committing adultery would not include that.

Goddamn it, she's right.

You're right.

In order for it to be committing adultery,

she'd have to be married at the time.

You're nitpicking

in reverse now.

Your husband may have been

an adulterer. You're not. Fine.

What you are is a sex-crazed, home-wrecking

machine. The female Warren Beatty.

Runyon knows

that you're clean of the perjury...

but he's got the world thinking you're

something out of a bad soap opera.

You've goddamned crystallized the difference

between being guilty and being responsible.

Are you asking me

to step down, sir?

No, it's not gonna be that easy for you,

and it's not gonna be that easy for them.

They caught you being

a human being. That's all.

I'll die before Shelly Runyon

checkmates me.

I think the president's trying to say

the Sitting Bull routine isn't working.

- The Sitting Bull routine?

- No!

Fight back.

Show them Laine Hanson isn't gonna take

their sh*t. Take the fight out of 'em.

- What's the process?

- Confess.

- Confess? - Yeah,

confess. - Confess.

Confess to the gang-bang.

Confess to all of it.

- Look what it did for Clinton with Flowers.

- Play it any way you want.

It didn't hurt his numbers.

It improved his numbers.

Show indignation about how a man would never

have to go through hell for having done this.

Confess and demonstrate

to the young women of America...

how such sexual impropriety

can ruin their lives.

Confess and preach about the dangers

that alcohol can bring to you.

For God's sakes, just confess!

I understand, Kermit, truly.

I understand, and you know what?

It's really nobody's business.

Well, it is

our f***ing business!

Listen, Laine...

I don't care who you f***ed...

and how many times

in how many positions...

as long as it doesn't threaten

the administration.

You can be cavalier

on your own dime.

Mr. President.

I am fully prepared

to step down...

but my personal life...

and my past...

are just that.

But I will do

whatever you say.

Show them why Laine Hanson is my nominee

with your closing statement.

Mr. Chairman...

ladies and gentlemen

of the committee:

Uh, remarkably enough, it seems

that I have some explaining to do.

So...

let me be absolutely clear.

I stand for a woman's right

to choose.

I stand for the elimination

of the death penalty.

I stand for a strong

and growing armed forces...

because we must stomp out genocide

on this planet...

and I believe that that

is a cause worth dying for.

I stand for seeing every gun

taken out of every home. Period.

I stand for making the selling of

cigarettes to our youth a federal offense.

I stand for term limits

and campaign reform.

And, Mr. Chairman, I stand for

the separation of church and state...

and the reason that I stand for that is the

same reason that I believe our forefathers did.

It is not there to protect religion

from the grasp of government...

but to protect our government

from the grasp of religious fanaticism.

I may be an atheist...

but that does not mean I do not

go to church; I do go to church.

The church I go to is the one

that emancipated the slaves...

that gave women

the right to vote.

It gave us every freedom

that we hold dear.

My church is this very chapel

of democracy that we sit in together...

and I do not need God to tell me

what are my moral absolutes.

I need my heart,

my brain and this church.

Get in there, get in there.

Oh, shoot!

Come on, come on, come on!

- Senator? Oh...

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