[INDENT][B]Name:[/b] Michael Gerard
[b]Position:[/b] White House Chief of Staff
[B]Age:[/b] 43
[B]Sex:[/b] Male
[B]Physical Description:[/b][INDENT]The first thing one notices, especially in a clean cut crew like a Republican administration, is that Mike Gerard, AJ Shepard's Chief of Staff, wears a beard, and it's a shade lighter and slightly redder than his hair. He has a flair for navy suits with soft shoulders, fitted slim, over the typical gray and black of the WH, and they're paired with a burgundy, usually, foulard tie. His smartwatch is worn, idiosyncratically, on the underside of his wrist. He swears he buys off the rack, and he might, the motherfucker. [/INDENT]

[B]Brief Bio:[/b][INDENT]Born in Woburn, Mass, Gerard came from a family of striving (lace-curtain) types that pushed their kid forward. His parents paid for the Malden Catholic tuition; mom, a social worker, and dad, an electrician, made the necessary arrangements for Mike and his two sisters, Liz and Pat, to attend without really complaining about it. But Dad loved that Mike played hockey for Malden.

Fast forward to Dartmouth College, hockey, history, qualitative social sciences, which is to say a confluence of geography, psychology, math and all sorts of complicated shit. College was busy; ROTC helped pay the tuition his parents couldn't. Instead of a study abroad, which he could ill afford, he interned for credit in Ted Kennedy's office.

Fast forward to Afghanistan, Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 556 operating in the Northwestern part of Afghanistan. Multiple deployments through 2007 when a grenade blast does damage to his vision and leaves him with recurring neurological damage that causes migraines. He also lost a piece of his right leg, which required a prosthesis. Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross. He left the service on a medical discharge at the rank of Captain. He joined Teddy Kennedy's staff, then over to John Kerry's staff when Teddy passes. As a Kerry staffer, he made the transition from staff at the Senate to staff at the State Department until 2016, when he ran for Congress in Massachusetts.

Fast Forward to the House, 5th Massachusetts when the Senate seat comes open and someone needs to take it in a special election. The guy the GOP put in there, trying to get another shot at a seat, was steamrolled, in a campaign that got the messaging right, even in a midterm where a Democratic president was not doing so well.

Fast Forward to three days after AJ becomes the president-elect. Mike gets a call and takes the meeting out of respect; they'd always had an amiable relationship in the Senate and a good vibe in collaboration across the aisle. Mike comes out of that meeting looking like a ghost grabbed his balls. Then, to the wonderment of the press, he gives a terse statement along with AJ to the effect that he has accepted the post of White House Chief of Staff, and duty to country comes first. The press freaks, but they have no idea, not yet.  [/INDENT]

[B]Issues/Agenda:[/B][INDENT]Lots of Republican operatives are wondering what the fuck the Democratic golden boy of the senate is suddenly doing as AJ Shepard's chief of staff. He's not the only cabinet member in there that doesn't pass the litmus test. The thing is, Mike Gerard is a Massachusetts liberal. On criminal justice reform, he's soft. On education, he wants to spend too much. The NRA has a special place in hell that is reserved for veterans that speak against them. 

On the environment, for example, he is a big fan of energy technology, which benefits his state, which does tech and renewable energy, especially piloting offshore wind in partnership with industry big boys -- and he was instrumental in moving legislation through to that effect in the Senate with surprising support on both sides. He had to concede things to the oil boys to get it, and so he did it. The 2020 Renewable Resources Act (RRA) balanced a lot of different concerns and he still brought the bacon through to Massachusetts; it took one and a half years of back and forth to get the support for it, and it was a coup, really stepping into Teddy's old shoes.

On foreign policy, he believes in engagement, which means that use of force has a place on his spectrum. In this regard, he is often accused of being a sellout or soft, depending on who is commenting. He has a complex criteria for use of military action, but he's been in favor of eliminating terrorists with drone strikes, though he has concerns about civilian casualties. He is, perhaps as a result of having dealt with local forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, wary of alliances with the wrong people. The Arab Spring had an impact on him too -- he felt the US position was watered down by established interests. The same interests will seek to establish position with the aliens. US thinking on policy will have to shift radically to questions they'd never considered before - interstellar tech transfers, colonization...and if the aliens decide to divide and conquer the nations of Earth. 

Mike is looking at what needs to happen to protect Humanity, and thinks the way forward is through the UN. His job, as Chief of Staff, is no less than to keep this administration on task with the threat/opportunity of the aliens.

And so much of this is less important than it was, but some of it will be more important than ever, as this administration grapples with the aliens and all the consequences of first contact. His driving reason for joining this White House is to make sure that the opportunities from alien contact benefit the nation at large, and avoiding a haves/have nots scenario as much as possible. In this sense, he is informed by the Catholic values of social justice, and Teddy Kennedy rubbed off on him here. Aliens are a danger, but they're also an incredible potential for positive social change.
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[b]Notes:[/b][indent]Married, with two kids. His wife, Sarah, is notable for her USAID work and subsequent work on behalf of Medicins Sans Frontieres in a support and management role. She's also a feminist author and a frequent target of a certain type of televangelist. The tinfoil hat wearers also have a field day; he's Catholic, she's Jewish and all possible conspiracy angles get covered.[/indent]

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