A Proportional Response

[Admin]

From NBC:
Still seething over the downing of an fully loaded American jet in the Mideast, a vengeful President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) overrules the joint chiefs' plan for a "proportional" military strike and demands a more severe attack that would result in thousands of enemy and civilian casualties. While Leo (John Spencer) and other advisers try to cool off the Commander-in-Chief, Press Secretary C.J. (Allison Janney) scolds a wayward Sam (Rob Lowe) over his potentially explosive private crusade to rescue a well-known call girl from her profession. Feeling overlooked during the hubbub surrounding the military options, Josh (Bradley Whitford) interviews a shy African-American teen, Charlie Young (Dulé Hill) as a potential personal aide to the President.

[Joey Lucas]

From Warner Bros:

After finding out about Sam and his call girl, C.J. is furious that Sam didn't tell her but informed Josh and Toby. She doesn't like being denied information that she believes could negatively affect the President and reminds Sam that they are all held to a higher standard. But Sam hasn't done anything immoral or illegal and insists he has the right to remain friends with Laurie. Later, a reporter tells C.J. he knows about Sam's relationship with a call girl and C.J. manages to talk the reporter out of pursuing the story. In exchange, she gives him a head start on an important story. According to Toby, in response to Dr. Tolliver's untimely death, President Bartlet is short-tempered with everyone, including the First Lady. The joint chiefs of staff work on the response scenario to the transport plane terrorism. Bartlet admits to Leo he takes this personally. Bartlet dislikes the proposed plan to simply destroy military targets--transmitters--in retaliation for American deaths. He insists the chiefs create a far more disastrous plan, and they comply. But ultimately the President opts for the original plan. Sam, Toby and C.J. write the speech President Bartlet will deliver to inform the American people. Josh interviews 20-year-old Charles (Charlie) Young for a job. Charlie originally applied for a position as messenger, but Josh gives him the job as Personal Aide to the President. Charlie's mother was killed in the line of duty five months ago as a Washington, D.C. police officer, and now the young man foregoes college in order to raise his younger sister. Since President Bartlet remains in a foul mood, he is unfriendly towards the intimidated young man. But later, the President personally asks Charlie to be his aide and Charlie accepts.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion:

Josh barely steps into the West Wing lobby when he’s intercepted by Donna. The sun wouldn’t rise over the White House without some news crisis looming up during the night, and this time, Donna tells Josh C.J.’s looking for him. Is it possible there’s a situation with Sam and a woman and C.J.’s not being let in the loop? Once the penny’s dropped, Donna asks Josh if he’s going to go hide in his office. No, Josh says, he’s going to go to his office and devise a strategy. “But if C.J. calls,” he adds, “I’m at the dentist.” He heads for asylum behind him office door, and C.J. stares at him from behind his desk. “Wow, are you stupid,” she retorts.

C.J. wants the details about Sam and Laurie and knows Josh is her man. Josh immediately jumps to Sam’s defence, arguing that he didn’t do anything illegal or immoral or unethical or suspect, and C.J.’s overacting. “As women are prone to do,” C.J. says.

JOSH: You know what C.J., I really think I’m the best judge of what I mean, you paranoid Berkeley shiksa feminista. (beat) Whoa, way too far.
C.J.: No, no. (beat) Well, I’ve got a staff meeting to go to and so do you, you elitist Harvard fascist missed-the-dean’s-list-two-semesters-in-a-row Yankee jackass.

The discussion’s not over. C.J. catches up with Sam later. And she gives him the bottom line about his relationship with Laurie; if she figured it out, others can. Sam thinks it’s possible that through him Laurie might start living life inbounds. C.J. doesn’t want to hear about Sam’s plans for reformation, she just cares what the relationship looks like to the public, and it doesn’t look good. Sam’s climbed on his high horse: he wants them to be good, not just look good. He resents the hell out of this conversation. C.J. takes the conversation away from the moral high ground – she should be his first call. Not Josh. Not Toby. It’s part of her job to protect Sam and the President.

