On The Day Before - TWW S3E5

Original airdate: October 31, 2001

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (48)
Story by: Paul Redford (7) & Nanda Chitre (1)

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (6)

Synopsis

• As the White House hosts a dinner honoring Nobel laureates, Toby and Sam try to deal with a surprise House vote to override the President's veto of an estate tax repeal bill. Josh works to avoid a primary challenge to President Bartlet. CJ slaps down a reporter trying to score publicity points at her expense. And when two Americans are killed in a targeted bombing in Israel, the President and Leo scramble to find a way to prevent wider bloodshed.

"We threw an elbow."

This episode is all about throwing elbows.

Let me explain. Or, at least, sum up. The phrase is illustrated by Leo's story about the Boston Celtics' coach Red Auerbach telling his player Bill Russell to throw an elbow once, on national TV, and he'd never have to do it again. The Bartlet administration finds some novel ways to throw elbows over the course of this one evening, with the hope the effects will linger with their opponents.

The main plotline involves the estate tax repeal bill and the President's veto, which was discussed in the previous episode. Even as President Bartlet is issuing his veto, word comes that House Republicans are getting ready to call an almost immediate vote to override. This comes as a bit of a surprise to the staffers who felt secure they held enough votes to prevent that outcome:

Toby: "Why would they hold a vote if they didn't think they could override?"

President: "They wouldn't." 

Toby and Sam go into emergency mode, setting up the Roosevelt Room to call people at the Capitol to figure out who they lost and who's on the fence, but it takes only a few moments to discover that a Tennessee congressman has switched his stance and brought four others along with him. Leo calls the congressman to the White House to negotiate.

Here's where we see a different approach from the last time we saw the administration in this position. In Five Votes Down, Leo and Josh went into all-out bully mode, throwing the weight of the Presidency around and threatening congressmen with electoral consequences if they didn't stick with the administration on the gun control bill. Here, Leo, Toby and Sam are asking what they need to give Rep. Kimball in order to come back and vote against the override.

Leo: "You're going to have to give away something, but don't give away the store."

It turns out Kimball wants the White House to back off on things like grazing fees, farm subsidies, and production flexibility contracts. Toby and Sam are irked that such small-stakes stuff could be what costs the President in this veto override fight, but when Kimball holds out for an FDA crackdown on illegal antibiotics in milk, they've just about had enough. Sam comes up with a novel idea - "throwing an elbow," so to speak:

Sam: "What's on the table, don't you ... Grazing fees, farm nets, milk subsidies; what's on the table. Aren't they the same things a farm district Republican would want?"

Toby: "Yeah."

Sam: "Let's offer it to them."

Toby: "Offer it to who?"

Sam: "Republicans. Royce. He'll carry six Republicans. That's seven votes. First off, when Kimball and his four see we're going to win, they'll hop onboard so we've got a bigger margin. Second, CJ can make a big deal out of bipartisanship but mostly -"

Toby: "We threw an elbow." 

The plan is hatched. Kimball is told to go pound sand, and the moderate Republican congressman Royce is offered the same deal Kimball was pushing for. Turns out, he doesn't want that deal - all he wants is for the Democrats to not mount a conservative opponent against him, who wouldn't even work with the White House anyway. Toby agrees, and the override vote is destined to fail.

Also happening during this busy night, a Palestinian suicide bomber kills two Americans visiting Israel on a goodwill soccer trip. President Bartlet and Leo work to try to reduce tensions, knowing they can't stop the Israelis from taking whatever retribution they deem necessary. As Israeli jets are warming up at their bases, investigators find a link between the explosive used and a terrorist leading a small splinter group. Under American pressure (or, if you will, elbow-throwing), the Palestinian government arrests the terrorist and hands him over to the Israelis, putting the lid on the pressure cooker for the time being.

President: "We'll withhold the $100 million in NGO aid if they don't hand him over?"

Leo: "Yeah."

President: "And you think handing him over puts the pin back in the grenade?"

Leo: "For a day."

