"The West Wing," 4-16-06

Cafe Society
1

Pretty good, I thought. A nice farewell to Leo.

What church was that? Wasn’t the National Cathedral. Lots of cameos in the pews: the Bartlet daughters; former VP Hoynes; former national security advisor (now Director of NSA) Nancy McNally; some others I now forget. I would like to have seen Sen. Vinick there, though.

Who were the pallbearers? Bartlet, Santos, Josh and Charlie, of course. Then there was a pudgy guy right behind Bartlet (was that the DNC guy who Santos named to head the transition team?). Then another guy behind him - who was that?

Good to have an Air Force color guard. Leo served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, IIRC.

At the White House reception, nice interplay with Donna, C.J., Danny Kincannon (sp?) and Josh.

Good to see Josh’s old girlfriend Amy Gardner - she oughta take Santos’s job offer (although she felt pretty constrained as Mrs. Bartlet’s chief of staff; don’t know that another White House gig would suit her any better).

Vice President Russell talking about a colonoscopy with Will Bailey was a funny moment.

I was a little surprised at how offhandedly Santos told Josh that he’d be White House Chief of Staff.

I noticed in Santos’s transition office, they had a U.S. flag and a Navy Department flag - a tip of the hat to his Marine Corps service, I presume.

The ins and outs of the Speaker race were nicely done. Politics is the art of the possible, as we see time and again on the show.

I’ll be really sorry to see this show end!

2

Ugh, I hated seeing her. She always got under my skin, probably because she got in the way of hot Josh/Donna lovin’. That, and she’s so damn smug. Very annoying.

I only got to see the last half of it, but luckily I got it on tape. Leo’s funeral will probably make me cry.

3

We get to see who 5 of the pallbearers are, but the sixth guy was never really on-screen. Fans have speculated that it’s probably Leo’s son-in-law who was seen briefly sitting behind Bartlett during the service.

The 5th was indeed Barry Goodwin, former DNC Chairman, and long-time friend of Leo.

4

I tivo WW, so I don’t usually watch the credits. But last night I did, wondering if John Spencer would be in them.

He was… and I found myself more than a little misty eyed.

I’ve seen shows before where characters I like died, but never one where the actual actor died. It lends a whole different poignancy to the situation.

Damn, I’m gonna miss Leo.

And John Spencer.

And the West Wing.

5

There was one shot where they showed the guy pretty clearly, and I had no idea who he was.
Odd - IMO.
Overall, far better than I had feared - from the promos I was afraid it was gonna be a clips show.
Tho I understand the cameos, I thought they got a little old pretty quickly. Kept you from getting immersed into the show, instead playing “Who’s that?”

6

Can Santos actually appoint the next VP? If the no VP candidate gets a majority of electoral votes the Senate gets to pick from the top two vote getters, which in this case would mandate a Republican VP? Or can are Democratic electors free to vote for however they want as VP? They mention the Dems have a 4 seat majority in the house, who won the Senate?

7

Right before they cut to the funeral, they showed people getting ready: Bartlet, Josh, CJ, Toby and Donna, but not Charlie. These were all the regulars that are still around since the first season.

And where was Sam? I thought for sure that he’d be in the pews at least. I mean, he’s all over the previews for next weeks show - how hard would it have been to see him at the funeral?

Seems to me that the campaign manager almost always automatically becomes Chief of Staff if they win. It happened with Bartlet and Leo.

Anyone notice Abby giving Jed the stink-eye when they walked into the wake? Seems to me she was trying to figure out of him switching gears from very somber in private to excited in public was another symptom she needs to worry about.

And Ainsley was back! Yea! And she seemed to be as flighty as she ever was, considering the little amount of time she had on-screen.

8

I assumed that Abby’s stare at Jed was in amazement at how he went from about to break down in grief privately to outwardly enthusiastic in public. And as for Josh being appointed chief of staff, was that surprise on his face? It seemed like the obvious position for him.

I was also struck by Charlie’s comment that he didn’t expect to see a photo of him and Toby together on the front page of the New York Times. He’s really been the stand in for the audience, going from ordinary citizen to prominence over the course of the series.

