brian: ballinger or pinchot? jeffrey: sorry, pinchot.is fired, the one challenging taft's authority. a complicated story. there's a whistleblower called glavis in the interior department, who has become convinced ballinger, the new secretary, has given lands to a syndicate that might be controlled by morgan, guggenheim, and other contributor to taft's campaign. so he lays his charges before pinchot, who takes him to task, basically accusing ballinger of being corrupt. taft reviews the evidence, like a judge reviewing a case, and concludes that in fact ballinger hasn't been corrupt, and there's a legitimate reason for not preserving the lands, and he exonerates ballinger, but pinchot is convinced there's a cover-up. first taft fires glavis for insubordination, because he's continuing to make a fuss, and then, although he knows the consequences, he fires pinchot. he's pacing, pale, possessed, because he knows it will have huge consequences, but he says i cannot tolerate administrative insubordination. then there are congressional hearings.