On the domestic front, in the last episode we heard about a "Buckland" who hosted the California labor leader Victor Campos at an Indiana Pacers basketball game, just after Campos had spurned a White House offer of a commission post. Now we meet the mysterious Mr. Buckland - actually Gov. Buckland of Indiana, a thorn in President Bartlet's side even though he's a fellow Democrat. His aides have been spreading attacks on the administration's environmental policy, hitting it as unfriendly to labor and business. Josh sits down with Buckland, because he thinks there's something more at play here:

Josh: "Jack, are you going to challenge the President in the primary?"

Buckland: "Let's have that drink."

Josh really isn't afraid of Buckland's chances of actually making noise in the Democratic primary, although challenging a sitting President running for re-election is almost unheard of; what he is concerned about, though, is the optics, relating to the President's recent admission of his health issues:

Buckland: "Well, if it isn't a serious challenge what are you doing in this room?"

Josh: "Your health! We don't like your health. You're a Heisman Trophy-winning football player, a US Olympian, you still run the New York Marathon and every time we see B-roll of you tossing a ball around at the local boys' club it makes people think the President's got to campaign in an oxygen tent." 

Buckland, however, is up against term limits. Unable to run for governor again, he wants to continue to have a position to fight for his issues. Josh is able to steer him away from causing trouble in a Presidential primary by basically offering him the post as Secretary of Labor. Not really using his elbows (even though Leo told Josh to do basically that by leaking word that Buckland was trying to blackmail the President), but a nice jiu-jitsu move.

CJ's elbow ends up right in the face of Sherri Wexler, an entertainment reporter who ends up on the White House beat to cover the dinner honoring the Nobel laureates. When the hard news of the bombing in Israel arises, Wexler twists CJ's approach (deflecting news about the dead Americans and the government's response) into making CJ look out-of-the-loop (shades of Lord John Marbury!). CJ has the comeback, showing up Wexler for her lack of knowledge and preparation right in front of the entire press corps:

CJ: "Since this is the President's first veto, I thought it might be helpful if we brushed up on the rules. Sherri, can you tell us how many votes it takes to override a veto?"

Sherri: "I'm sorry?"

CJ: "How many votes does it take to override, Sherri?"

Sherri: "A majority."

CJ: "Actually, it takes two-thirds."

Sherri: "Yes, a two-thirds majority."

CJ: "Yeah, 290. And how many votes does it take to sustain?"

CJ: "That should be easy. You just subtract 290 from the total number of members in the House, and add one. How many people sit in the House of Representatives, Sherri?"

And the final CJ elbow is thrown when Sherri angrily confronts her in the hallway:

CJ: "I changed my clothes because I didn't think it was appropriate to talk about the death of two teenagers while wearing a ball gown, and you knew that. Because you're stupid, but you're not stupid, you know what I'm saying? Security's going to take your press credentials. You'll call my office every day and I'll decide if you get into the room. I'm taking your spot on Pebble Beach - and you can do your standups from Lafayette Park."

Wexler: "Who the hell -"

CJ: "One more word out of your mouth and every local station in town but yours gets an exclusive with the President. Hunting season on me is over."

One other thing, played almost for laughs but ending in a really meaningful quote, is Charlie's situation with the impending investigation into the President's coverup of his MS. Charlie has been offered a deal, immunity in exchange for his testimony, and in turn each staff member steps up to encourage him to take it. Knowing Charlie's financial and family situation, immunity would save a significant amount of legal fees, and that's behind the encouragement of Sam, Toby, CJ, and finally Leo. But Charlie has an answer that Leo has no response to:

Charlie: "Doesn't immunity imply guilt?"

Leo: "Not necessarily."

Charlie: "And if someone in my position took a deal to protect himself ... what would that person be saying to his employer? That they were wrong to trust him."

Leo: "Don't be a hero."

Charlie: "Why not? I'll stay with my team. People should stop trying to get me not to do that."

We recall Donna and her date last episode with Cliff Calley, Republican Capitol Hill attorney who realized during their date that his assignment to Oversight meant he'd be in direct conflict with everyone in the West Wing for this congressional investigation. She spends the entire episode trying to find a minute to tell Josh about it, even while tying his bow tie to make him look like Tony Bennett:

When she finally gets the time, not only does she tell Josh about that contact, she admits she and Calley got together again even after they knew the conflict existed.

