Walking And Talking And Yelling At Clouds: Full Disclosure

Original airdate: February 25, 2004

Written by: Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (10)

Directed by: Lesli Linka Glatter (4)

Synopsis

Toby's stuck in a meeting with union officials upset about Chinese bras, Josh is stuck in a meeting with the military base closing commission, and the mayor of DC wants the President to approve a private school voucher program - but mostly the White House is fired up in response to John Hoynes' return with a tell-all article and book. That all ends up overshadowed by a giant secret CJ has kept from us for ten years.

"You don't have to apologize to me."

"I don't have anyone else I can apologize to."

CJ did what, now?

There's lots going on in this episode - trade disputes with China possibly leading to unions going on strike, the President "switching parties" to sign a bill setting up a public school voucher program in DC, jockeying over what military bases to close, Ben the park ranger still calling, and of course the looming prospect of John Hoynes trashing the administration to set up his own presidential run - but all I can take out of this episode is the bombshell CJ drops at the end. We get some signals throughout: the uneasy gulp of water CJ takes live on the air when she first hears Hoynes is doing a tell-all interview,

and all those glances between her and Toby, carrying hidden meanings we can't fathom until we get to the end of the day. It's a neat bit of foreshadowing (and a neat bit of illustrating the deep friendship between CJ and Toby) but in no way does it prepare us for discovering CJ slept with Hoynes ten years ago.

Honestly, this says more about Hoynes than it does about CJ. We've kind of picked up on the fact that Hoynes was a horndog unfaithful to his wife (an affair with a DC socialite to whom he whispered classified secrets was the reason he resigned the Vice Presidency in Life On Mars), and the notion he sweet-talked our CJ into coming up to his hotel room back in the day helps solidify that. CJ lays that part of Hoynes' life even more bare with her promise to expose the truth if he does run for President and tries to attack the women he'd dallied with before.

CJ: "When you run for President, the press is going to find some of those women. And if you try to attack them, if you get your opposition research team working on them, if you try to destroy them, if you try to say they're all bimbos and liars, then I'll be standing right there with them and I'll be ready to take anything you or your people throw at me, anything. So don't make me tell the truth about you because it will be the whole truth."

But still, CJ? A one-night stand with a married Senator? And this was never touched on, never even hinted at before? Of course this is brand-new information cooked up by a post-Aaron Sorkin writing staff designed to fit in with John Wells' more personal-drama-soap-opera-y style of show, but still ... Lawrence O'Donnell, what were you thinking?

I do appreciate the regret CJ shows for the whole affair, which says a lot about her character ("I knew he was married. I knew it. I always thought women who did that ...") and I do get why she would be reticent to bring it up (apparently only sharing that with Toby, which makes sense). But still, looking back, there are a few places where we should have seen something from CJ in her dealings with Hoynes. Oh, well ... the writers know you can't get in a time machine and go back to add things to episodes that weren't there.

Enough about that. The big story is that Hoynes is setting up a redemption tour, with a tell-all article to lay out his side of the story about his resignation and how the White House was trying to influence the whole affair.

Rumors abound about what's in the article, but nobody can get their hands on an advance copy. CJ convinces the reporter on the article, Greg Brock, to come in and discuss it (even though as a new guy on the White House beat, just in from Paris, as CJ says "he doesn't owe me a thing"). Brock is steadfast; nobody gets an advance copy, especially subjects of the article.

Brock: "Sorry. I never give subjects of an article sneak peeks."

CJ: "But I'm not a subject of the piece. (pause) Am I?"

Aha! Another clue for us, that makes very little sense yet! Brock also lets CJ in on the news that not only is Hoynes releasing this tell-all article, he's in the process of writing a book. That solidifies CJ's belief that this entire effort is the first step in a Hoynes comeback and another try at the Presidency.

Brock, though, is a savvy guy, and he knows a little favor for CJ can get him access/exclusives down the road. He drops some stuff on the floor as he gets ready to exit, and conveniently fails to pick up a certain computer disk.

Of course the article is on that disk, and of course CJ quickly whips out copies for the President and the senior staff to read, so they can review Hoynes' claims and give her what she needs to rebut the inevitable questions from the press. Which leads us to the gripping scenes of these guys ... reading:

The President and Leo refute some of Hoyne's claims in the article, and also inspire the staff to draw up a huge list of all the "private, on-the-job screw ups" Hoynes made as Vice President (it's apparently over 20 pages long, according to Carol):

Carol: "The first ten pages are legislative achievements."

CJ: "You mean the ones Hoynes almost screwed up?"

Carol: "Right. And the next section is the bills he really did screw up, and the last twelve pages have all the diplomatic stuff."