I really wish the show were continuing with the Santos administration. As someone pointed out, ER manages to hang on years after it stopped being interesting and yet the West Wing is ending while it still is.

9

Where was Mallory? Where was Leo’s ex (Mal’s mom)? I’m not great with women’s faces, so I’d have a hard time picking them out of a crowd, but you’d think they’d deserve a nice big juicy close-up or two in the church scene.

Also, they forgot to haul Joanna Gleason back for the show. She was Leo’s lawyer at the Congressional hearings. Romantic sparks flew between them, so you’d think she would have earned a back-row pew seat at least.

10

Mallory was there.

11

I think the biggest problem with bringing in characters from the past was simply how to fit them all in with relevant lines.

And Leo’s ex-wife was there - IIRC, she was the crying older blonde woman who was shown either just before or just after Mallory.

Margaret: I never knew that she wass part of the initial Bartlet campaign (the garbage can story.) From what I remember from the first couple of episodes of the series, it seemed to me that she was one of the White House admin staffers that are there independent of the Administration.

12

I believe that we are to assume that it was established that Josh would be Santos’ Chief of Staff before Santos mentions it to him off-handedly in the episode.

I thought the CJ/Danny and Josh/Donna who’s-gonna-sleep-where-tonight thing was pretty funny and nicely capped off when Danny sits down next to Josh and they just look at each other.

13

Perhaps Rob Lowe costs lost of money or had other commitments when they were filming.

14

That’s up in the air. AFAIK, the DNC officially has the power to pick a replacement, but they will most likely rubber stamp whoever Santos chooses. The electors pledged to Santos/McGarry can vote for whoever they want for VP, but, being loyal Democrats, would follow Santos’s lead.

However, there are some state laws that make it illegal for the electors for that state to vote for anyone other than the candidates on the ballot on election day. The electors can ignore the laws and take it to the Supreme Court if challenged; they’d have a good case that those laws are unconstitutional (the intent of the founders were that electors be free agents).

If some electors are constrained by law, and don’t want to challenge, then the Republican VP candidate and whoever Santos names will go to the Senate and, since the Senate in the West Wing universe is Republican, they could elect the Republican.

So the Democrats will probably tell all their electors to vote for whoever Santos names and deal with the legal fallout, where the Republicans would fight that to get a Senate vote. It ultimately depends on how hard they want to play it.

15

I agree. I doubt that, even in these highly partisan times, either party would want to force a VP on a President of the other party who clearly didn’t want him (or her). It’d look bad, and that person would probably just be frozen out of national policy by the President, which wouldn’t be good for anybody. It’d be classier, if the Senate chose the VP after counting the Electoral College ballots rather than waiting for Santos to make a nomination via the 25th Amendment, for the GOP to approve whomever Santos selects (within reason, of course).

Hey, I can dream, can’t I…?

16

I think this was one of the best scenes they’ve done on this show in a while, and it’s very indicative of one of the things I’m going to miss about the show: the understated but highly entertaining “soap opera” elements. It’s a classy soap opera, but it’s still soapy, and I dig that.

17

There’s a small problem with this, if no VP gets a majority in the Electoral College then the Senate must pick from the top 2 candidates. If dead Leo still gets more votes than whoever the DLC chooses then the Republican would win be default.

18

The Congress likely wouldn’t count the votes of Dead Leo. When Horace Greeley died after the 1872 election and before the votes were counted, there will still ballots for Greeley, but they weren’t credited to him.

19

The issue is what electors are contrained by state law to vote for the candidate on the ballot. Some of these may be voting Republican, so it’s not an issue. Those that are voting Democratic have three options:

  1. Vote for Santos’s choice despite the law and either face the consequences or take the law to the Supreme Court.
  2. Vote for Leo and abide by state law.
  3. Vote for Opal. Or anyone else. Of course, this would both break the state law and get no support from their party.

However, enough electors are free agents that Santos’s choice would get more votes than Leo under option two. That puts Santos’s choice against the Republican VP candidate in the Senate.

20

A slight tangent…

I’ve started a thread in GQ, inspired by the McGarry funeral scene: “Pallbearers: no women need apply?”