Josh, who first was concerned about Donna creating a connection between his office and the House investigation, is now pretty ticked about this news:

We are left to decide for ourselves if there's some kind of jealousy there for Josh, or if it's purely anger at the potential for (even unintentional) leaks between the White House and the Republican investigation. Anyway, this episode was submitted for part of Janel Moloney's nomination for a Supporting Actress Emmy - I don't know if she really stood out in this episode (she's always good, I just thought she's had much better episodes character-wise in the past, but what do I know?).

So the elbows are thrown. The administration proves they're willing to step over reluctant Democrats and go to Republicans if that can get the job done; that they'll do what's necessary to exact justice in the Middle East; and that they won't stand for smarmy reporters scoring personal points at the expense of CJ. Just as things are starting to really heat up between the Bartlet White House and congressional Republicans, the battle lines are being drawn.

On national TV, no less.



Tales Of Interest!

- Stockard Channing returns to the opening credits, although she only has one scene (and she's sick in bed in that one).

- Timeline: CJ makes a comment that the President's veto of the estate tax repeal bill is his first veto since he took office 33 months ago. Counting from January 1999, that would place us in October 2001, which is when this episode aired. President Bartlet makes a reference to Yom Kippur, which in 2001 was September 26 and 27.

- Gail's fishbowl appears to have a seating place card, in reference to the dinner for the Nobel laureates.

- Yet another jarring note of how much things have changed in less than 20 years; can you imagine in today's political climate a Republican congressman who would be willing to buck his party on a veto override vote? Even for a promise of not trying too hard in the next election? Then, try to imagine a rural farm district in Tennessee electing a Democrat to the House. There are currently two Democrats from Tennessee serving in the House, but one is from Nashville and the other from Memphis.

- And let's make a special Trump-Ukraine-impeachment-GOP watchword-related note of Buckland's line to Josh:

"You can't offer me quid pro quo, it's against the law."

Yes, even in 2001 we were all aware of the law and the necessity for our elected officials to follow it. In 2019 a hefty proportion of one political party has apparently forgotten all about that.

- Janel Moloney was nominated for a Supporting Actress Emmy award for this episode (as well as her performance in War Crimes); that Emmy actually ended up going to castmate Stockard Channing.



Quotes    

President: "You know what we're starting with tonight?"

Josh: "No, sir."

President: "Hot pumpkin soup with a cheese gnocchi and a chevre brioche."

Josh: "Was anything you just said food?" 

-----

Toby: "'Cause if it's a show of strength and resolve, you don't wait to think about it."

Sam: "And if they override the veto, it's neither strong nor resolute."

Toby: "They don't have the votes to override."

Sam: "Says you."

Toby: "Says me, Josh, the office of the political liaison, legislative liaison, and the minority whip."

President: "Sometimes it's like I don't even need to be here." 

-----

Josh: "Sir, if the House successfully overrides the veto, we're gonna look weak."

President: "If the House successfully overrides the veto, we are weak." 

-----

Sam: "How did we lose votes since yesterday?"

Toby: "A low-in-the-polls President tells chicken-ass Democrats to vote against a tax cut in an election cycle, what could possibly have gone wrong?"

-----

CJ: "Na is sodium. Sodium comes from the English word 'soda,' so wouldn't it make sense for the periodic symbol to somehow be related to that? No, because Na comes from the Latin word 'natrium.'"

Margaret: "What does natrium mean?"

CJ: "It means sodium."

-----

CJ: "I'm going to change my clothes."

Charlie: "I'll watch."

Charlie. "No."

-----

Charlie: "I can't talk about it."

Toby: "You don't know what I was going to say."

Charlie: "Immunity?"

Toby: "Yeah."

Charlie: "I can't talk about it."

Toby: "I could have been talking about a flu vaccine."

Charlie: "That's immunization." 

-----

Josh: "After that, he can have a member try to attach an amendment to the override vote."

Donna: "What kind of amendment?"

Josh: "Doesn't matter. 'To qualify for the estate tax repeal, the estates have to have Astroturf.'"

Donna: "And still it's hard to figure why Congress can't get anything done."

-----

Buckland: "You can't offer me quid pro quo, it's against the law."

