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One of my favorite things to do while writing a diary is to watch and listen to old West Wing episodes in the background. I’ve watched the whole series all the way through half a dozen times or more since I got my DVD set, and my love of the series and the characters is such that I suspect I’ll continue on watching it for most of the rest of my life. I can’t count the pleasing or provocative insights the show has brought me, nor the political gratification in these times of such challenge.
In Season 2, Episode 1, In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part 1, the West Wing delves into the back story for the series, going back to the first campaign where Bartlet took on eventual VP, John Hoynes for the Democratic Party nomination. Josh was running Hoynes’s campaign at that time. In the following scene, Josh and Hoynes are having an unpleasant conversation.
(Text transcripts from West Wing Transcripts.)
HOYNES
You don't seem to be having a very good time lately.
JOSH
I don't think the point of this is for me to have...
HOYNES
I'm saying you've been pissed off at every meeting for a month.
They stop walking.
JOSH
Senator, you're the prohibitive favorite to be the Democratic Party's nominee for President. You have 58 million dollars in war chest with no end in sight, and... I don't know what we're for.
HOYNES
Josh.
JOSH
I don't know what we're for, and I don't know what we're against. Except we seem to be for winning and against somebody else winning.
HOYNES
It's a start.
JOSH
Senator...
HOYNES
Josh, we are going to run a good campaign. You're gonna be very proud of it. When we get to the White House, you're gonna play a big role. In the meantime, cheer up, and get off my ass about Social Security. I've got a vote.
Later in the episode, Josh is en route to Nashua, NH to meet Jed Bartlet at Leo’s request. He stops in to see Sam Seaborn, working at a slou-less law firm, and this next conversation ensues.
SAM
Josh!
They turn and face each other.
SAM
Hoynes. He's not the real thing, is he?
JOSH
See, that-the thing you gotta know about Hoynes is-- [approaches him]
SAM
It's okay.
JOSH
I-I'm saying--
SAM
Josh. [beat] What are you doing?
Josh knew the candidate he was working for had no political soul. And when he heard Bartlet in Nashua, he could no longer stay with Hoynes. Even Sam knew Hoynes was not the real thing, from watching him at much greater remove.
Here, even before Hoynes could have been elected, the tension between the two challenges was palpable. Is power itself the purpose of government, or is governing that purpose? Doing something for the people? (I understand, if you don’t win, you’ll never have a chance to govern, but one of the most important debates of the present day is about that. There are almost no problems Republicans actually want to SOLVE. Democrats, by and large, want to offer and implement solutions to as many real problems as possible.)
Later, in the second Bartlet campaign, (Manchester, Part II, Season 3, Episode III) Josh works very hard to get funding for government lawyers to fight Big Tobacco. Bruno Gianelli, the hired campaign consultant, rakes Josh over the coals about it.
BRUNO
[smiles] You were the one who sent them the press releases, right?
JOSH
What press releases?
BRUNO
Subcommittee. About tobacco.
JOSH
Yes, I was.
BRUNO
Well, that was stupid.
JOSH
You think?
BRUNO
No, I know.
JOSH
I got two years as legislative director in the House, two years as floor director in the Senate, and thirty months as Deputy Chief of Staff. What do you got?
BRUNO
Josh...
Josh stops to sign a document a staffer hands him.
JOSH
Kalmbach's a fat-ass Rotarian gasbag. I knew once I sent the thing he'd raise the profile and give us the press we needed.
BRUNO
Kalmbach is vulnerable in his home state. He's got an influx of tech and
other clean industries along his Route Nine corridor, along with the suburban voters that go with it - affluent parents that who don't want their kids smoking.
They reach JOSH'S OFFICE. Josh sits.
JOSH
We got the money, Bruno.
BRUNO
You don't want the money. You want the issue. [sits] You should have waited
until the fall when the bell rings and then we hammer them with it. Then Kalmbach, Leder, Ross, Roark, Steve - whoever gets the nomination - has it hanging around their necks they're nicotine pushers. Plus, you get the money. The sooner you get I know what I'm talking about, and I'm on your side, the sooner your world gets better. Of course, you got the money. I'm amazed they didn't send it to you with candy and a stripper. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio - three swing states you could have brought over with that. That's an election.
Bruno gets up and leaves as Josh ponders his words.
Don’t ponder his words, Josh. He wants you to reconsider your abandonment of Hoynes. He wants your soul.
On to tonight's comments! TERRIFIC submissions tonight! Best crop I've seen in a long time!
From annetteboardman:
I like this exchange explaining clearly the bird and fish kills in Arkansas. It begins with this comment from DrTerwilliker.
From Julie Gulden:
renzo capetti in my Howard Dean diary...political wisdom to the max.
From RiaD:
change the Be on the birds and the bees and the present day.
We read a lot about racial profiling. MrWebster tells us about the species equivalent.
From Bluejessamine:
Today in grannyhelen's diary: Republicans Think Their Base Are Idiots, democracy inaction comments: "That's nothing.
The Democrats think their base is f***ing retarded.
To which grannyhelen replies: "touche...but at least Dems are straight w us ;-)"
From Frankenoid:
That a Princess Bride comment not be included in top comments is downright inconceivable! mistersite starts a riff thread!
