The Midterms

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From NBC:
As one of the President's staff, Josh (Bradley Whitford) recovers from bullet wounds, the rest of the team pushes on to the "mid-term" congressional elections in November -- but as C.J. (Allison Janney) deflects press requests on how the assassination attempt has affected the mood in the White House, she knows that nearly everyone bears psychological scars in its aftermath. In particular, Charlie (Dulé Hill) is affected when he learns more about the shooting and reacts coldly both to Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and Zoey (Elisabeth Moss). For his part, Toby (Richard Schiff) surveys the President's newfound popularity in the polls and proposes that the administration pursue a course that would turn up the heat on extremist groups while Sam (Rob Lowe) convinces a friend, Tom Jordan (Jamie Denton) to run for Congress after the death of Grant Samuels, the current congressman. Elsewhere, Bartlet is obsessed with an obscure school board election in New Hampshire for purely personal reasons.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion:

C.J. is getting ready for a press briefing. Josh is on the speakerphone from his hospital bed. He must be recovering nicely because he’s giving C.J. a hard time, trying to get her to lead with physicists announcing a model for the grand unified theory. C.J. keeps saying “psychics.” Senior staff are coming at C.J. from all sides. Toby needs her to spin some inflation figures and Leo wants to focus on a housing regulation. Sam tells her Congressman Grant Samuels died. She leads with Samuels. Then C.J. starts to talk about psychics at Cal Tech and the Fermi Lab . . . Josh watching on TV, bangs his head against his headboard.

It’s August 14, twelve weeks before the midterms. At a meeting in the Roosevelt Room the staff is looking ahead to the elections. Toby says their approval rating is 81%. Sam thinks the numbers are soft, C.J. disagrees.

TOBY: Still, eighty-one percent . . .
SAM: You’re moved by the show of support.
TOBY: No, I’m thinking we got shot at and nineteen percent of the country still hate our guts.
SAM: Well, you’re a glass-is-half-empty kind of guy.
TOBY: No, I’m a who-cares-how-full-the-glass-is-if-it’s-filled-with-turpentine kind of guy.

Ed thinks they have a good shot at taking back the House. Larry says they might possibly pick up two seats in the Senate. They look at specific seats. Florida nine? “No way,” says C.J. Toby wants to take advantage of their approval numbers and go after guns and hate groups. Leo tells C.J. if anyone asks about the shooting, say the President is gratified by the support, but he wants to concentrate on the issues. Toby asks which issues and Bartlet says he’ll let them know.

Later, C.J. tells Toby they’re getting interview requests for pieces on how the staff is coping psychologically with the shooting. She doesn’t want to do them. Bartlet tells Leo that Elliot Roush is running for the school board in Manchester. Years ago, Bartlet beat him in his first congressional campaign. Bartlet wants to poll numbers on the school board contest.

Sam has a meeting with a well-dressed and clean-cut guy named Tom Jordan and his wife, Sarah. Sam studied law with Jordan at Duke. Sam is extremely matter-of-fact: They want Jordan to run for Grant Samuels’s seat in Congress. Sam says Jordan’s perfect: a graduate of Oberlin and Duke, he’s a prosecutor with a great conviction record and the number one issue for the women voters is crime. He’ll have the full weight on the DNC, the Congressional Campaign Committee, the minority leader, and the President. And he has five minutes to decide if he wants to run.

In the second act, Toby’s excited. He tells Sam he knows how to go after hate groups without it appearing random and in violation of their civil liberties. The FBI can investigate all extremist organizations under cover of investigating this one crime. He thinks he’s found his vehicle, but Donna stops him in his tracks. Josh needs his recovery time, and rule number one is firm: no visitors.

Zoey’s looking for her dad when she runs into Leo. She confides that Charlie’s been down, he feels a lot of responsibility for the attack in Rosslyn. Yes, Leo says matter-of-factly, he’s the reason the President was shot and Josh almost died. They both decide it would be better if they word that differently when consoling Charlie.

Bartlet is obsessed with Elliot Roush and the school board race in Manchester. The guy keeps popping up in Bartlet’s life, and he makes the Spanish Inquisition look like Barbara Walters. He’s currently polling 46% and Bartlet desperately wants to pop his political balloon.

The wheels in Toby’s head are turning. He wants hate groups to register affiliation with the FBI. Sam points out that similar laws were passed in the South during the civil rights movement, much to the chagrin of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They might have been unconstitutional but Toby thinks they might work now. C.J. pulls Sam aside to tell him there’s a problem with Ton Jordan. It seems he has made a lot of pre-emptive challenges against black jurors during his law career. She tells him to look into it.

It’s October 20, three weeks before the election. Bartlet’s working in the Oval Office into the night, and he still has a few hours’ worth of calls to make. A few of them are campaign calls which, he explains to Charlie, he technically cannot make from the Oval Office. His shoulders sagging with exhaustion, Charlie asks the President why he doesn’t just stay there and make the damn . . the word “damn,” the rudeness, and the insubordination came out before Charlie could censor himself. Bartlet pauses, recovers from his shock, and explains why he won’t solicit contributions from the Oval Office, the power seat of the United States. Charlie quietly finishes up his duties and steps out.