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• Donald Dolan, from the Executive Clerk's Office who ends up bringing the estate tax repeal bill to the White House, is played by Scott Michael Campbell (Brokeback Mountain, Shameless, Flight Of The Phoenix).

• Jack Buckland, the governor of Indiana, is played by Kevin Tighe (best known for Emergency!, also Road House, Eight Men Out).

• The Democratic Representative trying to get favors from the administration in return for his vote against the veto override is played by Cliff De Young (a long list of character appearances, mostly on TV, stretching all the way back to the 1970s).

• As far as the President's "first veto in 33 months," there was an education bill veto referenced in In This White House, and The Portland Trip featured the President using a "pocket veto" on a bill against same-sex marriage. 

• In Ways And Means Bruno tells Leo that California labor leader Victor Campos had turned down a commission post from the White House, and then was seen at an Indiana Pacers game with "Buckland." That name ruffled feathers, and I inferred he was some sort of Republican bigwig. Here we discover he's actually the Democratic governor of Indiana, but is still a thorn in the administration's side and is threatening a primary challenge.

• We know that even though he's a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who went to protests with his sister in 1968 (Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail), Toby has a special place in his heart for veterans (In Excelsis Deo). Here we see his office has a replica of The Three Soldiers statue, added as part of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in 1984.

• We get a great sampling of Josh's experience in congressional affairs, as he knows all the tricks one side can use to delay a vote on something they don't want voted on (stage an exhibition, ask for a journal vote, offer amendments).

• Most of the time (which occasional exceptions) over the past two-plus seasons, we've seen President Bartlet's desk set up with his glass collection on his left and the phone and a lamp on the right. Here we see that reversed, with the collection of glass items on his right and the lamp moved to the left.

• In another shot we see a different selection of photographs on the desk facing the President. While the photo of Abbey, one of Zoey, and another of Jed and Abbey together remain from previous episodes, we also get one that appears to be of daughters Zoey and Ellie together. Another could be a grandchild (we know there's a granddaughter, referenced in Pilot). Still no pictures of the third Bartlet daughter, Elizabeth, though (as far as I can tell).

DC location shots    

• None

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• Josh mentions Tony Bennett as a goal for appearances with his bow tie; Donna mixes that up with Tom Jones. 

• Kary B. Mullis was indeed the 1993 Nobel Prize recipient in chemistry, he was indeed born in 1944 in North Carolina, and received his undergraduate degree at Georgia Tech and his doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley.

• While CJ says she's wearing Diane Cook, that does not appear to be an actual fashion designer; likewise the Indianapolis Post-Dispatch is not a real newspaper.

• We see Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey in the background on C-SPAN2.

• Gov. Buckland is mentioned as a Heisman Trophy winner, so John Heisman must exist in this universe.

• In a rare reference to a real global political figure, President Bartlet refers to Arafat (Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian National Authority and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization). 

• Abbey is reading Man Of The People: Harry S. Truman, a biography by Alonzo Hamby. A real book about a real President.

• Leo tells a story about real-life members of the Boston Celtics basketball team, player Bill Russell and coach Red Auerbach.

• Josh brings up the trademarked term Astroturf as an example of a amendment that could help extend the voting time in the House.

• Representative Royce quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes.

• For products, we see Toby has a (logo barely hidden) Starbucks cup in the Roosevelt Room.

• Remember how Keeper Springs water seemed to be a constant presence in the White House towards the end of Season 2? Now, anyway, it seems the show is at least trying to hide the label, but it's clearly the same brand on CJ's desk.

End credits freeze frame: The staff meeting in the Oval Office before the President's phone call with the parents of the Americans killed in the bombing.

Ways And Means - TWW S3E4

Original airdate: October 24, 2001

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (47)
Story by: Eli Attie (1) & Gene Sperling (1)

Directed by: Alex Graves (5)

Synopsis

• With the special prosecutor's case against the President not serving as a stark enough contrast for CJ, she cooks up a plan to manipulate the press and congressional Republicans into a House takeover of the investigation. Meanwhile, Republicans try to take advantage of the administration's weakness to repeal the estate tax. The government's handling of a forest fire in Wyoming brings some heat on the President. Ainsley sets up Donna on a blind date with a Republican Capitol Hill staffer.

