THE WEST WING "20 HOURS IN AMERICA PART II" WRITTEN BY: AARON SORKIN DIRECTED BY: CHRISTOPHER MISIANO ACT ONE FADE IN: INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - DAY Bartlet and Sam are watching the closing of the Stock Market on a TV. REPORTER And that ends this day of trading, the Dow dropping 685 points, the seventh largest percentage drop in history, and the largest point total ever. The bad news hit before the opening bell when the Gehrman-Driscol fund, the largest hedge fund in the U.S., annouced it was filing for bankruptcy. BARTLET Yeah, it's a proud day for Alfred Nobel. CHARLIE Mr. President. BARTLET When do you think I say something? SAM If Japan doesn't step up. BARTLET Tell me again. CHARLIE Keith. Muriel Keith. BARTLET Mr. Kieth. MR. KEITH Mr. President. BARTLET I told my granddaughter I was meeting you and I asked what question she wanted me to ask you and she said to ask you of all the presidents you've met, who is your favorite and I assured her that it would be me. MR. KEITH No, no. Um... Mr. Truman. He was a good man. BARTLET Okay, well, I was just kidding, but, sure Truman, if you like that kind of thing. PHOTOGRAPHER Uh, gentlemen, I'll be ready in just one minute. I'm sorry. BARTLET How old were you when you met President Hoover? MR. KEITH Nine years old. It was my birthday. It was October the 23rd, 1929. BARTLET The 23rd? MR. KEITH Yes, sir. Is there something unusual about that? BARTLET No, no. It's just... it's... You shook hands with him, and next day the Great Depression started. MR. KEITH Yes, sir. BARTLET Okay. Stock market took a stumble today. You know, we'll call it... well, a little bigger than a pre-rally decline. If you watch the news or read a newspaper or really are alive in any way, you're going to hear about it in the next couple of hours. I'm not worried though, 'cause Tokyo opens at 7:00 PM Eastern and Tokyo's going to be my mother's milk tonight. It's in the bag. PHOTOGRAPHER Okay, gentlemen, right this way. On the count of three. One... BARTLET No. PHOTOGRAPHER I'm sorry. BARTLET I'm sorry. Sorry, could I just have one second? Charlie? Charlie comes in. BARTLET How you doing? CHARLIE Fine, thank you. BARTLET [as he and Charlie step to the window] There's a lot of science in economics to be sure but like a lot of things, a lot depends on the user. I need the Nikkei Index to do what I need it to do tonight and I've got Hoover's good luck charm over here. But now, while I'm talking about it, I feel like it's ridiculous that someone like me would consider canceling a photo-op... CHARLIE I can't believe you're considering doing it, sir. BARTLET I'm not, it's momentary. CHARLIE No, I mean I can't believe you're considering doing it. BARTLET Really? CHARLIE Toyko opens in three hours and you're going to drape your arm around the Mayor of Shantytown. BARTLET I didn't know you were superstitious. CHARLIE I'm not. Plus there are tribes in South America that don't think a photoghaphs a good idea to begin with. You ever see any pictures on my desk? BARTLET No. CHARLIE You ever wonder why? BARTLET Charlie, just out of curiosity, in your mind, how much time do I spend thinking about your desk? CHARLIE Fair point, sir. BARTLET How long have we been talking about this now? CHARLIE A couple of minutes. BARTLET Okay, let's not tell anybody that. CHARLIE Yeah.Mr. Keith, I'm sorry. We're going to have to reschedule this for tomorrow. MR. KEITH Oh, why? Charlie and Bartlet speak at the same time. CHARLIE You're spooking the hell out of the President. BARTLET Just scheduling. MR. KEITH I'm... CHARLIE I'll explain. BARTLET Thank you. CUT TO: INT. SAM'S OFFICE - DAY Sam's on the floor of his office reading papers. C.J. Sam? SAM Yeah. C.J. Whatcha' doin' on the floor? SAM I don't know. I think it was just the closest thing. C.J. Come on, you'll get your pants all shmutsy. C.J. helps Sam off the floor. SAM The First Lady's not a lesbian, is she? C.J. I don't know. I can ask her. SAM Why were there rolling pins? C.J. Brenda Swetland: "At this moment, you're not licensed to practice medicine, correct?" A. Bartlet: "At this moment, I'm just a wife and mother." SAM I don't see it. C.J. Well, you got to want it. SAM Oh, I see it. C.J. Yeah. SAM What are we doing? C.J. Well, I wanted my office to issue a statement saying, "You're annoying, shut up," but Bruno said to wave at it and he's right. SAM Yeah. C.J. Listen. I know this is the last thing you want to hear right now but I want to get Anthony a Big Brother and Charlie said no, and I thought if it was anything you might be interested in, I could talk to you about it. It's an hour a week. He doesn't have anybody and you know he hasn't gotten over Simon. SAM You asked Charlie first? C.J. There's no way you have time for this. SAM I might. C.J. You don't. SAM Ginger. C.J. You just worked 48 hours straight. SAM Yeah. C.J. And that was the weekend. SAM Maybe he'd enjoy sitting and watching me work. I could narrate what I was doing for him. "Right now I'm reading background intelligence on Central America as it relates, believe it or not, to textile