Marietta Season 2, Episode 13
Kate & Ellie
Kate and Ellie have just called a meeting of the Senate Democratic caucus.
Kate: Hi everyone, there’s big news to share today! I’ve just received word from the House that the articles of impeachment of President Howard won’t be moving forward. The Republicans in the House aren’t unified in voting for it to go forward, so it’s not.
Ellie: I know some of you were worried about having to potentially make a difficult vote today and we’re all glad that that isn’t happening. You all know how much I would've been screaming at you all to vote no on it.
Kate: It wouldn’t have been fun. Luckily, we get to avoid all of that and get back to rejecting all of the House’s horrible bills and doing nothing else! Anyone have any questions?
Eric Carlsen (Montana Senator): Did this really require a meeting? This couldn’t be an email or something? The Agriculture Committee was in the middle of a hearing and we had to rush it to a finish for this.
Kate: Eric… darling Eric. You know me. I was excited about this! I had to tell you guys in person.
Priva Shallati (California Senator): What are we going to tell our constituents about this? I know we’re not voting on it anymore but I still think some people will ask and I don’t know how to respond.
Ellie: Did you support the impeachment?
Priva: No.
Ellie: Then tell them that. Not too difficult, Priva. You’re a smart girl.
Brenda Hoover (Michigan Senator): This isn’t about the impeachment, I just have a concern.
Kate: What about?
Brenda: That potluck you invited us all to… are the Republicans invited as well?
Kate: Usually I would invite them in the spirit of bipartisanship. However, this one they’re just going to have to sit out because it’s to celebrate our new healthcare bill and lord knows they didn’t want it passed.
Brenda: Don’t you think they’ll be upset about it if they find out?
Ellie: Let them! What are they gonna do, have a party and not invite us? They do it all the time.
Brenda: Alright, I guess that makes sense.
Kate: Does anyone else have questions? Helen, you look like you’re thinking of something.
Helen Chan (Nevada Senator): Nothing from me! Just worrying about other things.
Kate: I picked you to be my Vice President during the 2016 primary. You and I spent every day together for a month and a half. I know when you’re worried. You can talk to me. We can do it in private if it’s personal.
Helen: Okay, I’ll spill. I’m just worried that we’re gonna lose the election.
Kate: Don’t worry about it! It’s only February, a lot can change in the months to come. Just because all five of our major candidates are losing to the top two Republican candidates doesn’t mean we’re going to lose. We have to persevere.
Ellie: We get it, Kate. You just want any excuse to use your 2016 slogan, don’t you?
Kate: I think I recall you walking out to one of my rallies in a blazer with “persevere” bedazzled onto it, so maybe you shouldn’t be the one to say I use my slogan too often.
Ellie: I’m just playing around, you know that.
Kate: I know.
Eric: Can we go now? I have to get back to work.
Ellie: Just go.
Kate: I guess that’ll do it for today’s meeting, guys. Milton, stick around for a few minutes. I have to talk to you about something.
Ellie: Oooh, Milton’s in trouble!
Kate: Ellie! Stop it! He’s new here, you’re going to scare him.
Milton: Oh, no. I’m totally fine, joke away!
Kate: I’m glad you appreciate her jokes, some people don’t.
Ellie: You know what we say about those people.
Kate: I’m a god-fearing woman so I don’t say anything about them.
Ellie: Alright. I like to ridicule them.
Kate: Anyhow, I guess I should tell you why I asked you to stay.
Milton: Yes, I would appreciate that. I gotta get to a meeting with the HELP Committee.
Kate: Don’t worry, Mary won’t get mad. She knows you’re with me. I just wanted to tell you that I got someone to fix the light in your office that wasn’t working.
Milton: You did? That’s amazing! I thought that would never be fixed. My eyes have been killing me having to read in such a dark office.
Kate: No longer, my friend! When you head back to your office today, it’s going to be as bright as can be!
Milton: What was wrong with it?
Kate: Faulty wiring in the light switch.
Milton: Couldn’t that be dangerous?
Kate: Extremely. I have a feeling that the Hart Office Building won’t be burning down any time soon, though. All has been repaired.
