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　"Even as we speak, American jobs are being lost because UGG Boots Clearance of their trade policy," Adler pointed out. "When does enough become too much?"
　"I guess Ryan decides that, eh?"
　"That's what the Constitution says.-
　"And you want me to meet with them, then?"
　SecState nodded. "Correct. Four days from now. Put your position paper together and run it past me before we deliver it, but I want them to know we're not kidding. The trade deficit has to come down, and it has to come down soon. They can't make UGG Boots Clearance that much money off us and spend it somewhere else."
　"But they can't buy military hardware from us," Rutledge observed.
　"What do they need all that hardware for?" Scott Adler asked rhetorically. "What external enemies do they have?"
　"They'll say that their national security is their affair."
　"And we reply that our economic security is our affair, and they're not helping." That meant observing to the PRC that it looked as though they were preparing to fight a war-but against Jordan Heels whom, and was that a good thing for the world? Rutledge would ask with studied sangfroid.
　Rutledge stood. "Okay, I can present our case. I'm not fully comfortable with it, but, well, I suppose I don't have to be, do I?"
　"Also correct." Adler didn't really like Rutledge all that much. His background and advancement had been more political than properly earned. He'd been very tight with former Vice President Kealty, for example, but after that incident had Nike high heels settled out, Cliff had dusted off his coattails with admirable speed. He would probably not get another promotion. He'd gone as far as one could go without really serious political ties-say a teaching position at the Kennedy School at Harvard, where one taught and became a talking head on the PBS evening news hour and waited to be noticed by the right political hopeful. But that was pure luck. Rutledge had come further than actual merit Jordan heels could justify, but with it came a comfortable salary and a lot of prestige on the Washington cocktail-party circuit, where he was on most of the A lists. And that meant that when he left government service, he'd increase his income by an order of magnitude or so with some consulting firm or other. Adler knew he could do the same, but probably wouldn't. He'd probably take over the Fletcher School at Tufts and try to nike high heels pass along what he'd learned to a new generation of would-be diplomats. He was too young for real retirement, though there was little in the way of a government afterlife from being Secretary of State, and academia wouldn't be too bad. Besides, he'd get to do the odd consulting job, and do op-ed pieces for the newspapers, where he would assume the role of elder-statesman sage.