C.J.: What this is about Sam, is that you’re a high-profile, very visible, much noticed member –
SAM: You just said three things that all mean the same thing.
C.J.: You won’t let this out’a your teeth.
SAM: Can I go now C.J.? ‘Cause what I think this is about is you, once again, letting the family values cops win in a forfeit, because you don’t have the strength or the guts or the courage to say, “We know right from wrong and this is none of your damn business.”
C.J.: Really.
SAM: Yes.
C.J. Strength, guts, or courage.
SAM: Yes.
C.J.: You just said three things that all mean the same thing.

With mixed emotions, having lost a close friend and a member of his military, the President has to decide how to respond to the attack on the air force transport. He’s barking orders at the military and scaring Fitzwallace with his talk about blowing up half of Syria. His nerves are taut, and he’s snapping at the First Lady, which everyone knows is a bad sign. He’s tired of waiting to do something. Cashman and Berryhill are dragging their feet and it’s been three days since they blew him out of the sky. Leo advises the President to widen his scope of reference in public to include all the citizens lost in the explosion, not just Tolliver.

In this atmosphere, Toby takes any threat about the President very seriously. When Sam reports that Congressman Bertram Coles said on the radio from Cromwell Air Force Base that Bartlet’s weak on defence and he might not get out alive if he visited down there, Toby takes the congressman at his word. Joking or not, it sounds like treason to Toby, and he wants to bring Coles to the White House for questioning. Leo says you can’t have people arrested for being meant to the President, but Toby’s not satisfied.

A little while later, Toby walks in the direction of some reporters and inevitably he’s pressed for detail about Coles’s comment. Acting as though he’s afraid to divulge too much, he says, “The Secret Service investigates all threats made against the President but the White House can’t comment on such investigations.” As he walks away, perhaps a slight smile creeps across his face.

In the Situation Room the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Percy Fitzwallace (John Amos) has prepared three scenarios for the President for retaliatory action against Syria. Fitzwallace is calm and powerful and demands attention. As he discusses the obligations of a proportional response, Bartlet stops him and asks what the virtue of a proportional response is. There’s an awkward silence; this is not a regular question on military strategy or briefing. Bartlet traces the development of a proportional response; they hit an airplane, we hit a transmitter, right? But the entire scenario is choreographed like an elaborate war dance and the targets are evacuated, so what’s the point? Fitzwallace knows it isn’t virtuous, it’s just all there is. Bartlet demands to hear a different scenario in sixty minutes. He wants a disproportional response, one that will bring “total disaster.”

Meanwhile, Charlie Young (Dulé Hill), a very nervous young man who seems to feel out of place, is sitting in the Roosevelt Room trying hard not to be noticed. Josh doesn’t give Charlie even a moment to be awestruck as he explains that he’s vetting him for the job of President Bartlet’s personal aide. It’s a tough assignment with twenty-hour days, a lot of wait and hurry up, and it all involves some very important people. Charlie’s confused because he applied for a job as a White House messenger, but Josh explain a woman in Personnel saw something special in Charlie and sent him over. They get so many qualified candidates for the job that they just go on gut. As he gets more comfortable in his surroundings, Charlie tells Josh he’s not a college because he’s looking after his little sister, Deanna. Their mother, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty five months before.

With evident reluctance, Fitzwallace presents Bartlet with a disproportional response scenario: the destruction of Hassan Airport. Fitzwallace says it’s a staggering overreaction. “Five-thousand dollars’ worth of punishment for a fifty-buck crime,” he says. As the scene plays forth in his mind, the President asks for a cigarette. Someone slides him a pack; he takes one, lights it, and considers. He knows they can’t hit the airport, so he gives the go-ahead to “Pericles-1.” They’ll hit two munitions dumps, an abandoned bridge, and the Syrian intelligence headquarters. “Fifty-buck crime,” he mutters. “I honestly don’t know what we’re doing here.”