imports. Ooh, intelligence, 007." See, and right away I've got him going with 007. C.J. I'm sitting here listening, already I've turned to a life of crime. SAM You know I'd do it if I could. C.J. I do know that shmutsy pants. SAM That's going to be around for a while, right? C.J. How's it going in there? SAM It hasn't really started yet. Bryce, you know, is pushing him away from unilateral standards, but the rest of the meetings don't start for 20 minutes. GINGER Josh is on the phone. C.J. Thanks. SAM Hey? JOSH [on phone] How's it going? SAM Fine,so far. JOSH Just Bryce, right? SAM Yeah. Let me ask you something. He was saying that Commerce didn't have enough input on the stump speech and I started to say that it was my fault and the President kind of ran me over. JOSH Yeah, he doesn't like the appearance that his staff is covering for him. SAM It genuinely wasn't his fault. JOSH Nothing's not his fault in the Oval Office. SAM Got it. JOSH Anything else before we get on the train? SAM Could you put Toby on? JOSH Yeah. Toby. Sam. TOBY [takes phone] Was Bryce pissed? SAM Yeah. Listen. With the secretarial candidates the last few weeks, Charlie says he's been asking questions about remembering names and numbers. He's worrying about short term memory loss, right? It's one of the effects of... TOBY Yeah. SAM Okay. TOBY Anything else? SAM Come home. TOBY We're on our way. [hangs up] JOSH [to Toby] Don't worry, I'll have Jews for the money stuff? You have an inadvertant habit of putting down my Judaism by implying that you have a sharper anti-Semitism meter then I do. TOBY You know, the Ancient Hebrews had a word for Jews from Westport. They pronounced it Presbyterian. JOSH And by saying things like that. TOBY I'm just saying I'm from Brighton Beach. JOSH Well, Mohammed al Mohammed al Mohammend bin Bizir doesn't make the distinction when he suits up in the morning. TOBY As long as you have a good grasp of the complexity of that situation. DONNA What the hell are the two of you talking about? TOBY I assure you neither one of us know. They get on the train. MAN All aboard! JOSH Tyler, assure me there's going to be no trouble. TYLER There's going to be no trouble. JOSH The train runs on regular fuel. TYLER I'm pretty sure. JOSH You guys don't have your very own international dateline in Bloomington or anything? TYLER No. JOSH In that case, on behalf of Bartlet for America and the Democratic Party, I want to thank you for your help and tell you that you're a good guy, and good luck to you. TYLER Thanks. DONNA I'm going to go find seats. JOSH Take it easy. TYLER Mr. Lyman, Mr. Ziegler. JOSH Call me Josh. TOBY Toby. I work at the White House. TYLER Yeah, can I tell you something? People are going think you're a lot cooler if you don't say that yourself, but rather let them find out on their own. TOBY Okay. JOSH The engineer knows the route? TYLER Josh, Toby, on my girlfriend's life your troubles end 98 miles right down that track. Tyler points left, the train starts moving in the opposite direction. Toby and Josh stand in the doorway with lost expressions on their faces. CUT TO: INT. THE SITUATION ROOM - DAY Leo and Fitzwallace are sitting down at the confernce table when Nancy McNally enters. LEO Nancy. NANCY Leo. Yeoman Fitzwallace. FITZWALLACE Dr. McNally. NANCY Let's attack. FITZWALLACE Who? NANCY Qumar. Let's recommend to the President that we attack. LEO Why? NANCY 'Cause I've had it. [sits down next to Leo] FITZWALLACE I don't think the UN is going to let us do it for that reason. NANCY That's 'cause you're a sissy. You want peace in the Middle East? Give me a pair of third generation ICBM's and a compass. You get B-2 Spirit stealth bombers over Qumar right now as if the Qumari Air defense sytem requires stealth capability. Just fly in at night, and while you're at it, could you order the USS Louisians to fire off a D-5 Trident just to see if it works? What's the worst that could happen? FITZWALLACE [bewildered, to Leo] Is she talking to me? NANCY Yes! FITZWALLACE Well, 98% of all living organisms within a seven mile radius would die instantly in a torrent of fire. NANCY Admiral Sissymary... We're running out of options on the menu. LEO What's happening? NANCY There's intel that says that Qumar has a tape. LEO Of what? NANCY A cell phone call that Shareef made from the plane. FITZWALLACE There isn't. We disabled the phone. We monitered communication from the plane, we bugged Shareef and we replaced his cell phone battery with a dummy. There's no tape, there was no phone call. LEO Why are they saying there is? It's to provoke a response, right? NANCY Yeah. LEO And they're using Act V scene from Hamlet? Are these Batman villians? NANCY They're building a case for sure but I think we got to start talking about there's something worse than Qumar saying it was us. FITZWALLACE She's right. LEO What? FITZWALLACE Qumar saying it was someone else. FADE OUT. END ACT ONE * * * ACT TWO A 4:45 - PRESIDENT MET WITH SEN. SCHULER, SEN. CHOATE A 4:50 - PRESIDENT MET WITH CH. LACEY A 5:20 - PRESIDENT MET WITH DEBORAH FIDERER FADE IN: INT. THE OVAL OFFICE - DAY