From carolita:
Greasy Grant makes a good point and starts a funny thread -- read it all, but don't miss blue aardvark's important question and twigg's "fix."
allenjo points out what the pentagon's $5 Billion PR budget really means in OPOL's excellent diary Long Live the Rebels!
From benintn:
JekyllNHyde has a great database of cartoons, and puts it to picture-perfect use in this comment about the House Republicans' effort to repeal Obamacare.
In Rep. Louise Slaughter's diary.
From bronte17:
Free Jazz at High Noon has a snarky play on the EPA's attitude toward our endangered bumblebees in Wikileaks Informationthread 28 by cedar park.
And, I will take the liberty to add this information from the diary because we have gone too far down the path of inhumanity with torture and lack of compassion for even the little children. As Dr. Gawande says, this issue of solitary confinement is a generationally defining question for us… under Reagan solitary confinement was very unusual. Today 50,000 are in long term solitary confinement.
They are held in more restrictive confinement than the more than 100 other death sentence prisoners in the same prison. Now, why is this? It’s precisely because the system thinks of them as leaders… And this means that while other death sentence prisoners can wander about the pod, can have collective meals outside their cells… If he were on death row, he could do that. But he’s been told by the prison authorities he will never be on death row, because they’re going to keep him in social isolation until they kill him.
… New York has over eight percent of its prison population in long-term solitary confinement. A large proportion—some think a majority—are not there for violent offenses, either. It’s a method of control that we regard as increasingly routine.
Four men at Ohio State Penitentiary have gone on hunger strike…. demanding to be put on death row, where they say that they will be treated better.
Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, Cheers and Jeers, and Mojo Friday:
1 - Marshall McLuhan, 1968…..KingOneEye…..143
2 - A New Dawn in Washington, D.C.…..JekyllnHyde…..143
3 - She's really defied every single preconceived…..Pager…..111
4 - I wasn't a fan of hers when Paterson picked her,…..LaurenMonica…..100
5 - I don't even know where to begin.…..pfiore8…..92
6 - 14 points of Fascism…..coral…..80
7 - I don't think that's possible at this time…..Serpents Choice…..79
8 - If anyone doubts the seriouness of this…..koNko…..76
9 - The Day After the Republican Takeover…..JekyllnHyde…..76
10 - I am running out of the emotion known as disgust.…..LamontCranston…..73
11 - Dems have enabled GOP for 30 years now…..RFK Lives…..70
12 - You expected something different...…..KJG52…..69
13 - Peace Now!…..TomP…..69
14 - We always thought so.…..One Pissed Off Liberal…..69
15 - our insects friends --…..soothsayer99…..68
16 - That's nothing…..democracy inaction…..67
17 - Feel as if we're inhabitants of…..Marie…..67
18 - Corporate "citizenship" is a much bigger problem…..RFK Lives…..66
19 - "They're sending a signal to the banks…..Free Jazz at High Noon…..66
20 - You're Wrong, Tom…..JekyllnHyde…..63
21 - Wow. I can hardly believe I'm reading this.…..sceptical observer…..62
22 - And they're right.…..punditician…..61
23 - I can think of no government action in which…..Jim P…..58
24 - The loss of insects is killing off birds, too…..FishOutofWater…..57
25 - If the taxpayers KNEW about it.…..Free Jazz at High Noon…..56
26 - You have to remember that a politician represents…..Kitty…..55
27 - Der Spiegel does some good reporting.…..Lawrence…..52
28 - They treat their base like idiots…..blue aardvark…..51
29 - Afghanistan = Vietnam…..MinistryOfTruth…..51
30 - To Lawrence - Thanks for the recommend…..Democrats Ramshield…..49
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by FishOutofWater — 461
2) Tips for the rebels... by One Pissed Off Liberal — 409
3) Tip Jar by Democrats Ramshield — 343
4) Tip Jar by Clarknt67 — 323
5) Tip Jar by bobswern — 288
6) Tip Jar by Rep Louise Slaughter — 196
7) Tip Jar by TomP — 184
8) Tips by blue aardvark — 172
9) Tip Jar by grannyhelen — 170
10) Tip Jar by Adept2u — 163
11) Tip Jar by BFSkinner — 154
12) Marshall McLuhan, 1968 by KingOneEye — 143
13) A New Dawn in Washington, D.C. by JekyllnHyde — 143
14) So there it is by teacherken — 120
15) She's really defied every single preconceived by Pager — 111
16) I wasn't a fan of hers when Paterson picked her, by LaurenMonica — 100
17) I don't even know where to begin. by pfiore8 — 92
18) Nevada Democratic politics is tough enough by Seneca Doane — 83
19) Tip Jar by Chacounne — 83
20) 14 points of Fascism by coral — 80
21) I don't think that's possible at this time by Serpents Choice — 79
22) If anyone doubts the seriouness of this by koNko — 76
23) The Day After the Republican Takeover by JekyllnHyde — 76
24) I am running out of the emotion known as disgust. by LamontCranston — 73
25) Tip jar by it really is that important — 72
26) Dems have enabled GOP for 30 years now by RFK Lives — 70
27) You expected something different... by KJG52 — 69
28) Peace Now! by TomP — 69
29) Tip Jar by glendaw271 — 69
30) We always thought so. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 69
I have carolita to thank for the Top Mojo compilation. Please tip her when you see her!
Thanks for visiting!