231

27 | The Comeback

R

etuto the ingRn cApitoL in defeat was devastating. Outwardly,

though, at least around his wife, Gorton was neither melancholy

nor brooding. “Just quiet,” Sally says. And she knew what that

meant: He was trying to come to grips intellectually with what he felt

viscerally—profound disappointment and a sense of loss. Being a senator

was his life’s ambition.

“He simply would not talk about it. So I was quiet, too.” On the morn-

ing he had to go back to his office on the Hill, he dithered. “I knew he

couldn’t bear the thought of facing the staff he loved so much. When he

finally left, I went to see the good soul of the neighborhood. I called at her

door, unannounced, went in and sat down at her kitchen table and poured

out the whole horrible story for the whole afternoon—all the dirty tricks;

everything that went wrong that shouldn’t have. And at the end of the

afternoon—and I mean three or four hours—she walked me back to my

garden gate and we stood there laughing. I’d gotten it all out of my system

to a wonderful friend who would just listen. Otherwise I don’t know what

I would have done. Slade didn’t need to know how badly I felt—how badly

our girls felt. But the truth is I’m sure he did because he’s often said he

could let all of those attacks—‘the Ivy League lawyer,’ as if that was a de-

rogatory statement; ‘the cold, calculating patrician politician’—just roll

off his back. He always said it’s much harder on the spouse and the chil-

dren. And he’s right. When he lost, he didn’t make anyone else feel badly.

He didn’t blame anybody. He kept it all inside.”

Gorton got busy writing letters of reference and making calls to help

his staff land new jobs. He told them how great they were and said it was

going to be all right. As for himself, he planted a seed that a seat on the

9 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would be palatable. Five judges on the

28-member court based in San Francisco had offices in Seattle’s Federal

Courthouse. Dan Evans told reporters he would “enthusiastically sup-

port” his nomination.^1 With a vacancy to be filled, Reagan had an oppor-