BARTLET You can't say "faith-based initiatives" to me. You have to be more specific then that. You can't offer a guy a hot meal but first you have to accept God into your heart. It's against the law. It's also a little obnoxious. SENATOR FRED SCHULER If a church runs a soup kitchen, are they serving Christian soup? BARTLET No, the soup is non-denominational, Fred but I'm not talking about the soup I'm talking about the programs. And another problem is, the government can't subsidize organizations that discriminate in hiring practices as religious organizations are allowed to do. SENATOR CHOATE Mr. President, in my state the only ones making inroads into keeping kids in school and off drugs are the churches and the synagogues and the mosques. They have terrifc programs-- and until we find a better one, let me fund those. BARTLET We're going to talk about it around her, but I wouldn't... SENATOR CHOATE Yes, sir. BARTLET Okay. SENATOR CHOATE Thank you, sir. SENATOR FRED Thank you. SAM How are the interviews going? BARTLET I met with two women this morning on the plane. I'm meeting another in a little bit. SAM Are either of this morning's women a possibilties? BARTLET No. SAM Why? BARTLET Well, the first one isn't easily impressed. SAM What makes you say that? BARTLET She told me. The second one wasn't funny. SAM She wasn't funny? BARTLET Or rather, didn't think I was. SAM You told a joke. BARTLET She was the secretary to an Ambassador to France. I told her that I'd had dinner with D'Astier at the Elysee Palace. She gently corrected me at that point calling it the Palais de l'Elysee-- for that alone I wanted to sent for a parachute. And I made a joke to D'Astier having to do with cheese and I said that D'Astier was visibly insulted and that he was reconsidering my diplomatic status and she said, "Well, did he?" SAM She didn't get you were joking? BARTLET It didn't bode well for me. SAM Who's this afternoon? BARTLET A... crazy woman that Charlie knows. Hey, do we have a GPS reading out on Josh and Toby? Have they been sighted? SAM I talked to them a little ago, they're on there way. BARTLET 300 IQ points between them-- they can't find their way home. I swear to God, if Donna wasn't there, they'd have to buy a house. "You've got to be able to keep a lot of names and numbers in your head. Can you do that?" "Oh, I should think so." Oh, should you? Okay, well, I'm going interview a few more people, in the meantime, you can get your ass back on the cover of the The New Yoker where it belongs. SAM Was that Unimpressed One, or Humorless? BARTLET A third one. Charlie say that I don't want anyone to replace her. SAM Is that true? BARTLET I don't know, Sam. I'm a puzzle. SAM Yes, sir. BARTLET This Seth Weinberger thing makes me crazy. CUT TO: INT. TRAIN CAR - DAY DONNA All right, I've got a plan. We're going to switch trains in Bedford. We will then be going in the right direction. We're not going to make the 6:15, that was a pipe dream; that was folly. Now, there's a 9:30 leaving Indianapolis International with a 45 minute layover in Chicago. Although the ticket agent warned that the flight could be delayed due to bad weather. JOSH What are the chances of that? DONNA Well, for what it's worth, the guy in the diner said the reason the picture on the TV was fuzzy... JOSH No, no! Quaint is quaint, but we're not Navajo Indian guides, and if we want weather information we'll call the White House Operations Center. DONNA Well, we can do that when we get to a pay phone, but we can't do that right now. JOSH Why not? DONNA Because my.... JOSH Cell phone battery's out. DONNA Yes. JOSH I need information. I need to know what's happening in the world-- I have no idea what's happening in the world! DONNA I bought you the paper. JOSH I read it! Preparations are on the way for the fair-- I'm briefed. Organizors say it's going to be the best one yet. What else you got? TOBY Frivolous law firms. JOSH What? TOBY He meant to say "frivolous law suits" and he said "frivolous law firms." JOSH Who? TOBY Benjamin Disraeli. JOSH He misspeaks. TOBY Yes, he does. He also thinks Sarajevo and Bosnia are two different contries, so that's bit of a setback for the region. JOSH Yes. TOBY Chaberlain led England in World War II. I don't mind that he doesn't know history, I mind that he hasn't seen a movie. "Mexico is part of NATO." JOSH He meant they were an ally. TOBY What, did they lob a chalupa at the Warsaw Pact? JOSH I agree, it's not impressive but as you pointed out he's going to be surrounded by... TOBY Do you think he ever disagreed with one of his advisors? Do you think-- honestly-- do you think he's ever said to one of his advisors "I've got a different idea?" I-I don't care if he thinks Luxembourg's an uptown stop on the IRT. And I don't care about the Greco-Roman wrestling matches with the language-- not that polished communication skills are an important part of this job-- what I care about is when he was asked if he'd continue the current U.S. policy in China he said, "First off, I'm going to send them a message-- meet an American leader." I don't know what that