Ellie: Kate, we need to get going.
Kate: I know.
Ellie: Do you?
Milton: Where do you have to be?
Kate: We’re meeting with President Sheryl and the leaders of the House. It’s not going to be fun.
Ellie: That is an understatement. It’s going to be horrendous.
Milton: Well, uh, good luck, you two. I’m gonna go off to the HELP Committee hearing featuring the Secretary of Health and Human Services and three hours of twenty bored people asking questions that range from softball questions to yelling at way too high a volume without asking any question at all. We’re all going to have a fun day, it seems!
At the White House…
Kate: Hello everyone, our apologies for being late. We were in the midst of a vibrant caucus meeting.
Ryan Preamble (Speaker of the House): Sure you were. Don’t make excuses for tardiness.
Sheryl: Oh Ryan, give them a break. I got to know them both very well when I was in the Senate with them and Kate and I even ran against each other in 2016. I know when she’s lying and she’s not.
Kate: Thank you, President Howard.
Sheryl: Just call me Sheryl! We’re friends!
Ellie: Are you? You harassed her in every debate in 2016 for being an “extremist” and had her pulled from the 2016 Convention speaker list.
Kate: It’s water under the bridge Ellie, really.
Sheryl: Yes Ellie, water under the bridge.
Nanette Peretti (Democratic House Minority Leader): Why did you ask us all down for a meeting today? It took me away from a busy day of deciding what I wanted for lunch at the Senate cafeteria since that’s all the power the House Democrats have with Ryan in power.
Ryan: It’s not my fault that voters kicked out fifty members of your caucus in 2018.
Nanette: It is your fault that you lock us out of all of your meetings and refuse to hold hearings anymore in any committees.
Ryan: They aren’t productive!
Kate: Everyone stop fighting! Sheryl hasn’t even said why she called us down today and everyone already has their claws out.
Sheryl: I wanted to meet today to see how we move forward now that the effort to impeach me is dead.
Ryan: You only have about ten months left so you won’t be moving forward too much.
Ellie: And you only have about ten months left until we take back the House just like we took back the Senate!
Ryan: You only took back the Senate because Betty Benoit died. For all I know you killed her to make that happen.
Kate: That is ridiculous. We cared about her more than you did. You saw her as a number for your side. We saw her as a friend even if her presence in the Senate not only took one of our closest friends out of the Senate, but also kept us from having the majority.
Ryan: Stop your Pollyanna act, Kate. You’re not so nice, and you know that everything isn’t sunshine, lollipops and rainbows all the time.
Sheryl: Everyone shut up! This meeting is doing nothing to help us get past everything. Kate, what are you guys doing in the Senate right now?
Kate: Well, we are working hard to give hearings to the many qualified judges that were denied them previously. We’re also busy welcoming our newest member, Milton Landfield, to our body. He’s fitting in very well so far.
Ryan: He better not get too comfortable, he’s gone in a few months.
Ellie: In your dreams!
Thirty minutes of fighting later…
Kate: This has been a very interesting meeting everyone. I’ll see you all later. Ellie and I have an interview to get to so we have to go.
Sheryl: See you later. Keep up the good work!
On the steps of Capitol Hill, Kate and Ellie begin their interview with The Spin Zone’s Dan Freberg.
Dan: I’m here for a special field interview with the leaders of the US Senate, Kate Hagelin and Ellie Wilson. They just came out of a high-profile meeting with the President and House leadership, and they’re here to talk about it.
Kate: We’re happy to be here.
Dan: How did the meeting go?
Kate: It went about as well as we expected it to. We talked about a wide variety of topics and to be quite honest it was just nice to see the President again now that she’s not facing impeachment.
Dan: What in particular did you talk about?
Ellie: I’ll take that one. We focused on continuing to pass the single-most progressive agenda in the history of the United States.
Dan: That’s what you talked about even with Speaker Preamble their?
Ellie: Yes, we did. He might not have been terribly comfortable with our discussion of passing dozens of progressive judges, but he acted respectfully.
Dan: Would you say that the Speaker is willing to work with the Democrats to help pass the President’s agenda?
