Oh, and Yay for me - 300 posts.
Also, can WW bring in the writer from ST:Enterprise that manages to get T’Pol in a bikini or less about every other episode, have him work w Donna’s character some?
It appears to me that they’re grooming Smits to be a Democratic Presidential candidate to battle in the primaries with Bingo Bob - who just doesn’t have the charisma (for politics or primetime TV) for the job. A leftover Cabinet position isn’t nearly center-screen enough for Smits.
Well, then how does Alan Alda fit in?
I believe he will be the Republican candidate.
As for who is asked to leave, remember that Toby’s resignation was in the ad last week out of context.
Alan Alda will be the principal Republican opponent.
The SecDef has to go. That guy has done nothing but undercut the Oval Office at every chance. He makes Donald Rumsfeld look like a sycophant.
The Smits character wouldn’t be a good Cabinet member as he is being portrayed as a more passionate politician.
In real life, I doubt that a Press Secretary could ever be someone like Kristen Chenowith. She’s rather petite (under 5’0") with a high-pitched voice and the White House press corps would eat her alive. (Literally, not metaphoircally).
Am I being whooshed here? I could’ve sworn that on one of the “scenes from next week,” they showed Jimmy Smits being introduced as
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the new press secretary?? It didn’t make sense to me after last night’s episode, but I was positive that it was the case!
My take on Josh’s conversation with the Smits character, coming after a conversation with party hacks about who’s running where at midterm (remember the West Wing universe’s political cycle is two years off from reality), is that they are preparing Josh to run for the Connecticutt Congressional seat (or was it Senate?). This keeps Josh in the “let’s play politics and get things done” arena, but as a player and not an organizer (another hint, his comment to Toby about the Patient’s Bill of Rights–with Smits gone, it needs a champion). This ties in with the “staff member asked to leave”–Bartlett does encourage his staff to take on new challenges, and if it’s a way of keeping a Dem seat as well, the good of the party, the good of the country and all.
Would they bring in the Smits character to fill Josh’s job? Again, IMO, they are setting his character up as someone who does not like the game of politics and is more interested in results, so he’s not suited for the deputy cheif position, They could give him a Cabinet position and then include that character more in the plots, but I agree with those that think the show is going to have Smits as the next presidential candidate, so it has to be a position from which he can run.
I like the actor (curse my bad memory) who plays the current VP, and I thought the show was hinting that, if he wasn’t smarter than everyone thought, he was savvy enough to surround himself with smart people (hence Will as his Chief of Staff). maybe they will have a Colorado/Texas tickets, and the tease is which one ends up in which position.
Answer to Sean Factotum’s question–Donna was sent as Josh’s eyes and ears to a fact finding in the Middle East (becasue she asked for more responsibility). The convoy was hit with a bomb and Donna was injured (FitzWallace was killed, and also a Congressman). They never said anything about paralysis, so I think she is in the wheelchair so that she is mobile enough to return to work.
I know the how of what happened, just not what the doctor’s said her specific injuries are, and how long she’s going to be chair-bound. I saw that episode, and I liked how they played out how Toby was torn between Andy being safe, and Donna being injured and FitzWallace killed. Everyone else was just dealing with the deaths and injury.
Possible plot: I wonder if they’ll do something about the White House not being in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, referencing the fact that the govt is immune from the laws it passes (the whole carpal-tunnel thing from season two.)?
Podkayne I want her to leave Miami. That David Caruso is no good for a fine Southern girl like Ainsley.
brianjedi “Claudia Jean, that man lacks grace,” was her dad’s comment.
I compound fracture of her leg and I believe bleeding in her lungs. One presumes she will be good as new when the cast comes off.
A compund fracture.
My spell checker is compoundedly fractured.
Oh, I loved him! Has he been back in it since the election (I’m in the UK and we’re about 2 years behind you here)
Ron Silver, like Ed Koch, is a longtime liberal who has turned around to support Bush because (in somebody else’s pithy phrase) he hasn’t stopped shitting his pants since 9/11, and for some reason imagines Bush is the right choice to “keep us safe” and values that chimera above all his supposed principles. So I don’t know if he’d want to be back on the show, or for that matter if they’d want him back.