means, but everybody cheered. JOSH Which is one of the reasons that I work full-time for his opponent. I don't know what gave you the impression that I had to be convinced, but I want to win. You want to beat him, and that's a problem for me, because I want to win. DONNA Can I get approval of my travel plan? JOSH Yeah. TOBY "A rising tide sinks all boats." CUT TO: INT. OUTER OVAL OFFICE - DAY Deborah Fidderer is with Charlie. DEBBIE Is it all right to ask what he did for a year? CHARLIE What do you mean? DEBBIE He's been without a secretary for a year. CHARLIE The President has five secreataries. Four of them funnel their work through the Executive Secretary. DEBBIE He has five secretaries? CHARLIE He has two research secretaries, a social secretary, and a scheduler. The scheduler has an assistant whose job it is to keep the book. DEBBIE What's "the book"? CHARLIE It's the daily diary. It's a minute by minute accounting of what the President did that day. "10:25, placed to phone call to the Fed Chair." DEBBIE What about private stuff? CHARLIE We've got euphemisms. Every once in a while, there'll be a fluke cancelation some kind of gap in the President's schedule, and the President and the First Lady might slip over... you know. DEBBIE For a "matinee." CHARLIE Yeah. DEBBIE What do you call it? CHARLIE "Barbecuing." DEBBIE Okay. CUT TO: INT. THE OVAL OFFICE - DAY CHAIRMAN BILL LACEY The payment and settlement systems worked fine. The Dows price/earnings is around 35. The historical average is 18. This isn't a crisis. It's investors getting back to common sense. BARTLET Well, it's an election year, Bill. We'd rather people didn't exercise common sense but I agree with what you're saying. BILL LACEY Thank you, Mr. President. CHARLIE Sir? BARTLET Yes? CHARLIE Deborah Fiderer. BARTLET Really? CHARLIE Yes, sir. BARTLET All right. DEBBIE Mr. President. BARTLET Hi. SAM Debbie. DEBBIE Hello. BARTLET You two know each other? SAM Debbie worked for Donald McKittridge. She's... very interesting. Her resume's impressive; I remember thinking she was efficient and creative. She's the one who found Charlie. I remember people talked about her a lot. They found her pretty strange. But I remember thinking that I didn't find her that strange. DEBBIE You know I can hear you, right? SAM I'm in your corner. [leaves] BARTLET You're the alpaca farmer DEBBIE It was something I tried for a while. BARTLET You hired Charlie, huh? DEBBIE Well, I worked in the Office of Presidential Personnel and he'd come into the wrong office. He'd been called in about a job as a messenger. BARTLET I didn't know that. DEBBIE Yeah. We started talking; it doesn't take to see he's a special kid, so I sent him to Josh Lyman. BARTLET Well, thanks for that. DEBBIE Yes, sir. BARTLET Who was in second place? Who did I almost get? DEBBIE Sir? BARTLET I like to think about the road not taken. DEBBIE You're testing my memory. BARTLET Yeah. DEBBIE It was a young man named David Dweck. BARTLET David Dweck? DEBBIE I used to call him "David Dweck Want a Dwink of Wa Wa" until I realized that wasn't really funny. LARRY [comes in] Excuse me, Mr. President; you said you wanted... BARTLET Yeah. LARRY Hong Kong's down 4%, but it's still over 10,000. It's too early to tell anything. The Nikkei's down 2%, the dollars down .3% against the yen; .4% against the Euro. Frankfurt opens in eight hours. BARTLET Thanks. LARRY Thank you. [leaves] BARTLET Sorry. Why were you fired? DEBBIE I'm sorry? BARTLET Why were you fired? DEBBIE No particular reason. BARTLET That doesn't sound quite right. DEBBIE No? BARTLET Why were you fired? DEBBIE Is it relevant? BARTLET Only because you're asking for a job. DEBBIE Chronic lateness. BARTLET I don't belive you. DEBBIE It's true. BARTLET No, it's not. DEBBIE You call me a liar to my face? BARTLET Yes. DEBBIE Okay. BARTLET Charlie said it was because of him. DEBBIE He did? BARTLET He said you hired him and that's why you got fired. DEBBIE Charlie makes things up. BARTLET No he doesn't. DEBBIE He's a bad seed. I knew it the moment I saw him. BARTLET I'm now ordering you to tell me why you were fired. DEBBIE Well, I'm afraid we're at a classic impasse, Mr. President. BARTLET You were strange the first time I met you, and you're strange now. DEBBIE Hey, the first time you met me there was a good reason. BARTLET What? DEBBIE I was high. BARTLET Okay. DEBBIE This time, it's just me. BARTLET Tell me why you were fired. DEBBIE No, sir. BARTLET I'm going to figure it out anyway. What I lack in memory, I more than make up for with exceptional powers of deductive reasoning. DEBBIE That come with tights and a cap? BARTLET All right. I think the interview's over. DEBBIE Yeah. But let's do this every once in a while. BARTLET Thank you very much. Bartlet and Debbie step out to the OUTER OVAL OFFICE and find a few people standing there. McKITTRIDGE Debbie. DEBBIE Mr. McKittridge... McKITTRIDGE What are you doing here? DEBBIE I-I was... I was interviewing... CHARLIE I brought her in. DEBBIE Hang on. McKITTRIDGE Charlie, how mant times do we have to... CHARLIE I know, but I brought her