"Come and get us."

Just when you thought CJ might be down-and-out from the events of Manchester Parts I and II, she proves she's got one of the savviest political minds around in this dandy episode. She comes up with a devious plan to flip the script in the investigation of the administration, and it's great fun to watch it develop.

We begin with subpoenas being handed down by the special prosecutor President Bartlet named to look into his coverup of his multiple sclerosis during the campaign. (That's a lot of subpoenas.):

CJ isn't happy with how this looks - while the administration has been forthcoming and cooperative in the early stages, the very fact subpoenas are coming makes it look like they're not. Plus, the special prosecutor is rather chummy with White House Counsel Oliver Babish, which CJ doesn't think does them any favors. She wants to set up a stark choice, a black-and-white, good-and-evil showdown so the American public can take sides, and she's got an idea for an adversary:

CJ: "Leo, we need to be investigated by someone who wants to kill us just to watch us die. We need someone perceived by the American people to be irresponsible, untrustworthy, partisan, ambitious, and thirsty for the limelight. Am I crazy or this not a job for the U.S. House of Representatives?"

Leo replies, "Show me what you're starting with," and we are off. CJ is great, slipping in a "Clem" in reference to the special prosecutor before correcting herself with "Mr. Rollins," then dropping a reference to how the White House sees Rollins differently than the House Republicans do. Just little breadcrumbs, hints that perhaps Rollins isn't going to be that hard on the Bartlet administration, and then let the suspicions of the House Republicans do the rest of the work.

CJ enlists Ainsley to help work the conservative press:

CJ: "Get alone with one of those guys, go off record, and say how you can't believe the President can be claiming to waive executive privileges yet still reserve the right to withhold certain documents. Can you do that?"

Ainsley: "I can't believe how the President can be claiming to waive executive privileges yet still reserve the right to withhold certain documents."

CJ: "Yeah, do it quietly and kind of shake your head in disbelief."

Ainsley (shaking her head as she speaks): "I can't believe how the President can be claiming to waive executive privileges yet still -"

CJ: "You don't have to keep shaking your head, just a little in the beginning."

In her next press briefing CJ makes the comment that Rollins and Babish are old friends. That spurs a chance meeting on the Mall where a couple of House Democratic staffers tell her to let up on the "close relationship between Rollins and Babish" talk, as they're worried the Republicans are itching to start their own investigation without waiting for the special prosecutor - exactly what CJ was after.

A little mention later to the press of how Rollins and Babish co-authored an article at Yale, and that's all it takes. It's a master class in manipulation of the media and the Republicans, and while Babish isn't happy with it ("You know, there was an irony in that Clem Rollins was the right man for the job," to which CJ responds, "You think I care less about irony?"), CJ has done what she meant to do - spur the Republicans into cutting out the special prosecutor, get themselves into the investigative fray, and set up a clear political black-and-white situation for the public.

In other plot-related news, Josh and Toby are taken aback when House Republicans abruptly cancel a meeting to discuss a deal on the estate tax (or, as the Republicans and Doug call it, the "death tax"). They quickly discover the Republicans are taking advantage of the administration's focus on the special prosecutor's investigation and Bartlet's perceived weakness to try and ram through a total repeal of the estate tax. Doug, surprisingly, is the adviser who steps up and recommends the President threaten a veto in order to tamp down the Republicans' excitement at doing whatever they want.

Doug: "I think ... he should take out the A-bomb. I think he's got to do something he's never done even once before. 'You think I'm weak? How about I shove Article 1, Section 7 up your ass?' Screw the compromise! I think he's got to veto."

Bruno has unnerving news from the campaign front. A California labor leader who is key to Democratic election hopes in that state, Victor Campos, has turned down a seat on a presidential advisory board, and immediately afterward was seen at an NBA basketball game with a Republican bigwig. The White House cooks up a reason to have Campos come to Washington, and get Sam ready to go after him. Bruno insists Connie sit in on the meeting to report back to him, and Sam reluctantly agrees if she stays out of his way.