It’ll be interesting to see if CJ can really grow into the job, but it’s still a bit hard to swallow. Makes me think of the Peter Principle.
That would be the much underrated Gary Cole.
It’s funny that noises should be made about him just as Jimmy Smits joins the show - according to his IMDb bio, cole and Smits came very close to playing Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice.
Wasn’t anybody else bothered by the fact that:
the group of totally incompetent people auditioning for the Press Secretary job was C.J.'s hand-picked list of replacements for her in an emergency?
the White House Communications Director had never met the spokesperson for the State Department before?
nobody in the entire West Wing has a deputy who is competent to take over their job should they leave?
C.J. didn’t know what a tiger team was?
anyone should think it’s a good idea that Toby, who should be working 36 hours a day already, should pull double duty in a role he has no business playing for five seconds - on the advice of a total stranger?
Will is still hanging around despite having no role and nothing to do?
I guess not. Last year the season started slowly and got better. This season is a disaster. The best, deepest, and most wonderful reason to watch the show in the first few years is that it was smarter than anything else on television. These bumbling fools aren’t even humanizing comic relief any more. They’re just fools.
I think this is the end for me.
[squeeky voice]Go point out your plot holes elsewhere! [/squeeky voice]
Actually, those points were dead on. Another problem with the show is that the White House staff has been too stable.
Look at the changes the current White House is undergoing after the election.
The Cabinet has never been a big part of the show, except for the Secretary of Defense, who just seems to do whatever he can to tick off the White House.
Liberal: While Charlie is a supporting character, I’d hardly call him minor. In fact, I’d have to say he’s my favorite because I think he’s the most consistently written character and the most true-hearted.
Well, they’re obviously going for realism then, if the Dems pick Bob as their nominee… 
Where did you get that from? She told Toby she wanted a “short list” from him. I don’t recall him getting a list from her.
Not at all. Why should they know each other? There is no more massive bureaucracy in the world than the US government. The West Wing of the White House is a whole world of its own, and WHCD has plenty on his plate without worrying about what’s happening over at State.
But deputies aren’t vice-presidents. When I hire the equivalent of a deputy, I do so because of their administrative skills or skills in areas that are appropriate for the position. I don’t hire them by qualifying them for a position above them. Josh’s skills were handy for Leo to use as he saw fit. Josh lacks the maturity to be Chief of Staff. He’s too hot-headed and narrow-minded. But he’s good at what the deputy does.
Apparently, Jed didn’t either. The purpose of a tiger team, at least traditionally, is to attempt to penetrate security. I didn’t see that that was what the team CJ was putting together was trying to do. It was trying to figure out the best way to deal with the uranium situation, which included everything from confirming it was real, to extracting it, to finding a place to put it.
First, she wasn’t a total stranger. She identified herself, and both Toby and Donna knew who she was. Second, Toby has always listened to good arguments from other people, including when he first met Will. Finally, CJ chose him to do it because Josh and Will were needed on something else that Toby was not qualified to do. Emergencies happen, and people in any organization have to suck it up and deal with them.
It had been long ago established (when Jed first interviewed the new VP) that the vice-president’s office would have a full-time White House liaison. That’s Will’s role, and he has plenty to do. Just because he’s not a major factor in every episode doesn’t mean he doesn’t belong there. Lots of people are all over the place in the West Wing, and we don’t see their faces all the time.
I thought the first two episodes sucked, mainly because of Kate, but this one was much better.
[…shrug…] Later.
I agree with you there. I love Charlie, and I would miss his character. I still miss Mrs. Landingham. But it really ain’t a deal breaker for me.
Didn’t Carol give Toby CJ’s “In Case I Get Hit BY A Bus” file? I thought that’s where all the candidates they were interviewing came from.
Carol did hand over such a list, but it was also mentioned that they’d be interviewing the ‘obvious choices’, i.e. PR people from other government departments. I think what we saw were the folks form other departments, not CJs choices.
But Exapno Mapcase still has a valid point. Do the spokespeople from the rest of the gov’t all suck? What’s up with that?
thwartme