in. DEBBIE It doesn't matter. I'm not getting the... McKITTRIDGE It does matter-- there's a way it works. BARTLET Brian Dweck, CFO of Colfax and contributor to Representative Mark McKittridge whose brother is the Director of the White House Office of Presidenial Personnel, wants a job for his son, David-- "Wants a Dwink of WaWa." My powers of deduction are not to be mocked. McKITTRIDGE Mr. President, I assure you, whatever she told you... BARTLET She didn't tell me anything. I ordered her to, and she... By the way, my powers of ordering are a joke. I can create an agency, but I can't get her to... She didn't give you up. She, um... she didn't give you up. Bartlet walks back into THE OVAL OFFICE. Sam follows him and closes the door. SAM Was she funny? BARTLET Have the agents stop her at the door a second. Sam gets on the phone while Bartlet walks out of THE OVAL OFFICE. His agents begin to follow him as he runs down the halls to the NORTHWEST LOBBY. BARTLET Debbie. DEBBIE Yes, sir. BARTLET Where's the dollar? DEBBIE I'm sorry, sir? BARTLET What's the dollar doing right now? DEBBIE Oh, it's down; .3% against the yen; .4% against the Euro. NANCY Mr. President... the First Lady's back. BARTLET Bring her on. FADE OUT. END ACT TWO * * * ACT THREE A 8:25 - PRESIDENT ATTENDED DNC FUNDRAISER AT CAPITAL HILTON A 8:33 - CALLED-P-SEC. BERRYHILL, SEC. HUTCHISON FADE IN: INT. HALLWAY IN RESIDENCE - NIGHT BUTLER Good evening, Mr. President. BARTLET Is the Frist Lady inside? BUTLER Yes, sir. BARTLET Suppertime. Bartlet walks into the BEDROOM. BARTLET Medea, you home? ABBEY Jed? BARTLET "Political experts seemed surprised by the Bartlet campaigns decision to position their candidate against motherhood. Said one spokesperson..." ABBEY [comes out of the bathroom] I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. BARTLET What? ABBEY I feel terrible. Can I talk to the staff? BARTLET No, don't do this. ABBEY No, I'm not kidding. I'm sorry. BARTLET About what? ABBEY I screwed up. BARTLET How? ABBEY You know how. BARTLET [genuinely touched] What the hell are you... It was benign. It was totally benign what you said. These women are out of their minds. We're laughing about it here. ABBEY Nobody's laughing. BARTLET I'm telling... Turn on C.J.'s press briefing. She's been doing 20 minutes up there. They're booking her into Ceasar's. ABBEY You don't think it's going to be a problem? BARTLET No. ABBEY [laughs] Then get off my back, jackass. BARTLET Ah, you pulled the switcheroo. ABBEY You are so heartbreakingly easy at the end of the day. BARTLET You deceived me. ABBEY You called me Medea. BARTLET You played upon my love for you. ABBEY Oh, who gives a damn. BARTLET Yeah. I hired someone today. ABBEY Seriously? BARTLET Yeah. ABBEY Who? BARTLET Her name is Debbie Fiderer. She used to work here. ABBEY I don't remember her. BARTLET Used to be DiLaGuardia. ABBEY Debbie DiLaGuardia? BARTLET Yeah. ABBEY She's great. BARTLET She doesn't scare you a little? ABBEY She scares you? BARTLET [beat] No. Okay, I'm getting dressed for the thing. ABBEY I'm going to make fun of you while you do, okay? BARTLET Yeah. Abbey turns on the TV. CUT TO: INT. PRESS BRIEFING ROOM - NIGHT C.J. The First Lady loves two out of the three of her children but she doesn't to tell them which two. The reporters laugh C.J. Arthur? ARTHUR The President's on the podium at 8:15? C.J. That's when it's scheduled. Probably more like 8:30 and he's going to speak for 15 minutes. REPORTER Any comment on the CBO deficit numbers? C.J. Last OMB was $11 billion off. CBO missed by $25 billion. There's going to be a deficit but the CBO's numbers are off. Katie. REPORTER KATIE Legislative appropriations? C.J. He can't say until he see's the bill. All right, that's a full lid. I'll see you all over there. C.J. ends the press briefing and walks off stage. Carol whispers something into C.J.'s ear. C.J. re-enters the BRIEFING ROOM. C.J. Hang on a second. Okay, today at 5:32 PM Central Saving Time, two pipe bombs were set off inside the Geiger Indoor Arena, which is the swimming team's facility at Kennison State University. The Kennison Hawkeyes. The women's team was hosting a match. A meet with Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. They're all Big Ten schools. 44 people are dead.Looks like about 100 people are injured, about 20 critically. REPORTERS C.J.! C.J.! C.J. [puts a hearing device in her ear] I'm going to have to listen in while I talk to you. Barry, then Sydney, then Fran. CUT TO: INT. LEO'S OFFICE - NIGHT LEO I didn't say I wasn't going. I said I could live without it. MARGARET It sounded like you weren't going. LEO I forgot about it is all. MARGARET Did you have other plans? LEO As a matter of fact, I did. I was planning a quiet night... MARGARET Watching your cooking show. LEO It's not just a cooking show, all right. It's very relaxing. The woman is sublime. MARGARET If you ask me, it's soft porn. No one needs to massage garlic oil into a leg of lamb that much, on top of which... LEO Hold on. Why is she still on? Leo turns up the TV to hear C.J. doing her press briefing. C.J. Well, the