Sam and Campos have a rather contentious meeting, and while Sam gives him most of what he's asking for, he's unwilling to provide amnesty for all undocumented immigrants from the Americas. Connie has an unusual way of staying out of Sam's way:

Campos: "The Legal Amnesty Fairness Act is in the Senate right now!"

Sam: "We can't back a bill that treats Hispanic immigrants any differently than -"

Campos: "Sam-"

Sam: "There's no way we can do it."

Connie: "Sure we can."

Sam (taken aback, to Connie): "I'm sorry?"

Connie: "We can do it."

Sam: "We really can't."

Connie: "We really can." 

Sam takes Connie aside, and she explains how amnesty for Hispanic immigrants could really help the electoral map for Democrats, so Sam and Campos come to terms. Frankly, it's shocking Sam was swayed by that argument - he would have had to have known the math, right? And the administration was against the bill for other, political, reasons? Oh, well, it's television.

President Bartlet has a couple of problems he's dealing with. There's a forest fire raging in Yellowstone National Park, and while forestry experts in the Department of the Interior think it's better to let the fire burn, the governors of Wyoming and other western states want the feds to step in and put the fire out. Luckily, rain is in the forecast and should help douse the fire without governmental assistance.

Jed also can't find his good pens, for some reason. He complains to Charlie that he's always had the perfect pens right there in his jacket pocket in the past, just right for signing things, but now none of the pens he can find feel right. Charlie, who's been urging the President to start thinking about a new personal secretary, explains where those pens had come from:

Charlie: "She (Mrs. Landingham) put the pen in your pocket every morning. She slipped it in there."  

In a later quiet moment, the President sits at Mrs. Landingham's desk, and finds the box of pens she used to supply him with every day.

Despite the love, affection, and grief Jed still holds for Mrs. Landingham, he's coming to the conclusion that it's time to move on and find another secretary.

Donna is frazzled, as she had a perfect plan to track storage of all the Presidential memos and receipts and schedules that are tucked into coded boxes. Problem is, the sheet with the codes is also inside one of those boxes, and she doesn't know which one.

Ainsley thinks she might have a remedy for Donna's frazzlement - a date. And she's got just the guy in mind:

Donna: "Where does he work?"

Ainsley: "On the Hill. House Ways and Means."

Donna: "He works for the minority counsel's office."

Ainsley: "Not exactly."

Donna: "Where does he work?"

Ainsley: "Well, let me say this. He works with the minority counsel's office."

Donna: "Ainsley ..."

Ainsley: "He works for the majority counsel's office."

Donna: "He's a Republican?"

Ainsley: "We are the majority."

Donna doesn't love the idea, as going for a date with a Republican working with the Ways and Means committee seems like a betrayal of Josh, who's fighting with that committee at the moment. Donna finally relents, though (because if you remember the actors' intro to Isaac And Ishmael Janel Moloney says "I get a boyfriend!"). She has a meet-cute with Cliff Calley outside the restaurant they were to meet at, an hour-and-a-half previously. They're getting along great, until Calley is telling Donna about he was "traded" to the House Oversight Committee and he suddenly realizes the reason - the House is about to begin their investigation of the administration and they want a litigator like Calley in their corner. So he's about to become one of the White House's biggest adversaries:

But even though this relationship looks doomed from the get-go ... we'll see more of Calley in future episodes.

A lot of intrigue and political maneuvering going on in this episode, which is one of the things The West Wing can do really well. And it's great to see CJ putting her skills to work in really clever, crafty ways.


Tales Of Interest!

- This episode is Eli Attie's first-ever writing credit on The West Wing. Attie, a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, would go on be credited on 20 more episodes, and eventually became a producer of the show for the last several seasons. Gene Sperling, also with a story credit (the estate tax plotline), was a former economic advisor to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. He worked on Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign as well.

- Stockard Channing, who was included in the opening credits for the past two episodes, was not seen in the credits this time. For the first time, it appears, the series will put occasional featured players like Channing in the credits only if they appear in the episode.

- A lot of active camera work from Alex Graves here, and I mean a lot. We get the vantage point of the camera spinning around our subjects multiple times - the opening scene with Rollins getting out of the car, Leo and Josh in Leo's office, Toby as he comes into the Communications Department area, CJ in one of her briefing room scenes, and Donna getting out of the cab to meet Calley.

