Question about a Season 4 episode of "The West Wing"

Cafe Society
1

Hoping somebody will be able to answer this - When Debbie Fiderer was first hired by Bartlett, in the beginning of Season 4 of “The West Wing,” she refused to tell him why she was fired from the first job, and tells him the first person considered for Charlie’s position was “David Dweck - - I used to call him, 'David Dwink Want a Dwinka Wa-Wa.” Bartlett orders her to tell him and finds out that his powers of Ordering are apparently to be mocked. But, he reminds her that his powers of deduction are NOT to be mocked. Interview (apparently) over, she leaves. He figures it out and chases after her, and tells her, “Brian Dweck, CFO of Colfax and contributor to Representative Mark McKittridge whose brother is the Director of the White House Office of Presidenial Personnel, wants a job for his son, David-- ‘Wants a Dwink of WaWa.’ My powers of deduction are NOT to be mocked!”

I don’t get it. How did he get the one from the other?

Apparently my powers of deduction are to be mocked! lol!

And also, was this a tongue-in-cheek nod to some sort of character that Lily Tomlin used to do? For example on Laugh-In?

2

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the episode but I’d assume Bartlett thought about the last name Dweck and made the connections. While Dweck’s an uncommon name, it illustrated Bartlett’s grasp of the details in showing he could remember the connections between four different people.

3

I re-watch the entire series from time to time (plus random episodes every now and then), so it hasn’t been that long since I last watched that episode, and I’ll go with what Little Nemo said: “Dweck” is an unusual enough last name that Bartlett figured out the connection.

4

Here is his deductive process, as I can figure it.

  1. She wouldn’t talk explicitly about why she was fired. Conclusion: she’s protecting herself by not talking about it. Either she did something so embarrassing that she doesn’t want to bring it up, or she’s protecting someone with power over her.
  2. She came into the first interview on drugs, had essentially been aimlessly unemployed and personally and financially a failure since the firing, and had no problem telling the President any of that. She does not embarrass easily.
  3. Charlie is adamant that he is the reason she got fired.
  4. Charlie has been a model employee, so she wasn’t fired for choosing him, she was fired for choosing him over someone else.

This is the point at which he asks who else was considered for Charlie’s job. He already has the basic outline in place, he just needs to connect the dots once he hears the name. Since it’s several levels removed, it takes him a few moments.