West Wing 11/10: Sigh

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Liberal

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.

No wonder you managed to like the episode. You weren’t watching it!

As Labdad noted, Toby was handed a large pile of resumes. The short list request was at the end after Toby gave her the name of the slick guy,

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.

Nonsense. You cannot run the White House and not care what the people in your field at doing at the executive agencies that you control. Every word that comes out of the mouth of a cabinet spokesperson reflects directly on the White House and must correspond with the policy of the moment. No organization in the universe could operate as you describe.

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.

Nonsense again. It is almost always the practice at the White House for deputies to assume the vacant position for the good and simple reason that, as C.J. shows so graphically, they are the only ones who can be up and running in a reasonable time period. Besides, in real life there are too many times when the person in charge is out of the White House, traveling with the president. In those cases who do think is in charge? Not a bunch of interns: the deputy. C.J.'s 45-minute turnaround from lost to in charge is a sitcom plot. And so is Josh’s increasing incompetence in his job. Not that it matters in the least. You can’t take the Press Secretary and make her CoS. The show lost all respect the instant it made that blunder.

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.

It was a way to explain the term to audience by making a person who should know the term ignorant. It happens all the time on television but it’s not realistic.

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.

You didn’t watch the show, did you? She walked into the room and Toby kept dismissing her. The confusion was finally straightened out, and she was shown to be someone from the tv show that has been a thorn in the side of the Bartlet administration. Should Toby have known who she was? Absolutely. Would he have listened to her? No. Would the Communications Director need to suck it up when the Press Secretary has a whole staff to do exactly that? Utterly ridiculous. You can’t argue that the place is a massive bureaucracy and at the same time that there are only six people to run it.

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.

Right. We don’t need to see Will’s face because he is being given nothing to say or do in the script but he is there anyway because his face is in the credits. This is more plain bad writing.

I thought the first two episodes sucked, mainly because of Kate, but this one was much better.

At last something we can agree on. I always hated Kate too.

[…shrug…] Later.

Maybe. Maybe not.