Josh sits across from Charlie, accosting him with a slew of background questions. Sam comes into the room to hear Josh ask Charlie about his social life. Sam protests; all they need to know is if he’ll come in early, stay late, and work efficiently and discreetly. Josh keeps at his line of questioning, asking about Charlie’s friends. Sam interrupts to tell Charlie that Josh is asking if he’s gay. Josh slams on the brakes and asks to see Sam outside. Sam’s indigent that people are judging him. Toby interrupts their verbal war to tell them: it’s happening: Bartlet’s first military action.

Josh is duly impressed with Charlie, and reports his findings to Leo. His only hang-up in immediately hiring Charlie is that he’s not wild about the visual of a young black man holding doors open for the President. Leo says he holds the door open for the President – they just need the right guy. Fitzwallace interrupts to ask Leo to sit down with the commander in chief.

FITZWALLACE: Tell him it’s always like this the first time. Tell him he’s doing fine.
LEO: He’s not doing fine.
FITZWALLACE: Yeah he is. Kennedy once said, after he got to the White House, that the thing that made him sad was that he realized he was never gonna make a new friend. That’s why presidents hang on to their old ones. You’ll know what to say.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion (cont.):

Leo shares Josh’s concern about Charlie with Fitzwallace, but the chairman isn’t worried. If Charlie’s going to be treated with respect and paid a decent wage, then what does he care about appearances?

Words quickly become actions in the political arena, and Fitzwallace has ordered air strikes. The world hasn’t been told yet, but reporters are intuitive and are wondering why there’s so much action in the West Wing. One reporter Danny Concannon (Timothy Busfield), explains that he urgently needs to speak with C.J. She thinks it’s about the bombing but Danny’s been a White House reporter for seven years and he doesn’t need military action spelled out for him. No, Danny knows something else, that “Sam is going around with a three-thousand-dollar-a-night call girl.” He doesn’t have enough of a story yet but he’s going to ask around. Much to her own surprise, C.J. stands up for Sam, arguing that the White House doesn’t get to judge Sam’s friends and Danny’s readers don’t either. She asks Danny to back off. Danny agrees to drop it but that if he found out, other people will, too. And those people will put it in their pocket for later. In return for his discretion, C.J. gives Danny a ten-minute head start on the air raid.

The President is about to go on television from the Oval Office to tell the nation about the attack on Syria. In the chaos of planning and ordering the air strike, Bartlet has lost his glasses; he’s been looking for them all day. Meanwhile, Josh has been giving Charlie a tour of the White House and they stumble into the Oval Office as Bartlet is ranting. Charlie, quietly observant of everything around him, nervously suggests where his glasses might be. Bartlet’s too preoccupied to thank him. Leo sees how the scene is unfolding and asks the President to step into his office. Without stopping to consider he’s addressing the leader of the free world, Leo lectures Bartlet on being mad at people.

Bartlet confesses that what’s eating him is his complete inability to protect American citizens. Where’s the retribution? What the hell are they doing? Proportional response doesn’t work: look at the marines in Beirut, in Somalia. Bartlet is fixated on reacting more fiercely, on going in hard, but Leo slaps him down. America’s the only superpower left, so the President can conquer the world if he wants, but he’d better be prepared to kill everyone if he does, and he can start with Leo. American military responses are compromised, says Leo. “Of course it’s no good. There is no good! It’s what there is!” Bartlet says they’ll just rebuild what we attack. “Then we’ll blow ‘em up again in six months!” says Leo. “We’re getting really good at it.” The two men stare at each other and after a quick moment, Bartlet laughs. Leo joins him slightly. They’ve diffused the tension, knowing their futility in the situation.

Just before Bartlet goes on the air, Leo briefs him about the other issues circulating the West Wing, namely, Bert Coles and Charlie Young. With his glasses safely back in him possession, Bartlet takes Charlie aside. The President just had FBI director give him the details of Charlie’s mother’s death, and knows she was killed with “cop killer” bullets. Bartlet says they haven’t had a lot of success yet but they’re planning a big whack at trying to get them banned. Would Charlie like to come help try? He would. Just as Bartlet goes on the air, Charlie says to Josh, “I’ve never felt like this before.” Josh smiles and says, “It doesn’t go away.”