- A couple of other neat shots involving CJ - a slow pan from the back of the briefing room as she starts her spin on Rollins, showing her at the podium as well as all the cameras/monitors showing her (and it stops in a well-composed place, with Leo watching her as we see the monitors along the wall:

And then again later, with a shot through the blinds of a briefing room window, with CJ seen on a monitor just inside:

- Connie tells Sam she has a Ph.D. from Oxford in political economics. Oxford doesn't grant what's referred to as Ph.Ds, but instead they're called D.Phils (said as "dee-fills").

- We get an actual accounting of the Republican-Democratic split in the House, as Josh tells Leo the full Republican vote count would be 226, leaving 209 seats for the Democrats.

- The place where Donna and Cliff meet, the Farragut Grill, is apparently fictional (also I'm fairly sure these scene was shot in Los Angeles, but I could be wrong):

We also get a glimpse of a fictional newspaper in the Communications Office, the Washington Star Observer, made up for the show to give us this headline:

(Also note the sports banner at the top of the page: "Icebergs' Playoff Hopes End With 24-3 Loss To Streakers." That score sounds like football, and ending a football team's playoff hopes would be late in the season, like December, probably, but it's clearly not December here. I suppose it could be a blowout baseball score, which would match the fall season, but 'Icebergs' doesn't really sound like a baseball team name, you know? I mean, they're imaginary sports teams, so they can be whatever you want. If you see the sports banner on the quite real Washington Post below, it mentions Woods [Tiger, I imagine] leading the Masters golf tournament and the season opener for the DC United soccer team. Both those events would happen in April of 2001, so, either Toby is keeping really outdated newspapers around or we weren't supposed to take a good look at these headlines.)

- The pictures on the President's desk have been rearranged a bit. The picture of Zoey has been moved to face the room instead of the President, and there's a new photo of what looks like a mother and daughter facing him (perhaps Elizabeth and her daughter/Jed's granddaughter Annie, referred to in Pilot?):

- Given the key plot-important advice coming from both Doug and Connie in this episode, it's a bit surprising that this episode is about all Sorkin wrote, literally, for both characters. Doug will not appear again onscreen, although Evan Handler would go on to work for Sorkin again (alongside Bradley Whitford and Tim Busfield) in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip in 2006. Connie returns for one more appearance a few episodes down the road, but then she's done as well. I guess Bruno puts them to work somewhere offscreen, probably teaming up with Mandy.



Quotes    

Donna: "I had a plan. I grew up on a farm."

Josh: "You grew up in a condo."

Donna: "I grew up near a farm. I was cute. And I was peppy. And I always did well on my 19th century English literature midterms till you came along and sucked me into your life of crime."

Josh: "Hey, I'm not the one -"

Donna: "White collar crime, boy." 

-----

Sam: "Technically I'm not a professional fire fighter, though there was a time I wanted to be."

Josh: "When?"

Sam: "When I was four."

Josh: "When I was four, I wanted to be a ballerina."

Sam: "Yeah?"

Josh: "I don't like to, talk about it." 

-----

Margaret: "You still don't know my name, do you?"

Bruno: "It's Gertrude."

Margaret: "It's not." 

-----

Leo: "Sam will have the meeting and report back."

Bruno: "Sam will have the meeting and one of my people will be there and they will report back. It's time to distinguish between the White House and the campaign."

Leo: "Sam does this for us."

Bruno: "Does he do it right?"

Leo: "Oftentimes."

Sam: "You guys know I'm sitting right here, right?" 

-----

Ainsley (catching up to Sam and CJ): "Excuse me!"

Sam: "Hey!"

Ainsley: "You need a haircut."

Sam: "Shouldn't you be someplace keeping me out of jail?"

Ainsley: "I'm taking a break."

-----

President: "Letting this fire burn is good for the environment. You know how I know?"

Leo: "How?"

President: "Because smart people told me. Please, God, let 'em be right." 

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• The special prosecutor Clem Rollins is played by Nicholas Pryor, a recognizable character actor who was Tom Cruise's dad in Risky Business, played the chancellor in Beverly Hills 90210, and had a long run on the soap opera Port Charles.