(This memo leads Toby to ask CJ to promise him that she'll "never let them make a list of my screw-ups. They wouldn't have enough paper.")

CJ deals with Hoynes personally, taking the memo to his office and laying down the law to him over all the women in his past. It seems to be an effective approach to make Hoynes aware he can't dismiss his extramarital affairs by denigrating the women should he actually run for President again.

There is some other stuff happening. Toby tries to calm down union representatives furious over China taking advantage by flooding the American market with cheaply made bras. That plotline serves mainly to showcase Ed, Larry, and Rena, as well as all the official portraits sitting in a White House storage room.

Josh is wrapped up in a meeting with the military base closing commission, which as far as he is concerned is going to do what it's going to do, with or without him. Ryan inserts himself into the discussion, and when he sees the head of the commission isn't willing to buck a powerful congressman whose district houses a base that ought to be closed, he goes behind Josh's back and makes a call.

On the surface this appears to be a disaster, as Rep. Chris Finn storms into the meeting to defend the base in his district. Josh has had it with Ryan's shenanigans, pulling him out of the meeting to fire him. But this has all been a ploy by Ryan - knowing the commission would never dare close the base in Finn's district anyway, he could pretend to take the fall for bringing up the idea, and Josh gets all the credit for getting angry at Ryan and defending Finn's base.

It's a pretty good plan. Ryan actually has some pretty good political instincts, and it's downright funny to see Josh's confusion as Ryan plays out the scene of his dressing-down through the Roosevelt Room door:

"You want me to look like I'm crying? I can do that. I can look like I'm crying."

Meanwhile Congress (being in control of the budget of the city of DC, since it's not a state) has passed an emergency bill to pay for snow removal - but Republicans have attached a pilot program for school vouchers that directs taxpayer money to help students attend private schools. Democrats have always fought back against this "defunding" of public school budgets in favor of private schools (an issue going on currently right here in my state of Iowa), and President Bartlet asks the mayor of DC to come in so he can explain why he's going to veto the bill.

Turns out, the mayor wants the money. Public schools are struggling in DC, and the mayor thinks maybe it's time to try a different strategy and at least give some desperate students a chance to learn in an environment not suffocated by crime, metal detectors, and shootings. It ends up falling on Charlie to help convince the President to go along with the mayor. President Bartlet brings Charlie into the meeting thinking that Charlie's will be on his side, being the (successful) product of the public school system, but:

President: "Tell us where you went to high school."

Charlie: "Roosevelt."

President: "A public school."

Charlie: "Yes, sir."

Mayor: "Where'd you want to go, Charlie?"

Charlie: "Gonzaga. A parochial school, near Union Station."

Mayor: "Why?"

Charlie: "There's never been a shooting there. They don't even have metal detectors. Almost everyone goes to college."

Mayor: "Couldn't afford it?"

Charlie: "Couldn't come close to affording it."

When the President sees that even Charlie would have jumped at the chance to get some extra funds to go to a private school, he relents on the bill ("you plan on telling me that anytime soon?" he asks Charlie about his support for a voucher plan). Which leads to this little tidbit after CJ returns from her tense visit to Hoynes:

CJ: "What do I need to catch up on?"

Toby: "President signed school voucher bill for DC."

CJ: "Are you kidding? I leave the building for an hour and he switches parties?"

(This is similar to the tax-credit-for-stay-at-home-moms storyline from An Khe, as John Wells and the showrunners continue to fight the implication that The West Wing is a left-leaning, Democratic-supporting TV show. In the battle to please more viewers and appear more "fair" and even-handed politically, they've started to bring up some conservative policies and programs in a favorable light, even having the Bartlet administration go along with them.)

But despite the busyness of the storylines, despite the earnestness of Ed and Larry, despite the President going along with a bill loathed by most of his party, even despite the return of Hoynes and his self-centered redemption tour - we are left with the thought of CJ and her momentary lapse of self-control that night ten years ago, and what that means for her, for Hoynes, and why there was never an inkling of anything about this over the past five seasons.

It's nice to end the episode with her finally picking up the phone and calling Ben, though.

Tales Of Interest!

- CJ's bombshell about her fling with Hoynes comes completely out of the blue. In all the time we've seen these characters over the past five years, that little tidbit would never have come up? Not when Hoynes had to resign over an affair with a socialite in Life On Mars? Not in connection with Josh, who used to work for Hoynes, during the fallout from that resignation? Not when CJ and Hoynes sparred in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc"?

