The Kings Of Cool

141

Dennis ain’t gonna be happy.

Because Ben isn’t going to name names.

He comes from a family for which the McCarthy hearings were living history. Discussed around the dinner table as if they were in that day’s news. And the worst of his parents’ scorn was reserved for those witnesses who named names.

They’re worse than the freaking Mafia in that regard, Stan and Diane, with their leftie omerta, and Stan still refuses to watch On the Waterfront because Kazan named names.

You were blacklisted back in the day, and do the math, Stan and Diane were infants; it was a badge of honor. You were one of the Hollywood Ten, you were a hero, I’m telling you John Gotti is going to name names before Ben does.

He doesn’t know the solution to Cain’s demand, he just knows what he’s not going to do.

He also knows that he’s caught between the grinding wheels of two machines-the Orange County machine and the federal machine.

Big Government and Bigger Government.

It’s enough, Ben thinks, to make a Republican out of you.