Stirred - TWW S3E18

Original airdate: April 3, 2002

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (61) & Eli Attie (3)
Story by: Dee Dee Myers (4)

Directed by: Jeremy Kagan (2)

Synopsis

• The staff mulls over the electoral math that could mean dropping Vice President Hoynes off the ticket. A truck accident involving nuclear waste in Idaho keeps the White House on edge. Donna pushes for a proclamation honoring her high school English teacher, and Charlie gets an unpleasant surprise after President Bartlet prepares his taxes.

"Because I could die."

I was all prepared to go after whomever chose the title for this episode, a word taken from President Bartlet's complaint about James Bond and his demands for proper martini-making:

"Can I tell you what's messed up about James Bond? ... shaken not stirred will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it."

My take, at first, was that we're seeing everything get shaken up in this episode, from the Presidential ticket to preparing for transportation disasters involving nuclear waste to the rules about Presidential proclamations. It should have been called Shaken, not Stirred! I even got well into writing this entry from that angle ...

But then I thought about it a little more, and now I believe the title is precisely right. Bartlet disdains the harsh shaking of a martini, because he believes a gentler touch - stirring, not chipping the ice - brings about a better result. He doesn't go along with the idea of throwing Hoynes off the ticket and finding a replacement; he doesn't break tradition to honor a favorite teacher of Donna's with a proclamation, but his more personal, one-on-one alternative means a lot more; he doesn't go off half-cocked with a response to possible terrorism, but waits until he gets all the facts. The President is indeed "stirring" the events of the day to reach a satisfactory conclusion, instead of "shaking" everything up.

The primary story we're presented with is whether Bartlet might be smart to consider a replacement for Hoynes as the Vice Presidential candidate. Bruno (running the campaign, remember, as we saw in Manchester) has done the electoral math, and he's determined that not only will Bartlet lose Florida to the Republican candidate Rob Ritchie (since Ritchie is, well, governor of Florida), he's going to lose Texas, too. And since Hoynes' main usefulness on the ticket was to help bring votes in the South, including his home state of Texas, thoughts turn to potential candidates who might help win enough of the rest of the country to make up for Florida and Texas.

(It's interesting to remember that in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" we learned that the Bartlet/Hoynes ticket didn't win Texas in 1998, either. That doesn't negate the premise of this episode, as perhaps they did well in Florida which is now off the table for them, but Hoynes never brought them Texas.)

So with attention turned to the Northeast and the West Coast, the primary focus of interest is Admiral Fitzwallace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As a decorated Vietnam veteran who's strong on defense, he'd counter some of the criticisms President Bartlet endures about his lack of military experience. And since he's an African-American, Josh and the other staffers are excited about his name on the ticket generating turnout and votes across the South. Problem is, nobody knows if he's even a Democrat.

So Leo's name gets thrown in the hat, much to Leo's scoffing disdain. The staffers realize one of the electoral problems they'll face with Leo is his past alcohol and drug abuse - but as we saw at the start of the episode (and have known since Five Votes Down), Hoynes, too, is a recovering alcoholic, and sponsors an AA meeting that Leo himself attends. That fact is unknown to anyone outside that meeting, but Leo practically spills it in the Roosevelt Room:

CJ: "You know, if it weren't for the drinking and the Valium ... and yet, Grant ..."

Toby: "That's right."

CJ: "And yet Grant. They went to Lincoln. They said, 'Grant's a drunk.' He said, 'Send all my generals a case of whatever he's drinking.'"

Larry: "I see a 30-second spot."

Leo (scoffing): "You guys don't think an alcoholic can be Vice President? You really think the 20th century didn't see an alcoholic in the West Wing? I'll be around."

The discussion spurs Leo to bring Hoynes to the Oval Office, so he can personally let the President know that he's a recovering alcoholic who is attending AA meetings. Bartlet needs to know all the facts when making this huge decision, Leo thinks - and Hoynes is gobsmacked that Leo hasn't let the President in on this fact already:

Hoynes: "Are you telling me he doesn't know?"

