I may be having a senior moment here, but I bought the DVD to season six of the West Wing, and now I find I can’t remember who pissed Jed off (in Season seven) by leaking the existence of a military shuttle. I remember Toby taking the blame, and Jed pardoning him, but I think I must have missed the episode where they revealed what the hell actually happened.
It was never revealed that anyone other than Toby leaked it. Hinted at, but never revealed.
My money was on CJ, but she wouldn’t have let him go to prison for it. Since they never said otherwise, I think it was Toby.
Did Toby’s astronaut brother not die at some point?
That was exactly my thoughts. I thought CJ but I couldn’t see her letting Toby go to jail for it.
I don’t think so. He was on a shuttle that had a delayed landing or something like that. I don’t remember him dying.
Now that you mention it, I recall that.
I remember Toby having to explain a relative’s death to some children, though…
Yes. Toby’s brother comitted suicide after being diagnosed witha fatal disease (cancer, maybe).
Thanks, spooje.
Kills my theory Toby did it because of his brother’s death, but thanks. 
I was never happy with that storyline. I could understand why they wanted to deal with a major leak (for one thing, to contrast the way the fictional Bartlett White House deals with it vs. the sad reality). But the subject of the leak was simply implausible – the idea that a functional military space shuttle could have been kept a secret in the first place.
However, it was probably the best way for Toby to leave the White House. I always liked his independence and refusal to be overawed by the office of the President when it came to moral principles.
Yes, like having a secret Eyrie Canal.
I can’t remember an issue but he had a sense of honesty in government that I admired. I though he overdid being angry about MS being kept secret. Neither did I like his psychoanalyzing the President about his father. That was out of line. Nice how Batlett almost got anti-Semetic., though.
In thinking it over for this post, I guess leaking the shuttle to save the astronauts was in character. Do you think CJ’s questions about it make him consider leaking?
It was said in one episode. I don’t think I need to spoiler box it, but better safe than sorry.
[spoiler]Short version; Toby leaked it, the information coming from his brother before he died.
Long version; Some time after Toby was sacked, he gets offered a lesser sentence if he reveals his source in NASA. Him and his ex-wife get into a fight because she wants him to admit to the investigators that it was his brother who told him about it, since he’s dead and so can’t really be arrested himself. Toby says that no, he won’t tell them that, because it would dishonour his brother’s memory. [/spoiler]
My speculation? It was Bartlett who gave the information to Toby. Bartlett was considering using the military shuttle for the rescue and Toby is somebody who was available and he might have discussed the moral issue with. Bartlett decided he couldn’t reveal a major military secret for this purpose and thought the issue was over.
Then Toby turned around and revealed the secret. Bartlett was angry at himself for having given Toby information he shouldn’t have and for having put Toby in that position. And he was mad at Toby for betraying his trust and for essentially saying that his moral judgement was better than Bartlett’s. And this would almost mean that Toby’s confession would threaten to engulf the President as well. All of this would explain the unusually personal anger that Bartlett felt at Toby. It would also explain Toby’s hints to the special prosecutor of how severe the consequences would be if he revealed who gave him the information.
I stopped watching the series for various reasons shortly before this story arc.
Woa, Toby went to prison?
How long?
-FrL-
Spoiler from the last episode:
Toby didn’t actually go to prison. In his last offical act in office, President Bartlett pardoned him.
Actually, I think that CJ inadvertantly leaked it to Toby. He had an idea that there was a military shuttle, but CJ confirmed it whe she asked him whether his brother ever said anything to him about there being one. Toby then took the ball and ran with it. And CJ being POTUS chief of staff would have severe consequences if it turned out she leaked it. SHe shouldn’t even have been discussing the possibility that it existed with Toby.
Wow. So it wasn’t (so much) me missing a few episodes as the fact that they never tied up that story line at all?
That’s awful, just spinning a bunch of loosely related story arcs, with no gold at the end of the rainbow. Just kind of a soap-opera-y way of writing a show, isn’t it? I mean, I felt the idea of the West Wing was to keep you trying to guess how all the convoluted plots would work out, and usually the payoff was that the solution was something you couldnt quite predict but which made sense. This makes no sense.
Viewing the DVD, though, I can really see where a lot of the last few seasons really didn’t hang together. Some of my issues are:
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What the hell was Leo doing as a SoFla/Cuba kind of bagman in “Ninety Minutes Away”? According to the backstory, Leo was a former CEO-type, with extensive cabinet level experience (Secretary of Labor) so how he gets to be a spy right before Bartlet’s campaign for President just baffles me. Was the guy who wrote that episode drunk?
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Speaking of drunks, how was Leo remotely qualified to run as Vice-President? When was the last time a guy who’d never been elected to office, and has had a serious drinking-and-pill-popping problem (and a spying problem?) going to appear on a major party ticket? And win? Just after having a major heart attack and having to step down from the position of Chief of Staff, where he makes more enemies than friends?
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Speaking of CoS, how the hell did CJ get to succeed Leo? One episode ends with him croaking out her name to Jed as his no-brainer successor, but the no-brainer is, of course, uhhhhhhh, his loyal and competent DEPUTY chief of staff. By not promoting Josh as Leo’s obvious successor, it was a huge public asskicking for Josh, who really had no choice but to step down in disgrace after being revealed as not quite competent enough to succeed the guy whose deputy he was. Worse, the job was given to someone who was plainly not trained in that line of work at all, but in managing the press. Ridiculous.
All these, and more, were things I took on faith, assuming they would be revealed to make much more sense than seemed probable at the time, but now that I’ve had a chance to review the DVDs, and see how things did and didn’t get resolved, I’m very disappointed in the show’s writers. They could have done a much better job.
I pretty much gave up on the show after Sorkin got tossed out, so I can’t address most of your points. However…
If I recall aright from the second-season opener (which told, in flashback, how the Bartlet campaign began), Leo had been in Congress before he was Secretary of Labor. Visiting Jed in his governor’s office, he mentioned that he was thinking about getting back into politics, and it was pretty clear to me that he’d been in Congress.
Did Richard Schiff want off the show, or did TPTB not renew his contract?
Since he never actually leaves the show - he’s still in alot of episodes right up to the end of season 7, I’d guess possibly neither?
I’ve read that originally the producers were planning on having Vinnick (Alan Alda) win the election and have the Republicans take over the White House. So Schiff, along with the rest of the original cast, would have been out anyway if there had been an 8th season.
I gave up on the show at about season 5, and I’m reading the recaps on TWoP to catch up. I was under the impression that Schiff left the show. Thanks for setting me straight.