information that they were pipe bombs is coming from... We're getting both Campus Information and Cedar Rapids police and fire but I don't know anymore details on the type of bombs or the extent of damage... LEO Find out what happened. C.J. ...getting specifics soon. None of that has been confirmed. Emergency squads are still on the scene treating the minor... uh, injured. Witness's are saying there were swimmers in the water at the time of the explosion. I don't think there's been much discussion about motives or suspects. There's been no mention of any... CUT TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - NIGHT Donna, Josh and Toby are running out of the rain into the lobby of a COMFORT INN. Tori Amos's song "I Don't Like Monday's" begins to play. The silicone chip inside her head... CUT TO: INT. LOBBY OF COMFORT INN - CONTINUOUS DONNA I don't understand the two of you. JOSH We had to get out. He can't read in a moving car. DONNA You can't read in a moving car. He can-- he was reading to us. JOSH I need it to come in through my eyes. DONNA You couldn't wait three blocks? JOSH 685 points. TOBY Did it say how, how much the percentage drop was? JOSH It did, but by the time I got there my newspaper no longer had the molecular structure of a newspaper. DESK CLERK Yes, can I help you? DONNA Yes, please, we need a room. DESK CLERK Is that two rooms? DONNA No, just the one for what did we decide, half an hour? JOSH Our, our flight, our flight was delayed and we're just looking for some place to dry off and watch the news. Toby walks over to a TV and is looking at the tragedy of the swim meet bombing. ...Tell me why I don't like Monday's... JOSH The Nikkei hasn't reacted... Josh turns around and see's that Toby is gone. Josh and Donna walk over to Toby and look at the TV with him. On the TV screen, you can see the the ambulance and pictures of the bodies in white body bags. ...Tell me why I don't like Monday's I don't like, I don't like I don't like Monday's too much I don't like Monday's I wanna shoot... CUT TO: INT. CAPITOL HILTON - NIGHT BARTLET ...restoring abundance amid an economic shortfall, securing peace in a time of global conflict, sustaining hope in this winter of anxiety and fear. More than any time in recent history, America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arive. 44 people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kennison State University. Three swimmers from the men's team were killed and two others are in critical condition. When, after having heard the explosion from their practice facility, they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. this is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United State of America. Thank you. The crowd stands up and applauds. ...I don't like Monday's... Sam and Bruno are standing up clapping. BRUNO When did you write that last part? SAM In the car. BRUNO Freak. CUT TO: EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT The presidential motorcade arrives at the White House. An agent opens the door for C.J. She enters the White House. CUT TO: INT. C.J.'S OFFICE - NIGHT Anthony Marcus, Simon's Llittle Brother is sitting in C.J.'s office waiting for her to return. C.J. enters her office. C.J. Anthony, I'm so sorry. Thank you for waiting. This thing came up at the last minute. A bomb at a swimming meet. You probably... I can take you home now. You probably saw it here on the television sets. He ignores her or turns away. C.J. You know... I really miss Simon, too. That's... probably something we can talk about. I asked around today. I wasn't able to find anyone, but I'm not done. There are more people I'm asking tomorrow I'll take you home now. Anthony mumbles something. C.J. I'm sorry? ANTHONY I said I don't need a baby-sitter, bitch. Are you deaf? C.J. I don't think you do need a baby-sitter... Charlie who was walking by C.J.'s office overhears Anthony. Charlie walks into C.J.'s office, slams Anthony up against the wall and gets in his face. ANTHONY What the hell is the matter with you dawg? CHARLIE This is Ms. Cregg. She's the White House Press Secretary and senior counsel to the President. And if she wasn't, she would still be Ms. Cregg! I don't mind you not respecting people. I mind you doing it out loud. I mind you doing it in this building. You wanna be a punk, fine, but I don't think you've got the size for it. You wanna go to juvey, get out, deal, and kill cops? Okay, but every time you do a crime, you get caught, so I think you're gonna have to do something else. 9:00 on Saturday mornings, I eat breakfast at Cosmo's on Delaware. I come here for an hour and do office work, and then I go to St. Jude's for an hour to play basketball. You can go to juvey, or you can be at Cosmo's 9:00 on Saturday morning. It's entirely up to you. Charlie releases Anthony and walks out of her office leaving C.J. and Anthony in the office alone. FADE OUT. END ACT THREE * * * ACT FOUR FADE IN: INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT It's late at night and matinence crew is cleaning up. Sam walks out of the President's