In Excelsis Deo

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From NBC:
As Christmas Eve approaches, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) eagerly sneaks out of the White House for some last-minute Christmas shopping, while a haunted Toby (Richard Schiff) learns more about a forgotten Korean War hero who died alone on the district's cold streets wearing a coat that Toby once donated to charity. In other hushed corridors, Sam (Rob Lowe) and Josh (Bradley Whitford) ignore Leo's (John Spencer) advice and consult Sam's call girl friend (Lisa Edelstein) concerning her confidential clientele when one political rival hints at exposing Leo's previous drug problem. C.J. (Allison Janney) wonders aloud about the President's public response to a notorious hate crime while her personal resolve weakens as persistent reporter, Danny (Timothy Busfield) continues to ask her out.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion:
Filled with miniature evergreen trees, poinsettias, and brilliant white lights, the White House is brimming with Christmas spirit. Famous guests are arriving in droves: José Feliciano is dropping by along with Sammy Sosa, and Al Roker has signed on to don a big red suit and be Santa.

Toby could care less about any of it. Even a call from the D.C. police isn’t going to spoil his holiday mood because he has shunned the idea of a holiday mood. He is summoned to go to the Mall to identify the body of Walter Hufnagle, who was carrying Toby’s business card in his pocket when he was found near-frozen on a bench. Toby doesn’t know the deceased, but he recognizes Hufnagle’s coat as one he’d recently donated to Goodwill. The body bears a tattoo of a marine battalion – the Second of the Seventh. (The Second Battalion of the Seventh Marines was activated January 1, 1941, at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and saw extensive action in the Pacific. It was reactivated August 17, 1950, at Camp Pendleton, California, and assigned to the First Marine Division, the Fleet Marine Force. In September 1950, it was deployed to Korea, where it remained until 1953. It participated in action at Inchon, the Chosin Reservoir, and the East Central and Western Fronts. The Second of the Seventh also saw action in the war in Vietnam and Desert Storm.) Hufnagle was a veteran of the Korean War, but as a homeless man, his body’s not a priority to the D.C. police.

In the Christmas spirit of giving, Donna gives Josh a list of Christmas suggestions: “Ski pants, ski boots, a ski hat, ski goggles, ski gloves, ski poles . . . I’m assuming you already have skis?” Donna shakes her head and tells him to flip to page two of the list.

Margaret is making Leo sign Christmas cards, and he’s complying with the enthusiasm of preparing to have a tooth filled. Welcoming any distractions, Leo takes a briefing from Josh. He reports that Lillienfield is waiting until after Christmas to move on the drug accusation and suggests a pre-empt. Moving on, Josh alludes to the rumours of Sam’s evolving friendship with Laurie, and suggests he talk to her. Leo is emphatic “No. We don’t do these things.” Leo mentions a gay high school senior in Minnesota who’s in critical condition after a gang of thirteen-year-olds stripped him, tied him to a tree, and pelted him with rocks. With a sigh, Leo says they’ll have to revisit hate crimes legislation. C.J. can send up a test balloon at a briefing to gauge reaction before the administration gets in too deep.

Donna’s heard through the grapevine that something’s going on with Leo. She encourages Josh to help him somehow, just as Leo would do if he was in trouble. Josh doesn’t need convincing – he still has pre-emptive strikes against Lillienfield on the brain. Meanwhile, Toby is on the phone trying to find out more information about Hufnagle. He’s missing a few of the puzzle pieces – all he knows is that Hufnagle is a homeless Korean War vet who died of exposure on the Mall. In a moment of compassion, Toby’s asking whether the man’s family has been notified, whether any funeral arrangements have been made.

President Bartlet is in his element as he meets a group of school kids in the lobby. He’s good-naturedly joking around with them when Charlie pulls him aside. The gay student in Minnesota, Lowell Lydell, has died. Afraid of diving in too deep, Sam asks C.J. to keep her foot off the gas on hate crimes.

Abruptly, C.J. asks Sam what his Secret Service codename is. He says it’s “Princeton.”

C.J.: Mine’s “flamingo.”
SAM: That’s nice.
C.J.: It’s not nice.
SAM: A flamingo’s a nice-lookin’ bird.
C.J.: A flamingo’s a ridiculous-looking bird.
SAM: You’re not ridiculous looking.
C.J.: I know I’m not ridiculous looking.
SAM: Any way for me to get out of this conversation?

From the way he creeps into Sam’s office and closes the door, it’s clear Josh is scheming. Josh wants to know if Laurie would release the names of any Republicans she may have come across in a professional capacity. Sam is hesitant to drag his friend down, but when he learns that Lillienfield is threatening to expose Leo, he relents and offers to call Laurie. “We owe Leo everything,” Josh pleads.

Charlie has noticed that Mrs. Landingham seemed a little depressed in the face of cheer. She explains she gets that way on the holidays because she misses her twin boys, Andrew and Simon. Candidly open about her private life beyond the White House, she tells Charlie that they did everything together. They went to medical school together and got drafted at the same time. They wouldn’t defer to finish school, though she and their father begged them to. Mrs. Landingham says they went to Vietnam as paramedics and four months later they were killed at Da Nang together, Christmas Eve, 1970.