Leo: "How would he know?"

Hoynes: "You didn't tell him?"

Leo: "Of course I didn't tell him."

Hoynes: "Before you picked me, you didn't tell him?"

Leo: "No."

(It's unclear to me in Five Votes Down whether or not Leo actually knew Hoynes was a recovering alcoholic before the VP invited him to his AA meetings in the basement of the OEOB, which was almost a year after the Bartlet/Hoynes ticket won election. Perhaps Leo did know. Leo's alcoholism was basically an open secret in Washington - it was his drug abuse and stint in rehab first disclosed in The Short List that almost nobody knew about - so while Hoynes' past drinking excesses were definitely a secret to most, maybe Leo had that knowledge in advance, I dunno  ... in any event, it's clear Leo takes the promise to hold those AA meetings secret between the participants very seriously, and Hoynes is surprised by that.)

The discussion between Hoynes and Leo and the President is one of the highlights of the entire series. It's obvious Bartlet doesn't think this is a huge deal, not surprising when you consider his devotion to and trust in Leo, another recovering addict - but it's even clearer when Bartlet asks about the details of Hoynes' recovery:

Hoynes: "My last drink ... it was the year I was 22."

President: "Did you say 22?"

Hoynes: "Yes, sir."

President: "You haven't had a drink since you were 22?"

Hoynes: "That's right."

President: "I didn't start drinking until I was 25." 

And then Hoynes answers the President's question about what's going on in the Roosevelt Room - because even though the discussions are being held in secret (not even the President knows!), he's known all along:

Hoynes: "It's a meeting about having me replaced on the ticket. (turns to Leo) I know how to count to 270."

And Bartlet shows his level of commitment and duty and loyalty, as he scribbles something on a piece of paper:

President: "John, despite this recent revelation that you drank beer in college I've always liked you a little more than you thought I did, but that's not why you're staying. It's this."

"Four words."

Part of the genius of the Aaron Sorkin style is that we don't find out what those four words are yet - we see the President write them, we watch Hoynes and Leo read them, but we're left in the dark for now. Only later, when Leo is showing the note to Josh, do we discover what the President wrote: "Because I could die." Bartlet recognizes the precariousness of his health, with his MS diagnosis and possible physical and mental deterioration within the next four years looming over him, and Hoynes is the man he trusts to carry on if Bartlet is no longer there.

There's also the part of the story concerning Republicans in Congress ready to kill an education funding bill if Hoynes' name stays on a provision for technology/internet advances for schools and students. I think that plotline serves two purposes - it's a bit of a contrast from what we saw in Five Votes Down, where Hoynes rather ingeniously pulled some strings and made some things happen to steal credit away from the White House for a key bill, and also shows how Hoynes' commitment to doing the right thing (funding these programs to help kids learn and get internet access to more schools) is more important than electoral politics. And it's really that second point, Hoynes' integrity and willingness to sacrifice personal gain for a better national goal, that seals the deal with President Bartlet.

The nuclear waste accident storyline is leaned on pretty heavily, as the administration frets about a possible act of terror (logical to think, for an audience watching in a post-9/11 world, although Bartlet's response to Leo's news about the driver of the stolen truck being identified - "Arab?" - is a bit jarring. Surely the President doesn't think an act of terrorism could never be carried out by a white Christian? Hell, it happened to him in What Kind Of Day Has It Been, for crying out loud), but in the end, it turns out it was simply an accident. It does prompt the President to mull over all the unknowables about handling nuclear materials, how a government can prepare and test and fortify for all the events they can possibly conceive, but they can never prepare for the inevitable ones they can't think of.

Another throwaway is the Bill Fisher story, the HUD Secretary whose planned announcement about home ownership loans rings an alarm in Toby's head. Toby quickly realizes Fisher is using this program as a way to build in-state political capital for an eventual run for New Jersey's governorship. Toby calls him in and reads him the riot act about not being a team player and how he doesn't use a national stage to announce regional programs. It's nice to see Ginger working hard to do Toby's bidding and bring in a Cabinet secretary who really is trying to avoid the meeting, but there's not much to this plotline.