- We also hear this happened ten years ago, which would have been about 1994. Could CJ and Hoynes meeting then have made sense? After all, in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II we saw CJ was working for a Hollywood marketing/PR firm in late 1997/early 1998. Well, there could have been a connection: Hoynes was in the Senate in 1994 (we learned in 20 Hours In L.A. that he served 8 years as Senator before becoming Vice President, so he was first elected in 1990) and we also found out in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen that CJ had previously worked for various Democratic/women's fundraising groups like EMILY's List, so actually they could have met at a party fundraising function somewhere in there.

- But yeah, this is nothing but a wild made-up curveball created by the post-Sorkin writing team out of thin air. Another reason why Season 5 is a bit of a bumpy ride.

- On the other hand, I do like how this plotline shines more light on the Toby/CJ relationship. They've always been close - Toby just drops by CJ's office to hang out all the time, they exchange flirty banter, Toby was the guy who brought CJ into the Bartlet campaign in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II. Figuring out that Toby is the only person CJ apparently told about her one-night fling with Hoynes says a lot about how deep their friendship is. They're exchanging meaningful looks all through this episode, like the meeting in the Oval Office:

And their final talk in CJ's office, before she lets the viewer in on her secret, where Toby offers a reassuring, comforting touch on her shoulder before he leaves:

And of course, the final bit of dialogue where CJ tells Toby she doesn't have anyone else to apologize to. I like the relationship between these two.

- The 20-something page list of Hoynes' failures as Vice President include a mess he made with Mexico on immigration, tipping the administration's hand on an energy bill, losing the entire New York delegation on a transportation bill, and offending seven South American heads of state on a five-day trip. During the series we saw none of those things: we did see tension between Bartlet and Hoynes due to the Vice President's lukewarm support of "A3C3" in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" and remarks that this was "the third time in five weeks" Hoynes had done something unsupportive; Hoynes taking credit away from the White House for passing a gun-control bill in Five Votes Down; his rather petulant reluctance to cast the tiebreaking vote on ethanol tax credits (which the President eventually decides to back off from) in 20 Hours In L.A., and of course his early campaigning effort before the 2002 election that helped expose President Bartlet's MS secret in The Stackhouse Filibuster and 17 People.

- The storage room where Toby meets with the union bosses has several recognizable paintings stashed in there. Here's the famous painting of a reflective John F. Kennedy back behind some shelves. It's actually JFK's official White House portrait, commissioned by Jackie Kennedy in 1970 and painted by Aaron Shikler, and currently hanging in the Entrance Room of the White House:

(I think it's a bit odd that a Catholic President like Jed Bartlet wouldn't have made sure to have Kennedy's portrait out on display in his White House, but whatever ...)

- There's also this portrait of First Lady Grace Coolidge, painted in 1924 by Howard Chanler Christy and currently hanging in the China Room (which is decorated in a shade of red to match Coolidge's dress):

- And then this official White House portrait of President William Howard Taft, painted in 1912 by Anders Leonard Zorn.

- There are some shenanigans with Gail's fishbowl in this episode. When CJ first returns to her office after appearing on Taylor Reid's show, the fishbowl is nowhere to be seen:

But later, when Greg Brock shows up, there's Gail:

(It looks like there's a traditional-looking little red schoolhouse in there, which would apply to the DC school vouchers storyline.)

- Why'd They Come Up With Full Disclosure?

Hoynes says he's going to call his book Full Disclosure, a way to emphasize the fact he's trying to come clean about his past and restore his reputation. It's also a theme for CJ's story, in that we viewers are finally learning about this Hoynes-CJ fling.

Quotes

Will: "Look, Hoynes is obviously trying to rewrite history to make himself morally superior to the President."
Toby: "Right, this from an adulterer, who --"
Will: "Who lied about sex. Everyone lies about sex. That's how his people are going to spin it."
-----
Will: "The Vice President would like to urge you not to close any base in any state with more than one electoral vote."
Josh: "No problem."
-----
Toby: "I need Ed and Larry for a thing about bras."
Josh: "You sure they're the guys for that?"
Toby: "Chinese bras."
Josh: "Oh, well, they're the experts."
-----
Charlie: "CJ?"
CJ: "Yeah?"
Charlie: "Don't go on TV with Taylor Reid again unless you're going to tell him what an idiotic, shallow, uninformed, lying punk he is."
CJ: "I think he knows that."
-----
CJ: "There is no night of my life I regret more than that one."
Toby: "You don't have to explain it."
CJ: "I wish I could, but I can't explain it. I knew he was married. I knew it. I always thought women who did that ... If I could take back one moment of my life, it would be getting on that elevator. I'm sorry."
Toby: "You don't have to apologize to me."
CJ: "I don't have anyone else I can apologize to."