• Donna's date (and soon to be the administration's congressional antagonist) Cliff Calley is played by Mark Feuerstein (Caroline In The City, What Women Want, Good Morning Miami). This episode begins a recurring arc for his character.

• The California labor leader Victor Campos is played by Miguel Sandoval, who has been seen in lots of TV shows and movies (Medium, Jurassic Park, Get Shorty).

• Secretary of the Interior Bill Horton is played by Edmund L. Schaff, who has a familiar face and voice from his appearances on a variety of TV shows (Space: Above And Beyond, The Practice, Mad Men).

• You might remember Congressman Mark Richardson (Thom Barry) as leader of the Congressional Black Caucus from Five Votes Down. 

• Here he is again, dealing with Josh and Toby over votes for the estate tax repeal.

• Made-up cable news channel CND returns, this time with coverage of the Wyoming wildfires.

• Of course you remember Toby's pink rubber "Spaldeen" ball he uses to bounce against the wall to help him think (first seen in The Stackhouse Filibuster). Here we see him with it as he, Josh, Doug, and Connie talk about the estate tax repeal issue in the Roosevelt Room.

• Doug makes a big deal over President Bartlet threatening to use his first veto ever for the estate-tax-repeal bill. Last season, in In This White House, Capital Beat's Mark Gottfried asked Sam, "Why is this (education) bill better than its Republican counterpart that the President vetoed last year?" In addition, a key plot point of that season's The Portland Trip dealt with President Bartlet's decision to pocket veto a same-sex marriage bill passed by Congress. Perhaps the education bill was pocket-vetoed as well ... but this discussion does serve as a great excuse for us to see President Bartlet haul out the old Veto Stamp. 

• Michigan Republican Randall Thomas (Thomas J. McCarthy) was seen in The Leadership Breakfast leading the press conference that Ann Stark cooked up to sandbag Toby and CJ:

• He's back again here, as chair of the House Oversight Committee that's going to take over the investigation of the Bartlet MS coverup:

DC location shots    

• The opening scene with special prosecutor Rollins arriving outside the courthouse was filmed on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U. S. Courthouse (that's the George Gordon Meade Memorial in between the street and the courthouse):

• The scene with CJ outside talking with congressional staffers was filmed on the National Mall, on the southeast end near what is now the National Museum of the American Indian (which opened in 2004). You'll notice the TV camera focal length makes the Capitol and the Washington Monument look much nearer than they appear with a regular photograph:

• After Donna and Cliff share drinks at the Farragut Grill, they walk through the U.S. Navy Memorial Plaza, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the National Archives (the red arrow on the second photo shows where they were actually walking):

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• Donna mentions how her "farm-girl ass" would be sold for "a carton of Luckys" in prison. She also brings up FedEx receipts as something she's searching for in the boxes.

• Real-life Arizona Senator Jon Kyl can be seen in the background on C-SPAN2.

• Bruno mentions a game between the NBA's Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers as he tells Leo about Victor Campos' meeting with Jack Buckland.

• An article co-written by special prosecutor Rollins and White House Counsel Oliver Babish in the Yale Law Review is part of CJ's plan. In real life, though, it's called the Yale Law Journal.

• The online document access firm LexisNexis is brought up by Babish when he's suspicious about CJ's motives.

• We see a couple of Starbucks cups with the actors somewhat trying to hide the logo (Rollins holds one, Sam has one later):

• Babish throws a Wall Street Journal on the table in front of Rollins.

• There's a bottle of San Pellegrino water in front of Ainsley in CJ's office:

• CJ has a Reebok bag when she comes back to her office - apparently returning from the gym (walking all the way from somewhere near the east end of the Mall, that's ambitious; also in Pilot we were told 5 to 6 am was "her time," when she worked out). The prop crew did try to disguise the logo with some black tape (a technique referred to in the industry as "greeking"), but we can tell what it is: 

End credits freeze frame: The final shot, with all the staffers gathered to watch Congressman Thomas announce his plans to take over the investigation, causing CJ to say, "Come and get us." (And there's Evan Handler over Toby's right shoulder, the last time we'll ever see him here ... much like Mandy walking away down the hall in What Kind Of Day Has It Been.)