Then there's Charlie's battle with his taxes. He's looking forward to a $700 refund, which he's planning to spend on a new DVD player and a copy of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (probably just Sorkin's excuse to squeeze in Bartlet's James Bond references. I think it's interesting that the only George Lazenby entry in the Bond film series is Charlie's favorite). It's pretty funny to see the President of the United States sitting in front of a computer, happy as a nerdy economist can be, entering Charlie's tax return information:

President: "I love doing this."

Charlie: "Really?"

President: "Yeah."

Charlie: "Filing tax returns?"

President: "Yeah."

Charlie: "Okay."

President: "What?"

Charlie: "I was just thinking about the plurality of Americans who made the decision to pull a lever that had your name next to it." 

President: "Suckers."

As it turns out, Charlie isn't getting $700 back, he owes $400, thanks to his liability for a government tax "rebate" check that taxpayers received in 2001. Not only does this lead to some pretty funny scenes of both the President and Leo asking Charlie for his owed taxes:

"And you don't even need a stamp. Hand it over."

But it also brings us a rather cogent argument from Charlie that this was no "rebate":

Leo: "Your rebate came off of this year's taxes. That's how we paid for it."

Charlie: "Hang on. The money I got back last year has to be paid for?"

Leo: "Yeah."

Charlie: "That's not a rebate. That's an advance."

Leo: "Well, technically, I guess -"

Charlie: "Not technically. This is like getting a Christmas bonus and having it deducted from your January paycheck." 

Charlie, being the good American citizen that he is, gives up his DVD player and Bond movie to pay his taxes - but as we've seen many times, President Bartlet looks after Charlie as the son he's never had. Bartlet purchases the DVD player and movie (and a Gilbert & Sullivan opera, just because) and has them sent to Charlie's house. Just like a dad.

Charlie: "That was an incredibly nice gesture."

President: "I'm really something."

Speaking of incredibly nice gestures, a favorite teacher of Donna's from her high school days in Madison is retiring, and she really, really, really wants a Presidential proclamation of a day in her honor. She pesters Josh non-stop - she's done her research, she knows it's possible that in a world with National Digestive Diseases Awareness Week and National Sewing Month and General Pulaski Memorial Day the President should be able to do something for a teacher who's gone above and beyond to help students learn for 41 years. Josh keeps putting her off:

Josh: "She's not less worthy. But neither is she more worthy than the other 90,000 public school teachers who are retiring this year."

Donna: "Who weren't lucky enough to have a White House staffer as a former student."

Josh: "But that's where we get into trouble."

Donna: "Who would find out?"

Josh: "'Who would find out?' is also where we frequently find trouble." 

But behind the scenes, Josh does write up something to send to the President. And Bartlet has something up his sleeve for Donna, as well as for Mrs. Morello. He calls Donna to the Oval Office, as he's slyly had Charlie get Mrs. Morello on the telephone. He gives Donna the chance to make a sort of proclamation of her own:

Donna (talking into speakerphone): "Well, I ... I just wanted to say, I don't know, I just ... I just wanted to say ... I don't know ..."

Mrs. Morello (on speakerphone): "Are ... are you sure everything's all right?"

President (whispering): "Tell her where you are."

Donna: "Mrs. Morello, I'm in the Oval Office with the President of the United States and it's because of you." 

And then, to make things even better, the President himself joins in, poking fun at Mrs. Morello's choice of educational materials and having a personal, friendly discussion with Donna's favorite teacher. And you can see how much this means to Donna:

The President really does have a deft touch, stirring carefully to navigate through so many aspects of his job. The way he brushes off the potential PR and electoral pitfalls of keeping Hoynes on the ticket, or the trust and devotion he shows to Leo despite his past falls from grace, is foremost in this episode. But the deep respect and affection he has for his staff, for Charlie and for Donna, is also evident. He's avoiding the snooty "weak martini" of just shaking things up to hope for some kind of change, and instead gently stirring to produce an elegant, pleasing and very satisfactory result.

