Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman, Deputy White House Chief of Staff
(with Teddy Roosevelt)
NBC Photo: Michael O'Neill
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- Teleplay: Aaron Sorkin, Story: Eli Attie, Director: Vincent Misiano
- Takes Place: Just before the first Monday in October
- : October 9, 2002
- Query: What exactly is the Red Mass?
- Query: What is the 80-20 issue the President and Stackhouse were discussing?
- Query: What music is played at the cathedral?
- Josh, Sam and C.J. all feel they
- "...know how Ritchie is going to win this election."
C.J. thinks it will be by "overcoming perversely low expectations."
Sam and Josh thinks it will be by "getting the President to run the Stackhouse campaign."
C.J. tells Toby, ". . . I'm absolutely terrified we're going to lose the expectations game. You can't believe how many times I get asked what would be a win in the debates. At this point I feel like if and only if Ritchie accidentally lights his podium on fire does the President have a fighting chance."
"I disagree," Toby answers.
"Disagree all you want but I'm right."
- And it isn't only the election that this administration and its allies may be losing. The Qumari government is about to accuse Israel of killing its Defense Minister, who was the brother of the Sulton. The Israeli Foreign Minister asks Leo,
- "You're advising the President well? . . . I'm only asking because right now we're losing."
- Josh sends Donna to investigate a motivational speaker who has consulted for Ritchie. After she comes back, she has some fun convincing Josh that she has become a follower of this guy's teachings and then says,
- "So the guy's consulted for Ritchie. He's a buffoon but he's harmless. . . . Nothing he said was wrong or objectionable. . . . "
"'It's good to be trapped in a corner,'" Josh reads out of the book Donna has brought back. "'That's when you act.'"
"That happens to be true."
"It is. In my case its the only time that I do."
"So?"
"It's Immanual Kant. Duty. Sublime and mighty name that embraces nothing charming or insinuating but requires submission.'"
". . . .So he cribbed Kant. Isn't that what you're suppose to do?"
"It comes from a 193-page book called a Critique of Practical Reason. It's about metaphysics and epistemology. Tomba's impressively boiled it down to two-thirds of one page. Give me another one"
"'Look outside the cave.'"
"Right. That's from another paperback called The Republic by Plato. Lucky Tomba's been able to fit it on a fortune cookie so it suits the attention span of the Republican nominee."
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#404 "The Red Mass"
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