outer office into the hallway. He unloosens his tie, and enters his OFFICE where he places jacket on a chair. Mallory walks up behind him. MALLORY Schmutsy pants. SAM I know that voice. (turns around) MALLORY I was at the dinner. SAM I didn't see you. MALLORY Nice job on the speech. SAM What makes you think I wrote it? MALLORY "We did not seek nor did we provoke..." "We did not expect nor did we invite..." SAM A little thing called cadence. MALLORY It works for you. SAM How's New York? MALLORY Richard got traded to the Blackhawks. SAM For a Zanboni battery? MALLORY And Garnier and a first round draft pick. SAM So you're moving to Chicago. MALLORY Richard and I split. SAM [failing to conceal a grin] That is terrible. That is... the worst thing. I am so sorry. I liked him, too-- his broding stare in the penalty box. If there is anything I can do. MALLORY Shut up. SAM Okay. MALLORY I came by to say hi. I came by to tell you I liked the speech. SAM Thank you very much. MALLORY My dad said you staffed the President today. SAM Yes. MALLORY How was it? SAM You know anything about choas theory? MALLORY I know it has to do with fractal geometry. SAM That's about all I know too. But it has to do with there being order and even... great beauty, in what looks like total choas. And if we look closely enough at the randomness around us, patterns will start to emerge. I love Josh like a brother and he's a world-class political mind but until today, I didn't know he was smarter then I was. I've worked here three years and eight months and until you sit in the room all day, you can't comprehend the chaos of the Oval Office. I had one good moment talking about the global ripple effect of budget defict, but that was it. The rest of the day was just keeping up. And this was a pretty light day. MALLORY One good moment is good. SAM Oh, I'm not complaining. I'm saying one good moment is great. It's a golf shot. I've got to get back in there. That's where it's happening. (beat) You came by just to tell me you liked the speech? MALLORY "This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars."? I'm weak. SAM Yeah. I think I stole that from Camelot. MALLORY Let me get you home. I don't think you're going to make it. SAM Yeah. I don't think I'm going to make it, either. They walk out to the COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE and continue to the HALLWAY. MALLORY Camelot? SAM Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright. MALLORY Good night, Charlie. SAM Good night, Charlie. Sam and Mallory walk out of the building while we follow Charlie into the OUTER OVAL OFFICE. There's a white box wrapped with purple ribbon on Charlie's desk. Charlie notices the box and looks around to see if the person who put it there is in the room. Ho opens the box and stares at the object inside. C.J. enters the room. C.J. The picture's from Deanna. I just put it in a frame. I've had it in my office for about a week. I just keep forgetting to give it to you. CHARLIE Thanks. It's nice. C.J. Have a good night. CHARLIE Good night. C.J. leaves. Charlie continues to stare at the picture. He finally places the picture down on his desk, and the camera pans upclose to the picture of Charlie when he was around six, being held by his mother in her police uniform. CUT TO: INT. A BAR - NIGHT JOSH Campaigns aren't about the candidates. TOBY No? JOSH They're about the voters. How-how are we going to create jobs? how-how are we going to get healthcare? How are we going to make the lights go on? How are we going to protect ourselves? TOBY Don't you want to ask if the plumber knows which directions the pipes run? Don't you...? Forget the plumber. Don't... (sighs)... we want leadership to sound and feel like, instead of appealing to our-our least expensive, however legitimate, desire to fell good about our selves? Don't we want...? DONNA All right, that's it. I can't take it. TOBY He started it. DONNA I am not kidding. I have such an impulse to knock your heads together. I can't remember the last time I heard you two talk about anything other than how a campaign was playing in Washington. Cathy needed to take a second job so her dad could be covered by her insurance. She tried to tell you how bad things were for family farmers. You told her we already lost Indiana. You made fun of the fair but you didn't see they have livestock exhibitions and give prizes for the biggest tomato and the best heirloom apple. They're proud of what they grow. Eight modes of transportation, the kindness of six strangers, random conversations with twelve more, and nobody brought up Bartlet versus Ritchie but you. I'm writing letters, on your behalf to the parents of the kids who were killed today. Can I have the table, please? Toby and Josh slowly get up fom the table. They walk over to a bar, where a man is sitting there alone. MATT KELLEY Flight's delayed? TOBY Yeah. MATT Me, too. I'm going to St. Louis. TOBY Washington. MATT I'm with my daughter. She's up, uh, stairs in the room, but we were out here looking at Notre Dame. TOBY Yeah. MATT You got kids? TOBY No. MATT Wait till you