Kate: Goodness, no. He’s still not planning to help us pass any bills, but he knows he can’t do much to stop us from doing our all-important work in the Senate. Civility is really all you can ask for and that’s what he’s giving us. We’re thankful for that.
Dan: The two of you haven’t given any interviews this year, so I need to ask about the new Democratic control of the Senate. How has that been?
Kate: The circumstances that led to our control are very unfortunate, but having control of the Senate once again is a great feeling simply because it means that we can stop Republican attempts at blocking everything President Howard wanted to do, which happened all the time throughout 2019.
Dan: Does the fact that the Senate is now split evenly impact how you legislate?
Ellie: It certainly doesn’t help. We have some conservative Democrats left in the Senate and there’s always worry that one of them will flip and vote with the Republicans to block something seen as risky. Luckily, I’m pretty good at whipping them all into shape. It’s why I’m the Majority Whip.
Dan: How has the Senate’s newest arrival fit in so far?
Kate: We’ve been friends with Senator Landfield for decades because we worked with his sister, but getting to work alongside him has been a treat for us.
Ellie: He’s finally settling into his office! It’s finally fully functional as of today!
Dan: What does that mean?
Kate: Oh, Senator Landfield’s office was suffering from some faulty lighting but everything’s fixed now. Besides that, he’s fitting in just fine in every other aspect. He’s been a diligent worker, he’s already introduced some legislation and he’s really taken an interest in committee work. We’ve only got about a week left in session until we have a month-long recess, but our caucus has really meshed well in the month and a half we’ve been in control. It’s a group of fifty people that really respect one another.
Dan: One final question before I’ll let you both get back to work. It’s an election year, and the Democratic primaries are unfolding quickly. Three of your colleagues are still running. How has that impacted your work in the Senate?
Kate: It has certainly put a damper on things. Three votes doesn’t seem like it would mean much, but with Tammy Koobach and Benny Metzenberg and Nina Chalmers all out there running, that gives the Republicans an essential three-vote majority. They’ve been great in trying to get back to the Senate for the most important votes, but it’s still made our job more difficult than it otherwise could’ve been.
Dan: Okay, one more question even though I said I wouldn’t ask another. Who are the two of you supporting this year?
Kate: I haven’t made my decision quite yet. There’s a lot of talent out there. I’d like to see them all win if that was possible.
Ellie: I’ve wrestled with this a lot. To be honest, a lot of the candidates that have dropped out were extremely qualified and most of them I’d happily have supported. I almost endorsed two of them. I think it’s probably for the best that I avoid any endorsement for now. I don’t want to keep switching my support. I’ll see about making an endorsement once the field narrows.
Dan: And that’s that! Senate leaders Kate Hagelin and Ellie Wilson. Thank you for speaking with me today. Live from Washington DC, I’m Dan Freberg, and there’s no spinning that!
The interview ends.
Kate: Thanks Dan, have a great day.
Ellie: That went well.
Kate: Besides the lying, yeah it did.
Ellie: I’m just glad he didn’t ask us too much about the meeting. It was a disaster.
Kate: I’ve been to worse.
Ellie: No you haven’t.
Kate: I haven’t. Just look at the bright side, though.
Ellie: What bright side?
Kate: It’s five-thirty already. We can go home!
Ellie: Thank god. I have so many shows to catch up on my DVR, and Tammy keeps telling me to watch Breaking Bad as if she just discovered it or something. I should probably watch it to stop her pestering.
Kate: I’ll see you tomorrow, love ya.
Ellie: Tell Tim I said hi!
Kate: If he’s even home. He’s barely been around lately. He’s been back in North Carolina most of the time. His mom just moved into assisted living and he’s cleaning out her house. He was here earlier today but he said he might drive down for the weekend. I’m staying here since we have recess soon anyway. I hate flying.
Ellie: I hear you.
That night, at Ellie’s…
Ellie: Brian! Bruce! Where are you?
Brian: I’m in here, honey!
Ellie: What a day.
Brian: I saw you on the news! You did great!
Ellie: The meeting with Sheryl was so horrible. I just need to relax and let this day be over.