Tales Of Interest!

- It almost seems like The West Wing trademark shot of the camera moving in a circle around the characters is now a contractual requirement that must be included in each episode. We get two of those spinning shots pretty early in this one ... the scene between Josh and Donna in her office, and then with the President and Charlie as Bartlet works on his taxes. Here's part of that first scene:

- A cool element of foreshadowing, one so subtle I didn't even notice it until about the third time through: as Jed is helping Charlie with his taxes, we can see a television behind them that's airing a news report. The story is about something in Idaho - note the graphic showing the outline of the state. This is before CJ comes to tell the President about the truck accident with the nuclear materials in Idaho. The show runners went to the effort of filming that little news report snippet, about coverage of a major news event that not only we the viewers didn't know about, but not even the President had knowledge of yet - and they called no attention to it, just slipped it into the background. I love little details like that.

- We learn Charlie's Adjusted Gross Income for 2001 is $35,000. Since he'd likely be at Step 2 of the GS pay scale for federal employees (being hired in late 1999, and receiving one step increase at the beginning of 2001), that puts him about at the GS-9 level (with the locality adjustment for Washington, DC, a GS-9 Step 2 in 2001 would have a base salary of $37,877). His income of $35,000 in 2001 would be equivalent to just over $51,000 in 2020 dollars (although a GS-9 step 2 in Washington DC would have a 2020 base salary of just over $61,000).

- Charlie's issue with the tax rebate affecting his refund was based on a rebate actually enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001. Tax rebate checks (approximately $300 per person) were sent out to taxpayers in the summer and fall of 2001. They were designed to get the benefits of a tax rate cut that took effect earlier that year into the hands of Americans right away; therefore, they were an "advance" of sorts - instead of a bigger tax savings on their spring 2002 returns, they got a portion of that money sent to them directly during 2001. So Charlie is essentially right, although how he could go from an estimated refund of $700 to owing $400 in taxes over a $300 rebate makes absolutely no mathematical sense ...

- We actually see Ed without Larry! At least for a short time, until Larry comes into the room. Their standing as very highly trusted aides is confirmed as well, since they're included in the top-secret non-leaking group talking about replacing Hoynes.

- I think Sorkin miswrote a line of Toby's. As they discuss how to make the electoral math work without Hoynes, Toby says they need to sweep "the northeast, the Pacific coast, and the industrial Northwest." I don't think "industrial Northwest" is really a thing, plus that'd mainly be included with the Pacific coast ... he must have meant "industrial Midwest," because that would make far more sense in this discussion.

- In the last episode we saw how Sam's line "I'm looking for a mind at work" was used in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton musical. Josh mentions Vice President Aaron Burr and the fact that he shot a guy (a guy named Alexander Hamilton), which ties in to the entire plot of Hamilton.

- I think we catch Sam in a little bit of a fib. In the meeting with Hoynes, without prompting he flat out says to the Vice President, "They want your name off the bill." When he's back in the White House and finds out about the discussion to remove Hoynes from the ticket, he angrily defends Hoynes to Josh, saying, "I didn't have to convince him, or even suggest it." Well, he did bring it up, although not technically suggesting it.

- President Bartlet - who's basing his entire reelection campaign on being smart, remember - chastises Mrs. Morello about teaching Beowulf in a translation instead of the "original Middle English." Problem is, Beowulf was written in Old English, not Middle English.