MRS. LANDINGHAM: You know, they were so young, Charlie, they were your age. It’s hard when it happens so far away, you know, because with all the noise and the shooting, they had to be very scared. And it’s hard not to think that right then they needed their mother. (pause) I miss my boys.

The Christmas spirit is contagious, and the President wants to do some Christmas shopping at a rare-book store. Mandy enthusiastically seconds the motion, seeing it as a good press opportunity, but the President is more concerned with having fun. He asks if Josh wants to join them, and knowing the argument is futile, he jokes “An hour with you in a rare-book store? Couldn’t you just drop me from the top of the Washington Monument instead?”

After the Secret Service seals off the tiny bookshop, Bartlet wanders around like a child in a candy store. He lovingly handles a copy of The Fables of Phaedrus from 1886. It’s a first-edition red leather label with gilt leathering and an engraved frontis. Josh warily eyes a book titled The Adventures of James Capen Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California, and announces he’d eat it before he’d read it. Oblivious to Josh’s pain, Bartlet is trying to persuade Leo to come to Manchester for Christmas to spend it with family and friends. Leo declines; with Lillienfield hanging over his head, he’s going to have to think about an “exit strategy.” Bartlet assures him it will be fine.

Toby can’t shake the vision of Walter Hufnagle’s body on a bench at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. He gets directions to a homeless shelter and finds Hufnagle’s brother, George. Toby explains that his brother Walter has died, and because he received a Purple Heart in Korea for his valour, he’s entitled to a proper military funeral and burial. Toby offers to arrange the service and asks George if he’ll be in the same place the next morning, Christmas Day.

Danny Concannon proves to be a persistent Casanova. He’s made a list of reasons C.J. should go out with him. C.J. rebukes his efforts with a catalogue of why she shouldn’t. He presents her with a Christmas present: food for her goldfish.

Leo reminds C.J. to dial down the rhetoric on hate crimes, but C.J. can’t help thinking of Lowell Lydell and his last moments before death. “They made him say Hail Marys as they beat him to death.” Although he’s sympathetic to the family, Leo’s not sure it’s right to legislate how citizens should think. C.J. disagrees but respects her boss, and instead offers to cook for Leo at Christmas. This year he’d rather be alone.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion (cont.):
Laurie opens her font door, fresh from the shower, to find Josh and Sam with slightly pained expressions on their faces. Laurie says she doesn’t have a lot of time. Sam circles around his point but Laurie cuts to the chase. They want to know if she’ll give them the names of her Republican clients who like it “kinky”. Sam tries to explain their collegue is in trouble and they need some firepower . . . . . He trails off. Laurie’s ire is palpable.

JOSH: I couldn’t be any less interested in your indignation right now. A man has left himself open to the kind of attack from which men in my business do not recover. If our tactics are less than civilized, it’s ‘cause so are our attackers. In any event, I don’t feel like standing here taking civics lessons from a hooker, Laurie!
SAM: Josh –
LAURIE: Well, I’ll give you a name, hop in the shower, and you can leave the money on the nightstand, how ‘bout that.
SAM: He didn’t mean –
LAURIE: Yes, he did.
JOSH: (pause) No . . . I didn’t . . . as a matter of fact. I’m sorry. (beat) That was . . . very rude. I’m sorry.
SAM: (beat) Laurie, we wouldn’t have asked except this person means a lot to us.
LAURIE: You’re the good guys. You should act like it.

The hate crimes debate rages on between Leo and C.J., but Leo has a more immediate problem: Sam and Josh. He had them tailed, and resents their degrading methods of problem solving.

JOSH: (pause) We meant well, Leo.
LEO: Is that supposed to mean something to me?
JOSH: No.
LEO: It does.

Danny hops on board the hate crimes debate and he too is on the opposite side as C.J. No murder is better or worse than another, and punishing people for their beliefs is the beginning of the end. C.J. offers him a chance to convince her of his viewpoint, perhaps over dinner. He’s not sure he heard her right – is she asking him out? C.J. says, “I didn’t ask you out, you asked me out forty-nine times, and I’m saying yes to one of them.” But she warns him it’s just dinner, not a fling.

Josh didn’t heed Donna’s Christmas wish list, but he bought her an antique book on skiing. He wrote an inscription that moves her to the edge of tears. Toby is summoned before the President. He reprimands Toby for arranging an honour guard for Hufnagle in the President’s name. Toby doesn’t back down – he tells Bartlet it took an hour and twenty minutes for an ambulance to pick up the body. The guy got better treatment in Panmunjom.

TOBY: He went forth in a war ‘cause that’s what he was asked to do. Our veterans are treated badly. And that’s something history’ll never forgive us for.
BARTLET: (pause) Toby, if we start pulling strings like this, don’t you think every homeless veteran’s gonna come out of the woodwork?
TOBY: I can only hope, sir.

Toby arrives at Arlington National Cemetery, flanked by George Hufnagle and Mrs. Landingham, who asked to join them. At the graveside, the rifle team gives the salute. Six marines fold the flag and hand it to George Hufnagle.