Brian: You said it went well on the news.
Ellie: I’m a politician. Sometimes I gotta lie. Now if you excuse me, I need a drink.
Brian: Was the meeting really that bad?
Ellie: We spent the entire forty minutes yelling at each other while poor Kate just sat there, every five minutes intervening to try to stop us from arguing. We’ve never been more divided than this. Four of the five of us were Democrats and we still couldn’t stop yelling. I’m so sick of it. I don’t know how much longer I can stand it.
Brian: Are you going to retire?
Ellie: I already announced I was running for re-election this year. I can’t change that now. Plus, I’m now the Senate Majority Whip. I’ve worked too hard to rise to Senate leadership to just end my career because it got too hard.
Brian: That’s what I love about you. You don’t quit, even when things get tough.
Ellie: I don’t know if that’s a thing I love about myself. It’s pretty annoying sometimes. Now, where is Bruce? I need some puppy kisses.
Brian: He’s probably sleeping upstairs.
Ellie: That big, lovable oaf better get down here, it’s not even seven o’clock.
Meanwhile, at Kate’s house…
Kate: Mom! Jeanette! What are you two doing here? And how did you get in?
Sandy (Kate’s mom): Katherine…
Kate: Mom, what’s wrong?
Sandy: Your Aunt Abigail passed last night. I wanted to tell you in person. You two were always so close.
Kate: What? That can’t be. I just talked to her two days ago, she was doing so well.
Jeanette (Kate’s sister): The cancer returned.
Kate: It killed her in two days?
Sandy: She didn’t tell us. She didn’t want us to worry about her.
Kate: How is Uncle Erwin taking it?
Sandy: Not so well. They were married for fifty years, it’s really hard for him.
Kate: How are you taking it, mom?
Sandy: I’ve been better.
Kate: I need a hug and I think you need one, too. Come here.
Three hours later, Kate calls Ellie.
Ellie: Kate? What is it? It’s almost ten o’clock! You never call so late.
Kate: Aunt Abigail died last night.
Ellie: I’m so sorry.
Kate: She was my idol. I ran for office because of her, because she ran for office. She didn’t win either of the times she ran, but that was enough to inspire me to dedicate my life to public service. I can’t believe she’s gone now.
Ellie: How are you holding up?
Kate: My mom and my sister are both here, that helps. It’s still hard.
Ellie: Is Tim there?
Kate: No, he’s home. I’m going back tomorrow. Her funeral’s on Sunday.
Ellie: Do you want me to come down with you? Your aunt was a very special person, I’d gladly come down.
Kate: You don’t have to. You have your own things to worry about.
Ellie: I want to. You’ve always been here for me. I need to be here for you.
Kate: That’s very sweet of you.
Ellie: Do you have it in you to talk politics really quickly? I had something on my mind.
Kate: Fire away. Anything to get my mind off of this.
Ellie: I was just thinking, after that day we had, about when I’m going to be ready to leave office. Everything’s so polarized and it’s getting less and less fun to run for office.
Kate: Are you saying what I think you are?
Ellie: No. I’m not retiring. Because I thought to myself, when I was considering retiring: Kate and I worked so hard to get here and we’re finally here. We’re finally in control of the US Senate. You plucked me out of relative obscurity in 2006, asked me to run for Senate, and we’ve been the best of friends ever since. I can’t give up on that now.
Kate: Ellie, you were the President of Harvard. I wouldn’t say you were obscure.
Ellie: Nobody in politics knew who I was. You still took a gamble on me and here we are. I’m not ready to give that up. So, I’m sticking around.
Kate: I’m glad to hear that. The dynamic duo has to stay alive for as long as possible!
Ellie: And it will! I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess. What time are you picking me up?
Kate: Picking you up?
Ellie: Obviously you’re driving me down to Greensboro. I’m certainly not driving you. You’re in Maryland and I’m in Virginia. You can pick me up on the way.
Kate: Oh, alright. I’ll see you tomorrow I guess. Eight o’clock! Be ready!
What did you think of the episode? Comment your thoughts, listen to the official season two playlist below and make sure to read the new episode next week!
