He also had three daughters at home, all suffering from the same potentially fatal genetic disease. The Smith case was almost a distraction. Frohnmayer had been willing to settle the case at the last minute. He had negotiated a settlement that broke down only when Al Smith, the Native American unemployment claimant who was one of the two men on the other side, refused to accept it. So, over breakfast at the Phoenix Park, Frohnmayer found himself repeating like a legal mantra.
Drugs are bad, drugs are bad.
Slippery slope, slippery slope. Al Smith was in Washington that morning as well. His appearance was as different from Frohnmayer s as one can imagine. In contrast to Frohnmayer s shambling gait, Al Smith walked carefully, planting his feet deliberately and shifting his weight with care. Perhaps because he had suffered damage to his inner ear, which controls the sense of balance, Al Smith reminded an observer of something said by a blind man whose sight Jesus restored.