OTH: The West Wing- "And It's Surely to Their Credit" / "The Lame Duck Congress"
"You have enormous value to me, you have no value to Eastern Europe." I'm going to save this.
Season 2, Episode 5
Aired November 1, 2000
Directed by Christopher Misiano
Story by Kevin Falls & Laura Glasser, Teleplay by Aaron Sorkin
Synopsis: It’s Ainsley Hayes’ first day working for the White House, and Leo wants to introduce Ainsley to her new superior, White House Counsel Lionel Tribbey. Tribbey is an irrational man who barges into Leo’s office in a bad mood when some of his subordinates lose an important memo, forcing him to postpone his vacation to find. When he discovers that he’s about to have a noted conservative voice like Hayes work for him, Tribbey revolts, calls her an idiot and interrupts President Bartlet’s weekly address to protest. It’s clear that the White House is, by and large, not happy with Ainsley’s hire, but Leo tries his best to keep a positive face for her, even after taking Ainsley to her office, a little hole in the wall down in the basement. Meanwhile, C.J. hears word that Army Chief of Staff General Barrie is retiring, but not before he says a few words about his take on President Bartlet and his White House on news junkets. Unhappy with what he will potentially say, C.J. tries to curb this, but Barrie sends an underling to report to C.J. with his prepared statements. C.J. skims them and tells the Lt. who’s stopped by to call Barrie a coward for her. Barrie, who is enraged by the comments, heads into C.J.’s office and tells her how much he resents the “coward” allegations, but she doubles down, referring to his unfair political takes on the President, and this results in a debate between the two, with C.J. owning the General, even bringing up how he erroneously earned a medal indicating that he survived an attack that never happened, threatening to reveal the information if he goes forward. Barrie walks out. Tribbey then comes into Ainsley’s office, where the two have a discussion about duty, which results in Tribbey asking her to speak to the two members on their team who lied about the memo from earlier. She heads into their office and tries to speak with the men, but they rebuff her as much as they can. Sam eventually heads into her office to have another discussion where he plans to shoot Ainsley down for how poorly that went, but instead notices how she’s on the verge of tears and sees a bouquet of flowers with the word “bitch” inscribed. Instead, Sam walks into the men who berated Ainsley’s office and fires them. While they insist that Sam can’t fire the two of them, Tribbey comes in and assures the two that he surely can. The episode ends with President Bartlet and First Lady Abbey resolving a cute, but unimportant subplot about boning that I didn’t care to report, as well as some of the senior staff surprising Ainsley in her office with a welcoming party.
Hooray for John Larroquette! The multiple Emmy winner has recently reminded audiences of his chops in the well-received Night Court revival, and he does wonders with his turn as Lionel Tribbey, the short-tempered but undeniably well-meaning White House Counsel. He’s entertaining in his moderate cruelty. If anything, it proves how well-meaning Ainsley is if she’s willing to stick around even after being called an idiot by her new boss in their initial introduction.
Ultimately, Sorkin and his merry host of contributing writers will struggle to write for their token Republican, and admittedly, right now they’re in a not-great spot, leaning into making her a punching bag for parts of the White House staff. Granted, I don’t think the show hates Ainsley just yet, but they’ve also kept her views somewhat vague, only alluding to whatever right-leaning issues she believes in without trying to come up with some half-ass explanation of why she stands by them. At this point, that may be for the best.
At this point, I’m starting to think that the show is at its best when Sorkin writes an episode all by himself like a big boy, even if it isn’t especially healthy to handle this much of a load on your own. I say this, although co-writer Kevin Falls, in his first contribution, has notable history with Sorkin as a writer and producer for both this and Sports Night, while other first-timer Laura Glasser has been a part of the show since the beginning as a researcher. And I think that they help to deliver solid bones for an enjoyable episode.
“And It’s Surely to Their Credit” is a nice episode, Ainsley is a cute character thus far, but what really makes the episode work is Sorkin’s admiration for Gilbert & Sullivan (expanded on below) and John Larroquette. When you have musical references and a legend in your ranks, sometimes that’s all you need. And all I need to say.
Season 2, Episode 6
Aired November 8, 2000
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Story by Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr., Teleplay by Aaron Sorkin
Synopsis: C.J.’s holding yet another press meeting, one of multiple she has a day, and Danny, as usual, throws a curveball at her, this time asking if the President has considered holding a lame duck session of Congress to pass a test-ban treaty. She tries to ignore the question, partly since she doesn’t have an answer. After the meeting, C.J. meets with Josh, Toby and Sam, who all agree that it’s a smart idea and decide to bring it forward to President Bartlet. They don’t go over it with Leo first, but rather ambush both of their bosses in the Oval Office, where the President gives his support although Leo is a little skeptical. But really, Leo is less happy with his staff barging themselves to meet with the President without consulting him first, a policy he insists needs to change. While giving his staff their duties for the day, Leo also advises them that if they see Ukrainian diplomat Konanov, they should walk the other way. While the others go about their day, Josh has the misfortune to learn that a drunk Konanov is waiting outside of the White House’s driveway, and will not leave without meeting with the President. He meets with Leo and suggests that they bring Konanov in and wait for him to sober up enough to inform him on why he won’t meet with the President. The thing is, the Ukrainian diplomat won’t take no for an answer, and it takes another idea from Leo to get rid of him- set up a fake meeting to bring the President into the same room as Konanov. He convinces Donna to set up a meeting with Konanov, which President Bartlet interrupts. He tells the diplomat that they’ll communicate if he becomes Ukrainian President, but for now, the State Department only deals with the Ukrainian government.