- Can we talk a little bit about the good-natured, happy, almost giddy tone we've seen out of President Bartlet over the past few episodes? When you go back to War Crimes or The Two Bartlets or Night Five or Hartsfield's Landing, he's been pretty cranky - mainly because of Toby, but just cranky in general. Since that turning point when Toby told him to "make it (the campaign) about smart, and not" and the President took that to heart, he's been in a terrific mood. We can see that making the decision to "be himself" and embrace his wonkiness and intelligence in the campaign, it's lightened his mood considerably. Even with serious events like the truck accident in Idaho, focus on those heavy issues don't seem to hold him back. Just look at how he's teasing Leo about not being able to be reached and grabbing his pager:

What a cutup! I like this side of Jed Bartlet. Even in the midst of potential radioactive disaster, he's ready with a clever quip:

Leo: "FEMA's indicated they're going to want to make it the Governor's call, and the Governor's indicated he's going to want you to step in and -"

President: "I should set a ransom. I'll tell you what the radiation levels are, but first I want your electoral votes. Or is that a bad strategy?"

Leo: "Pretty bad."

President: "Okay, no ransom. We'll play this one straight." 

- Tim Matheson earned an Emmy award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for this episode. The Emmy ended up going to Charles S. Dutton for The Practice.




Quotes    

Sam: "What do you think he's going to say when you tell him?"

Josh: "I think he's gonna say, 'Josh, you look remarkably like Sam Seaborn.'"

-----

Sam: "Got a minute?"

Toby: "If I said no, would it stop you?"

Sam: "No." 

-----

Charlie: "Seven hundred dollars?"

President: "Four hundred." 

Charlie: "I'm only getting $400 back?"

President: "You owe $400."

Charlie: "They're saying I owe the federal government money?"

President: "And you don't even need a stamp. Hand it over."

Charlie: "There must be a mistake."

President: "Whatever. Hand it over." 

-----

Josh: "You say what you want, Hoynes is a pragmatist. To do this, he'd be the craziest Vice President since Aaron Burr. And Burr shot a guy."

-----

Larry: "No one knew if Eisenhower was a Democrat or Republican before he ran."

Ed: "Grant only voted once in his life, and it was for the other guys."

CJ: "Grant works as an example in almost any situation. That's his legacy."

Toby: "Plus he won the Civil War."

-----

President: "Yup. It was the rebate."

Charlie: "It wasn't a rebate. It was an advance."

President: "You say potato ..."

Charlie: "I do say potato, and so does everybody else I know."

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

• Leo was first invited to the Vice President's AA meeting in Five Votes Down. We only saw him entering the room for the "card game" in that episode - now we are taken inside the meeting itself.

• Josh recalls his work for the Vice President prior to joining the Bartlet campaign, something we first became aware of in What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part I.

• Charlie's plan to use his tax refund to buy a DVD player dovetails with Donna's plan to use her share of the federal budget surplus to buy a DVD player in Mr. Willis Of Ohio. Interestingly enough, Charlie's expected refund of $700 is also the exact same amount as Josh throws out as an example of Donna's individual share of the surplus in 1999.

• Charlie says to President Bartlet "I'm thinking about the plurality of Americans who made the decision to pull a lever that had your name next to it." We discovered in Let Bartlet Be Bartlet that the President was elected in 1998 with 48 percent of the popular vote - a plurality, not a majority - as there was apparently more than one other major candidate splitting the vote.

• Doug Wegland, whom we last saw in Ways And Means, is still involved with Bruno's campaign team as Josh mentions him in the discussion about removing Hoynes from the ticket.

• Toby saying "If the President wins reelection it will be on the Vice President's coattails" and having that leaked to the press (which led to him telling his staff "you're my guys") comes from the episode War Crimes. Toby says it was "five months ago," which would be November (since this is April, with Bartlet doing Charlie's taxes) and War Crimes did indeed air in early November. 

• We still don't get to see John Amos as Admiral Fitzwallace on screen (although his reappearance is coming), but we do get to see a photograph of him as the staffers talk about possible replacements for Hoynes on the ticket. We last saw Fitzwallace in-person in What Kind Of Day Has It Been.

• The notion of Leo as a Vice Presidential candidate will come up again, a few years down the road.