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

* The labor union guy who appears to be leading his part of the meeting with Toby is played by Ron Dean, who's played a lot of cops and tough guy characters (The Fugitive, The Dark Knight, NYPD Blue, Early Edition).

* One of the other labor union guys in Toby's meeting is played by Michael Mantell, who you know you've seen somewhere (A Mighty Wind, The Ides Of March, lots of TV appearances including the series State Of Grace).

* General Stanley of the base-closing commission is played by recognizable face Kenneth Kimmins (Coach, Network, Arrested Development).

* It's the first appearance of reporter Greg Brock, who will be a recurring character (especially in Season 7). He's played by Sam Robards (Spin City, Gossip Girl, American Beauty), and is the son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall.

* Good old regular White House reporter Mark gets a shot during CJ's briefing (Timothy Davis-Reed is actually a holdover from the cast of Sorkin's earlier Sports Night series).

* Representative Chris Finn gets involved in the base-closing commission meeting, thanks to Ryan's plotting - he's played by Frank Ashmore (several different daytime dramas, including two completely different characters 24 years apart on Days Of Our Lives, Airplane, V, Arrested Development).

* The mayor of DC is played by James Pickens Jr., who's been seen in plenty of things (Roseanne/The Conners, 42, The Practice) but best known for his role as Dr. Richard Webber in Grey's Anatomy.

* Speaking of Ryan, he's back, as well as Rena, who is once again expertly assisting Toby (I miss Ginger, though). Ryan's unauthorized phone call to Rep. Finn reminds us of his backchannel phone call to Rep. Theile during the confirmation vote for Vice President Russell in Han.

* Ed and Larry get some screen time, in both the base closing commission meeting and the labor union meeting.

* The Hoynes/affair/resignation story from Life On Mars is the main backstory to this episode, as well as mention of Josh's work on Hoynes' staff when he was Senator.

* Hoynes' assistant at the law firm, who ushers CJ into Hoynes' office, is the same person who was on his staff and delivered his letter of resignation to the Oval Office that rainy day in Life On Mars. A neat bit of continuity, the kind of thing I appreciate. That's Mandy Freund, by the way, playing the character Claire Huddle - she most recently has been working in an off-screen role for Pixar Studios on movies like Toy Story 4, Inside Out, and Coco.

* And the return of John Hoynes (Tim Matheson), whom we haven't seen since he resigned, but as a politician he's not yet going away.

* Donna says, "You should have seen my hometown when the Army pulled out." It's been established Donna, while born near Warroad, Minnesota, considers her hometown to be Madison, Wisconsin (Dead Irish Writers); while there's an Air National Guard unit based in Madison, the Army has never had a base there.

* I mention above the illustrations of how close CJ and Toby are with all the meaningful looks between the two. I think that relationship is nicely shown throughout the series. Of course in this episode we find out Toby is the only person CJ trusted enough to share her Hoynes secret.

* President Bartlet wants to use Charlie's upbringing and public-school background to fight against the school voucher program. We've known about Charlie's background since his debut in A Proportional Response, where we discovered Charlie's police-officer mom was killed in the line of duty and Charlie was left to raise his sister alone.

* Phone calls from Ben, CJ's former college boyfriend, have been ongoing since Constituency Of One, and he actually stopped by to talk with Carol in An Khe. He and CJ haven't actually connected to talk until this episode, though.

DC location shots

* None.

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

* "Drudge" (Matt Drudge) and his website get a shoutout at the beginning of the episode. The Drudge Report is still around, but doesn't hold the scoop/reporting power it had in the late 1990s and through the 2000s.

* Other media organizations mentioned in the episode include ESPN, Time, Newsweek, Meet The Press and Russert (host Tim Russert), a fleeting view of the MSNBC logo, and onscreen looks at C-SPAN and CNN.

* Actual military bases mentioned in the base-closing meeting include the Army base Fort Drum (yes, in upstate New York, but still in operation), Point Mugu Naval Air Station (which had actually merged with a Construction Battalion unit in 2000 to form Naval Base Ventura County), and the Twentynine Palms Marine base.

* There are references to Walmart and the Kennedy Center (where the series actually filmed part of the episode Galileo).

* Charlie says he went to Roosevelt High School, but wishes he could have afforded to have gone to the parochial school Gonzaga instead. Gonzaga College High School is indeed a Jesuit prep school near Union Station, as Charlie says.

* Josh bad-mouths the band Radiohead ("Because reviewing a cost-benefit analysis for every military base in the country is as mind-numbing as a Radiohead concert") and brings up Oprah Winfrey's show as a stop for Hoynes' redemption tour ("He's going to make the book the final word on the scandal, hold his wife's hand on Oprah, and catch the next flight to Iowa.")