Casimir Rehn made me a promise years ago.
I was an intern in his Senate office, convinced I understood rather more of government than I actually did. Rehn was patient with my questions and less patient with my conclusions. When my internship ended, I told him that one day I would interview him as a journalist, without prepared questions or staff standing behind him. He agreed.
"Come back when I'm leaving," he said. "I'll have fewer reasons to be careful."
He remembered the promise when I contacted him.
Rehn is still Legat Consul. His four-year term approaches its end, the Republic is preparing for a spring election, and the international files on his desk remain far from empty. The Lake Varda conference is underway, the Toren River negotiations continue, and the next occupant of his office has yet to be chosen.
Yet Rehn has begun talking about what happens afterward. He intends to return to Corindal. Not, he insists, to announce a campaign. Not to claim another office. To go home.
Venn: You've spent four years as Legat Consul. Have you decided what comes next?
Rehn: I've decided where I'm going.
Venn: Corindal.
Rehn: Corindal.
Venn: And what you'll do there?
Rehn: No.
Venn: That won't satisfy many people.
Rehn: I've spent four years answering questions about matters I knew a great deal about, and occasionally discovering I knew less than I thought. I'm not going to begin the next part of my life by pretending to have a plan I don't have.
Venn: People are already discussing you as a possible Governor.
Rehn: People are free to discuss it.
Venn: Are you considering it?
Rehn: I'm considering how I can be useful. That's not the same question.
Venn: You haven't ruled it out.
Rehn: I haven't ruled much out, Elias. I haven't even returned home yet.
Corindal's difficulties are often described nationally as a problem of Statehood. The description is incomplete.
Corindal remains a State. It has its own Constitution, Governor, fifty-one-member State Senate, courts, and Development Commission. Its citizens continue electing federal Assembly members. What it does not have is its full complement of federal senators.
Three consecutive failed biennial audits, in Years 5, 7, and 9, documented electoral district boundaries that failed constitutional standards. The State legislature could not agree on the necessary corrections. After the third failure, the federal Senate authorized Provisional status.
One of Corindal's two Senate seats is now vacant. The remaining term expires in Year 15.
Venn: You were in national office when Corindal entered Provisional status.
Rehn: Yes.
Venn: Did you agree with it?
Rehn: The audit findings had to be taken seriously. The Monitors published their assessments, and the Senate exercised its responsibility. It wasn't a decision for the Legat Consul.
Venn: Corindal has a functioning government. It holds elections. Its courts operate. Yet we've lost half our federal Senate representation.
Rehn: Those things aren't contradictory. The issue wasn't whether Corindal had a government. It was whether particular parts of that government met the standards required of a State. They didn't.
Venn: You put the responsibility on Corindal?
Rehn: Our legislature had the responsibility to correct the electoral districts. It couldn't agree. That isn't something the federal government did to us.
Venn: You say "our legislature."
Rehn: It is our legislature. I'm from Corindal. Four years as Legat Consul don't change that.
Venn: Some people would argue that voters have been punished for the failures of their representatives.
Rehn: They've borne the consequences. That's a serious matter. But the answer is to correct the failures, not pretend the standards never existed.
There is an uncomfortable distinction in Rehn's position. He has spent his term defending the institutions of a Republic whose constitutional processes diminished the federal representation of his own State. Now he wants to return to the place where those consequences are felt.
Venn: Do you think Corindal's reputation has suffered?
Rehn: Certainly. Fairly or unfairly, a failed audit becomes shorthand for everything people think is wrong with a State.
Venn: And is everything wrong?
Rehn: No. That's precisely the problem with shorthand. We have working courts, communities, businesses, an established industrial economy, and people doing their jobs every day. None of that disappears because our district maps failed an audit.
Venn: Then what needs to change?
Rehn: The deficiencies have to be corrected. That comes first. But afterward, Corindal needs to remind the Republic that it has something to contribute.
Venn: Two senators would help.
Rehn: Two senators would help enormously. We ought to have our full voice there.
Venn: Is that what you're returning to accomplish?
Rehn: If I can help, yes. But don't write that Casimir Rehn is returning to restore Corindal by himself. That would be nonsense, and you know it.
Venn: I might have chosen a less flattering headline.
Rehn: You usually do.
Venn: You're leaving one of the Republic's most powerful offices. Some people will see returning to State politics as stepping down.
Rehn: Let them. I've spent four years representing the Republic abroad. I don't see why helping the people at home should be considered a lesser responsibility.
Venn: You could retire.
Rehn: I could.
Venn: But you won't?
Rehn: I'll certainly take a little time for myself. Beyond that, we'll see.
Venn: Isn't there a danger that your presence makes Corindal's political disagreements worse? Another prominent figure, another set of expectations?
Rehn: Yes. Which is why I'm not going home with a program and expecting everyone to fall into line. I'd rather understand what's been attempted, what failed, and where agreement might actually be possible.
Venn: You're describing listening.
Rehn: I realize that must sound unfamiliar coming from me.
Venn: Extremely.
Rehn: Perhaps you could try it sometime.
Before we finished, I asked whether he was comfortable discussing his future while the Lake Varda conference and Toren River negotiations remained active.
Rehn: Those are still my responsibilities. Returning home is something I intend to do when my term ends. Until then, there's an office to run.
Venn: Does it trouble you that you might leave unfinished business behind?
Rehn: Every Legat Consul leaves unfinished business. The important thing is whether the next person inherits a functioning office and an honest account of what's still open.
Venn: And Corindal?
Rehn: Corindal will still be there when I arrive.
Near the end of our conversation, I reminded Rehn of the intern who had once worked in his office.
Venn: You told me I'd understand government better if I spent more time listening to people who disagreed with me.
Rehn: Have you?
Venn: I've spent a good deal of time interviewing them.
Rehn: That's not quite the same thing.
Venn: You really haven't changed.
Rehn: Neither have you, apparently.
Venn: One last question. What will you do on your first morning back in Corindal?
He considered it for a moment.
Rehn: I'd like a morning when nobody expects anything of me.
Venn: That seems unlikely.
Rehn: Then perhaps an afternoon.
Venn: And after that?
Rehn: Find out what needs doing.
Rehn's return will inevitably attract political attention.
Corindal has a functioning government that has failed to resolve a constitutional deficiency with increasingly serious consequences for its national representation. Its leaders have spent years arguing over the remedy. Some will see Rehn as a potential Governor, some as an ally, others as an unwelcome arrival from national politics.
I have known him long enough to recognize when he has prepared an answer. On the question of his future, I don't believe he has one.
For now, he remains Legat Consul, with responsibilities that will not wait for the election. His homecoming is still ahead of him. Corindal may not allow him much time to settle in when it finally happens.