• It's an interesting contrast between Hoynes' willingness to take his name off the education bill and his crafty maneuvering to steal credit away from the President over the gun control bill in Five Votes Down. Of course, putting things together from what we learned in Season 2 and in Manchester, back in 1999 Hoynes believed Bartlet would step aside after only one term, giving Hoynes the opportunity to run for President in 2002 and thereby using that inside knowledge as leverage to force passage of the gun control bill. Now he's willing to lose any credit for his technology section of the education bill, just to get the bill passed and help
  American students without any outright political benefit. Playing another level of sixth-dimensional chess, though, in Five Votes Down Aaron Sorkin hadn't yet conceived the long-term arc of Bartlet's MS and his one-term promise ... Hoynes' plan to run in 2002 only makes sense in retrospect of the events of Season 2 and actually wouldn't have applied when Sorkin wrote Five Votes Down. Does all that make your brain hurt yet? 

• Hoynes' disbelief that the President doesn't know about his alcoholism and AA meetings doesn't fit with the fact that President Bartlet asked him, "Listen, you feel like having a beer with me?" during their tense Oval Office meeting in War Crimes. 

• The relationship between the President and Vice President that we see here is considerably different from what has been developed over the past 2 1/2 years. All the way back in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" we saw tension between the two; more examples arose in Five Votes Down and Enemies ("You shouldn't have made me beg, John"), The Stackhouse Filibuster and Manchester, and then the simmering hostility between the two we saw in War Crimes. Now, they're on almost friendly terms - a lot of that is Bartlet's new, happier point of view, but we also can see Hoynes is fully onboard with the 2002 campaign, knowing its success can only help his chances in 2006.
  
  

DC location shots    

• None. There's nothing outside of the White House in this episode.

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

• Sam went to a Washington Capitals hockey game. 

• Charlie is a fan of fictional British spy James Bond, or at least of the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (which he found on eBay). Bartlet also refers to The Yeoman Of The Guard, which is a Gilbert & Sullivan opera (we've seen Sorkin's appreciation of Gilbert & Sullivan multiple times before). When the President later says he's giving Charlie The Yeoman Of The Guard on CD (not DVD), that may be accurate if he means a musical recording of the opera (although the opera was produced as a TV movie in 1982).

• The aircraft carrier Truman is indeed a nuclear-powered ship.

• Jed jokingly invokes the fictional secret agent Mr. Moto when he harrasses Leo about his pager. Moto was a character in novels written by John P. Marquand between 1935 and 1957, and was portrayed by Peter Lorre in eight movies in the 1930s.

• The Revolutionary War general Pulaski and the proclamation of a day in his honor is brought up several times.

• Aaron Burr (and his duel with Alexander Hamilton) is mentioned by Josh. Other figures mentioned in the debate over the Vice Presidency include Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, and Lincoln. Hoynes brings up Daniel Webster as he talks with Sam.

• President Bartlet refers to the Lone Ranger's partner Tonto in this passage with Charlie:

President: "Charlie, I've been tapping my finger on the desk for about a minute now."

Charlie: "Sir?"

President: "The magic man thing works a lot better when you pick up on the signals, Tonto. What's that you say? There's a phone call for Donna?"

• Mrs. Morello's history as an English teacher brings us references to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and the (Old English, not Middle English) classic Beowulf.

• Products seen and mentioned: there's a quick glimpse of Sun Maid Raisins in Donna's office; 

We can see a bottle of Sierra Mist plus cans of Diet Pepsi and Coca-Cola on the table during the Roosevelt Room meeting:

Ed has a can of Canada Dry ginger ale:

If you've been reading my blog over the past few months, you know I've mentioned how Keeper Springs brand water seemed to be the "official" bottled water of Season 2, because those bottles were everywhere. Things must have changed here in Season 3, as this time it's Deer Park brand bottled water (while the actors try mightily to keep the label covered up, I got a good look here):

Josh calls out the corporate-supported Hoynes as "the Tostitos Vice President"; President Bartlet asks Charlie if a trip to Banana Republic to spend his rebate check would have killed him; Bartlet refers to the scope of the upcoming campaign as an Etch-A-Sketch that's yet to be shaken up. 

End credits freeze frame: Donna and the President talking on the phone with Mrs. Morello.