Also during that eventful day, Sam is asked to summarize a 28 page report on a small business proposition the White House is considering, and he decides to ask Ainsley to do it for him to save himself some time. She agrees on the condition that she can join Sam on his meetings at the Hill, a play he’s not crazy about but ultimately agrees to. Their time goes well, but Sam is less impressed when he skims Ainsley’s report and sees that she reversed his position without asking. As she’s the show’s current wunderkind, Sam is ultimately convinced to take her stance and gets Leo to agree, which means before long, the President will also agree. Go token conservative! On top of that, C.J. remains miffed at Danny for allowing a series of contentious articles regarding the White House to be printed in the Washington Post, and tries to block him from conducting a deep dive into the President, which ends up being moot. As both of them are invited into the Oval Office, President Bartley can tell that there’s something else going on here than just C.J.’s opinion on the Post, and he’s right- there’s still unresolved feelings between the two. Danny doesn’t see a problem with a White House reporter dating the Press Secretary, but C.J. does. And Toby spends the day trying to win over some unconvinced members of Congress, which proves to be a fruitless endeavor. Some won’t support a lame duck Congress, while the White House doesn’t have as many votes behind them as they think they do. At the end of the day, President Bartlet decides to push this one to the wayside.
Again, we return to wunderkind Ainsley Hayes proving that not all conservatives are ill-equipped morons. It’d be nice if we could assume that everyone on the GOP were as dumb as Marjorie Taylor Green… or would it be nice? She still has more power than she deserves, and a significant percentage of the country are happy about this.
I can’t help but feel like the character of Ainsley was Sorkin’s attempt to court right-skewing viewers onto the show, proving that he can handle writing for Republicans almost as well as the left, and his best attempt to do so is to introduce a character as sharp-witted as the senior staff that we know and love. So far, I think she’s working just fine and adds more to the cast than Mandy ever did. A different perspective is always welcome, and adding a southern twang to it helps to solidify this among the largely New England-bred crew. Of course, we also have Donna’s Wisconsin ass to balance that out with, so Ainsley may seem unnecessary in the long run, but she’s a cute addition for now. I’m not sure what’s up with her appetite in this episode, though.
“The Lame Duck Congress” is probably most notable for former Press Secretary Martin Fitzwallace’s real-life anecdote where President George Bush Sr. met with former Russian President Yeltsin in another office to avoid officially having him in the Oval Office, a similar tactic Leo and Josh came up with to prevent Ukrainian diplomat Kononov from doing the same. That’s probably the most fun of the episode, and while a meeting with an impactful representative from the Ukraine would read differently in 2023, it’s a funny subplot to look at for 2000’s standards, and it also gives Josh something to do after a necessary few episodes of downtime. We’re at the point where his fatal attack isn’t quite forgotten, but he’s not necessarily ready to return to heavy business. Note how Leo gives everyone else assignments to do, while Josh’s name is absent from his mouth. Dealing with a drunk diplomat with a sex worker in tow is more action than he’s had since, y’no.
The rest of “The Lame Duck Congress” is enjoyable enough, even if it all feels familiar- the senior staff trying to find a way to do good, but are blocked by notable members of Congress not willing to breach someone else’s trust, C.J. and Danny returning to their unchecked passion, Donna coming up with some hair-brained scheme to keep her in the episode even though her necessity is minimal- and there’s nothing wrong with that. Most shows have fine standard episodes that deliver what audiences expect without rocking the boat. Not every episode can be “In Excelsis Deo”, or then no episodes would be on that level. But these episodes that are more solid than impressive or egregious tend to be the hardest to go over in detail.
Presidential Records:
I will absolutely give Ainsley credit for being terrified of Lionel Tribbey. If a belligerent man walked in with a giant paddle, I would be freaked out, as well.
Couldn’t help but notice that when Josh and Donna are eating lunch in the former’s office, you can see a Pepsi can on Josh’s side of his desk, and a Coke on Donna’s. It’s the little things.
Love the ongoing debate about whether “He is an Englishman” is from Pirates of Penzance or H.M.S. Pinafore (it’s the latter). Sorkin’s love for Gilbert & Sullivan will come up again in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip… unfortunately.
Oh hey, a callback to Laurie the Call Girl!
Donna deserves better than a subplot detailing the demands of OSHA, but at least she gets a good moment with Konanov near the end.
Next Week: President Bartlet flies up to Portland and then pardons a turkey. Talk about an exciting week.