take your oldest to look at colleges. It's an incredible feeling. You wish they'd go to college across the street from your house, but you know... TOBY Yeah. TOBY A Jack Daniels rocks. BARTENDER Yeah. TOBY My boss went to Notre Dame. MATT Beautiful campus. I've never seen anything like it. She-she's not going to get to sleep tonight. You see what happened in the market today? TOBY Yeah, I-I saw. You invested? MATT Ehh... Mutual fund that's supposed to send her to college. I never imagined at $55,000 a year, I'd have trouble making ends meet. And my wife brings in another 25. My son's in public school. It's no good. I mean, there's 37 kids in the class, uh, no art and music, no advanced placement classes. Other kids, their mother has to make them practice the piano. You can't pull my son away from the piano. He needs teachers. I spend half the day thinking about what happens if I slip and fall down on my own front porch, you know? It should be hard. I like that it's hard. Putting your daughter through college, that's-that's a man's job. A man's accomplishment. But it should be a little easier. Just a little easier. 'Cause in that difference is... everything. I'm sorry. I'm, uh, I-I'm Matt Kelley. TOBY I'm Toby Ziegler. I work at the White House. Have a minute to talk? We'd, uh... like to buy you a beer. MATT Hey. A 5:05 - PRESIDENT MET WITH MR. McGARRY, CH. FITZWALLACE AND DR. McNALLY CUT TO: EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE COOLANADE - NIGHT Bartlet is walking down the collanade and continues to THE OVAL OFFICE. NANCY Good morning, Mr. President. FITZWALLACE Good moring, sir. LEO Good morning, sir. BARTLET The happy fun group. LEO We have reason to believe that in the next 48 hours, the Qumari rescue team will announce that they've recovered a military-issued Israeli-made parchute. BARTLET They're just allowed to make things up now? NANCY As long as we won't step up and say it was us, they do. BARTLET They know it was us right? LEO Yeah. BARTLET Is that what you think we should do? NANCY Me? BARTLET Yeah. NANCY No, I don't. I am, however, beginning to lean towards reducing ournuclear aresenal one at a time, if you know what I mean, sir. BARTLET What about you? FITZWALLACE [nodding at Nancy] Well, I'm with Dr. Strangelove on keeping our military secrets secret. But Nancy and Leo and I think there's a third option, which is to say it was us but insulate you. BARTLET I signed a piece of paper, Fitz. FITZWALLACE We can get around that. BARTLET You just hated my living guts when I got this job, didn't you? FITZWALLACE No, sir. BARTLET Yeah, you did. I didn't know anything and I didn't have any respect for the Chiefs. You became my counselor and you wrangled the Chiefs and you brought them to me. FITZWALLACE You got the Chiefs, sir, they respect you. BARTLET You brought them to me. And you talked Leo into Shareef and he talked me into it. It was my order and you executed it flawlessly and I stand by it. I stand by you, I stand by you all. I stand by it till I die. Plus, I'm going to need some cell mates in Holland. So, what do we do now? LEO We're in the Situation Room. BARTLET Let's go. CUT TO: EXT. AIRPORT ROAD - NIGHT An airport shuttle is seen driving down the road. CUT TO: INT. AIRPORT SHUTTLE - CONTINUOUS Toby, Donna and Josh and several other passengers are inside the shuttle. JOSH You're telling me, we couldn't have just gone to the nearest Chinese restaurant, picked up some Kikkoman and poured it into the soy diesel thing? DONNA I don't think it works like that. Plus, how close do you think the nearest Chinese restaurant was? JOSH Well, we should start making cars that run on ketchup. DONNA When I get home, I'm taking the longest hot bath of my life. TOBY (to shuttle driver) Excuse me, would you mind letting me off up there at the bridge? DRIVER Are you sure? TOBY Yeah. I can walk to work from there. JOSH Yeah, I'll hop out there, too. DONNA Please, not this again. JOSH Hey, you're the one who did the number back at the bar. DONNA It didn't have anything to do with eliminating modern conviences. JOSH She can drop you off at home. DONNA I'll get out with them up there. The shuttle comes to a stop and TOBY, JOSH, and DONNA get off of the shuttle. TOBY If our job teaches us anything, it's that we don't know what the next President's gonna face. And if we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas, who's connected to other people's lives, and cares about making them better... if we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things... we can't imagine yet. Instead of telling people who's the most qualified, instead of telling people who's got the better ideas, let's make it obvious. It's going to be hard. JOSH Then we'll do what's hard. DISSOLVE TO: END TITLES. FADE TO BLACK. THE END * * * The West Wing and all its characters are a property of Aaron Sorkin, John Wells Productions, Warner Brothers Television and NBC. No copyright infringement is intended. Episode 4.02 -- "20 Hours in America part 2" Original Air Date: September 25, 2002, 10:00 PM EST Transcript by: The Vault October 20, 2002