Charlie’s walking away from the Oval Office when he notices a light on in the Roosevelt Room. There’s a little boy in there, his head barely visible above the table. Five-year-old Jeffrey Mackintosh has come with his dad, Andrew, who’s installing software in the West Wing. Andrew explains that Jeffrey’s mother works nights; Charlie’s been in that boat before.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion (cont.):

Leo has to break the bad news to Sam about Tom Jordan. The papers are reporting that he was a member of an all-white fraternity. Sam’s checked that out, they just happened not to have any black pledges. But you pair that with the pre-emptive challenges in voir dire, says Leo, and African American leaders have a problem. It’s over; he is going to cancel the President’s stop and shut down Jordan’s money. Sam protests, explaining that he promised their full support. If they walk away now, the Jordan’s a racist, and the White House said so. He’s thirty-five and he’s finished in politics and as a prosecutor. Sam walks out, slamming the door.

C.J.’s been thinking about the aftermath stories everyone’s wanting them to do. She goes to speak her mind to Toby. She acknowledges that there might be a psychological aftermath, and wonders if he should talk to someone. He’s been ignoring his responsibilities so he can behave like the director of the FBI.

TOBY: Well, I’m waiting for the director of the FBI to behave that way.
C.J.: Toby –
TOBY: I’m waiting for the Justice Department, I’m waiting for Congress, I’m waiting for the White House to behave that way.
C.J.: You wanna lock up everybody with a white sheet?
TOBY: Yes I do. Yes I do. Who has a problem with that? Bring ‘em to me right now. Yes I do.

The President tells C.J. he wants to talk about Elliot Roush on the record. C.J. chides him gently – he can’t take sides in a school board election. Elliot Roush . . . Bartlet can barely bring himself to say the name. His loathing is palpable. Bartlet says he’s known towering men, men of faith and peace, all kinds of people. Then there’s Elliot Roush.

It’s the day of the election. Tom and Sarah Jordan have come to see Sam. Sarah’s incensed, more steamed than her husband. She knows they dumped Tom. Sam’s not even going to try to deny it. “That’s how we do it,” says Sam.

Toby goes to see Bartlet in the Oval Office. Bartlet jokes with Toby about his first-ever egg cream. Toby knows about egg creams, “we invented them in Brooklyn.” Bartlet figures Toby wants to ask for a leave of absence. “No problem,” Bartlet says, and Toby starts to leave. Bartlet says he can have fifteen minutes off. “It’s time to get up off the mat, Toby,” Toby says they could really go after hate groups. But he’s floundering.

TOBY: (pause): Why does it feel like this? (beat) I’ve seen shootings before.
BARTLET: This wasn’t a shooting, Toby, it was a lynching. They tries to lynch Charlie right in front of our eyes, can you believe it?

Bartlet gets out some keyhole satellite pictures of the headquarters of the West Virginia White Pride. He says he could have had the attorney general take them out any time. But he hasn’t because every day he’s felt a little better. Toby isn’t sure he’ll come out the other side. Bartlet says he isn’t, either, but he thinks they should go to work every day. Toby asks about Roush. Bartlet says he’s going to win. Toby asks Bartlet how he beat him. Bartlet says he’s been thinking about it for weeks but he can’t remember.

There’s a reception for talk radio hosts. Pool photographers snap pictures as stewards pass around drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The President comes in and addresses them. He notices a woman sitting in a chair. Bartlet doesn’t want to do what he wants to do. It’s unprofessional. Un-presidential. The hell with it.

The President asks the woman if she’s Dr. Jenna Jacobs. “Are you an M.D.?” she says she’s a Ph.D. “In psychology?” asks Bartlet. “Or theology, social work?” No, English literature, she says. Bartlet wonders if her listeners assumed she had training in any of the disciplines he mentioned. He likes how she calls homosexuals an abomination on her show. Jacobs says she doesn’t say it, “the Bible does, Leviticus 18:22.” Bartlet commends Jacobs for knowing the chapter and verse. Okay then, he asks, how much could he get for selling his daughter into slavery as in Exodus 21:7? He asks if he should kill Leo for working on the Sabbath as in Exodus 35:2? How about touching the skin of a dead pig, Leviticus 11:7? Where does that leave the Redskins? Bartlet’s on a roll.

BARTLET: Think about those questions, would you? One last thing: While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the ignorant tight-ass club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.

As Dr. Jacobs gets to her feet, Bartlet tells Toby that’s how he beat Elliot Roush.

Charlie’s talking to Andrew Mackintosh again. And Mackintosh knows Charlie’s “the man who almost got the President killed.” Charlie says his mother used to work nights, too. He says she was shot and killed. She wasn’t supposed to be on that shift but she switched ‘cause Charlie asked her to.

ANDREW: (pause) Hey, Charlie. You know what I think she’d say if she were here right now?
CHARLIE: What?
ANDREW: The same thing my father would say: “If they’re shooting at you, you know you’re doin’ something right.”

Zoey and Charlie are going out. Leo asks if he’s taking extra protection . . . Secret Service protection. The staff goes to Josh’s house to wait for the election results. They’re sitting on the stoop having a beer. Josh is in the pajamas C.J. got him, enjoying being outside. Sam has the results of the twelve races they keyed on. He says the incumbents lost them all. After four months and $400 million, Josh realized the House stayed the same.

JOSH: I don’t know, Toby. It’s election night. What do you say about a government that goes out of its way to protect even citizens who try to destroy it.
TOBY: (pause) God bless America.