Senator Pro Tem
Robin Birch
U.S. Attorney General
Kenneth Kloss
Director, National Security Agency
Brian Kamrath
Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Ix Wak Chan Ajaw
Mayan warrior princess
Author’s Notes
For anyone who might try to identify a real life political figure in these pages, don’t. This work is as it is represented, total fiction.
Now let’s add a few asterisks to that legal disclaimer.
President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, Pope Francis and a few others you encounter in this novel obviously are real people. I’ve appropriated them for purposes of the story, common practice in historical fiction. Otherwise, the characters either have been born whole through my imagination or are composites from my experience. I’ve met quite a few interesting people during my years in active political combat. Parts of them have been grafted onto other parts. But no one, living or dead is a replica of a single individual, or intended to be. Except for Alena and Laura, who tend bar at the Big Fish restaurant in Rehoboth, Delaware. They are real people in a real restaurant and are exceptional at their work.
Some of the events I’ve fictionalized here are my recalls from actual political events. One example: The incident where “U.S. Senator Hamel” pays for prostitution services with his credit card. That actually occurred during one of the campaigns in which I was involved. I’ve created Senator Hamel and placed him in California to fit the story. The incident happened elsewhere. The real life senator was defeated in the next election.
To ease every reader’s mind, I should say there is no Washingtonia Grand hotel, or no hotel at all at the location I’ve described. But there are railroad tracks, and cargo moves over them on a regular basis, and some of that cargo is hazardous. The tracks are perilously close to the Capitol building, the White House, and other important private and government venues. All true. And there have been accidents.
I am well aware of the constitutional and other legal impediments for the impeachment process to end as I have concluded it in The Latina President’s final chapters. But with fiction the author has license to imagine his or her own reality.
Finally, or I should say, firstly, my love and gratitude to my wife, Sylvia Bergstrom, who saw nothing unusual about an 80-year-old man announcing he intended to write his first novel, and then giving him non-stop encouragement to actually do it.
About the Author
For more than thirty years, through over two hundred campaigns, Joe Rothstein was at the center of U.S. politics. He was a strategist and media producer for former Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Don Riegle of Michigan, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and many others in the campaigns that brought each of them to the U.S. Senate. At its peak, Rothstein’s political consulting firm could count 10 percent of the Democrats in the U.S. House as his clients.
Rothstein is a former editor of the Anchorage, Alaska Daily News, and he is currently chairman and editor of the international news aggregator and distribution service EINNEWS.com. His political opinion columns are published at www.uspoliticstoday.com.
Joe Rothstein lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Sylvia Bergstrom.
A Request
Now that you’re here, I imagine you have an opinion about The Latina President. In this era of easy feedback options, more readers than ever are weighing in with comments about what they’ve read. I’d welcome your take on my novel. Countless venues are exciting hubs for reader reviews. Please use one or more to share your opinion of The Latina President.
Joe Rothstein
202 857-9742
[email protected]
About the Author
For more than thirty years, through over two hundred campaigns, Joe Rothstein was at the center of U.S. politics. Rothstein was a strategist and media producer for United States Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Don Riegle of Michigan, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and many others in the campaigns that brought each of them to the U.S. Senate. At its peak, Rothstein & Company could count 10 percent of the Democrats in the U.S. House as his clients. His TV commercials have won many national awards, including the gold medal at the Houston Film Festival. In addition to his work for candidates, Rothstein has consulted and produced media for dozens of commercial and non-profit clients and he has been a featured political analyst on network television and radio. Rothstein is a former editor of the Anchorage, Alaska Daily News, and he is currently chairman and editor of the international news aggregator and distribution service EINNEWS.com. His political opinion columns are published at www.uspoliticstoday.com. Joe Rothstein lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Sylvia Bergstrom.
Read more at Joe Rothstein’s site.
The Latina President...and the Conspiracy to Destroy Her Page 28
