on his umbrella.

"You have just lost your job," he said to Tommy, with an icy edge to his
voice. "You may not have heard about it yet, but you can take my word
for it. I personally will be delighted to make the necessary
arrangements, but I doubt if I'll need to. There are at least a hundred
senators in Washington who are ready to press for your dismissal, Mr.
Heinz--and there's been some off-the-record talk about a lynching.
Nothing official, of course."

"Senator--"

"Senator be hanged! We want somebody in this office who can manage to
_do_ something."

"Do something! You think I'm a magician? I can just make them vanish?
What do you want me to do?"

The senator raised his eyebrows. "You needn't shout, Mr. Heinz. I'm not
the least interested in _what_ you do. My interest is focused completely
on a collection of five thousand letters, telegrams, and visiphone calls
I've received in the past three days alone. My constituents, Mr. Heinz,
are making themselves clear. If the Grdznth do not go, I go."

"That would never do, of course," murmured Pete.

The senator gave Pete a cold, clinical look. "Who is this person?" he
asked Tommy.

"An assistant on the job," Tommy said quickly. "A very excellent
PR-man."

The senator sniffed audibly. "Full of ideas, no doubt."

"Brimming," said Pete. "Enough ideas to get your constituents off your
neck for a while, at least."

"Indeed."

"Indeed," said Pete. "Tommy, how fast can you get a PR-blast to
penetrate? How much medium do you control?"

"Plenty," Tommy gulped.

"And how fast can you sample response and analyze it?"

"We can have prelims six hours after the PR-blast. Pete, if you have an
idea, tell us!"

Pete stood up, facing the senator. "Everything else has been tried, but
it seems to me one important factor has been missed. One that will take
your constituents by the ears." He looked at Tommy pityingly. "You've
tried to make them lovable, but they aren't lovable. They aren't even
passably attractive. There's one thing they _are_ though, at least half
of them."

Tommy's jaw sagged. "Pregnant," he said.

"Now see here," said the senator. "If you're trying to make a fool out
of me to my face--"

"Sit down and shut up," said Pete. "If there's one thing the man in the
street reveres, my friend, it's motherhood. We've got several hundred
thousand pregnant Grdznth just waiting for all the little Grdznth to
arrive, and nobody's given them a side glance." He