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Allison Janney as Press Secretary
CJ Cregg, Nancy Cassaro as Janet Price, Carmen Argenziano as Leonard Wallace ("As unrest
spreads in Congo, CJ confers on
status of missing White House
reporter in the region")
NBC Warner Bros. Photo (from "Night Five")
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Writer: Aaron Sorkin, Director: Christopher Misiano
- Takes Place: Five days after the Iowa caucus
- Broadcast: February 6, 2002
- Query: Is there any such thing as Capitolscoop.com?
- On a rainy Washington night Dr. Stanley Keyworth is brought back to the White House. He thinks he is there to talk to Josh, as he did when Josh started exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder Christmas before last [#32]. But he has been called to talk to the President, who hasn't slept since the conversation he had with Toby the night of the Iowa caucus [#56]. But the President wants to be helped without admitting what's bothering him.
- Meanwhile, Toby and Sam have written a speech to be given to the U.N. General Assembly which defines a tougher foreign policy. Toby is concerned that Leo may change his mind now that he is seeing it in black and white. So as Leo reads it, Toby paces in front of his desk.
- "Toby?"
"Yeah."
"The pacing."
"Yeah." Toby stops and just stands there.
"Okay," Leo says a moment later, "now the standing still is bothering me a little bit." To this Toby shrugs with a wide gesture and goes to sit down.
"This is the fifth time you're reading it. . . ." Toby goes on to defend what he has written.
"I think it's great," Leo interrupts. ". . . I do. You know your wife's going to have something to say about it, though?"
"My ex-wife. . . Why do you call her my wife?"
"It bothers you."
"Everything bothers me. . . . But you pick that."
"Yeah."
Toby goes back to the Communications bullpen and tells Sam, "He liked it. . . . He liked it a lot. Mostly what I wrote. Not so much what you wrote."
- In preparing for the upcoming U.N. address, Sam sends for Ainsley Hayes fairly late that night. She comes in dressed up for a social function she'd been pulled out of.
- "Hayes, you could make a good dog break his leash," Sam remarks about how she looks, before he turns over information to her to check for legal land mines. Then as she turns to go, Sam sees the back of the dress and adds, "Whoa, I didn't even see that thing from the back."
Sam's comments were heard by a temporary worker named Celia, who tells Sam that his comments demeaned Ainsley. Later Sam tries to talk to Ainsley about it but she just wants to talk about what she has found in the document she was suppose to check.
"If I felt demeaned I'd be one of the very first people to know it," she tells him dismissing the subject. But neither Sam nor Celia will let it go.
"I'm surprised," Celia later tells Ainsley, "you're willing to let your sexuality diminish your power."
". . .I think you think I'm made out of candy glass. . . ." Ainsley argues back. "If someone says something that offends you, tell them, but all women don't have to think alike. . . . I like when the guys tease me. It's an inadvertent show of respect; I'm part of the team, and I don't mind it when it gets sexual. And you know what, I like sex. . . . I don't think whatever sexuality I have diminishes my power. I think it enhances it."
"And what kind of feminism do you call that?" Celia asks.
"My kind."
"It's called lipstick feminism. I call it Stiletto Feminism," Ginger adds from the sidelines.
". . .Isn't the point," Celia says, "that Sam wouldn't have been able to find another way to be chummy with a woman that wasn't sexually appealing?"
"He would be able to, but that isn't the point. The point is that sexual revolution tends to get in the way of actual revolution. Nonsense issues distract attention away from real ones: pay equity, child care, honest-to-God sexual harassment and in this case a speech in front of the U.N. General Assembly," Ainsley says, turning back to talk to Sam about the legal land mines she found in the document.
- On another front, C. J. has learned that one of "her" reporters, who was in the Congo "reporting a story nobody is paying attention to" was kidnapped by rebels. She pulls in Leo to help and the two of them use their influence.
- Oh, and Donna seems to be considering a job offer to be "Issues Director for Capitolscoop.com."
- For anyone interested in guest stars of this episode, let us recommend the West Wing Episode Guide.
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#313 (57) "Night Five"
