The West Wing at 25, Part 2: How Five Votes Down Shows Us How A Bill REALLY Becomes A Law

 

 

The episode I consider the comic masterpiece of Sorkin’s stewardship of The West Wing is ‘Celestial Navigation’. There are almost not moments when I’m not roaring on the floor laughing at it, and the rest of the time I’m smiling.  There are so many classic moments – CJ telling Josh she had root canal, Josh coming up with ‘a secret plan to fight inflation’,  Sam using the North star, which turns out to be a commuter jet -  it’s the funniest episode of a series that always had great fun. I would love to write about those moments, and I will in a separate article, but for the purpose of this one I have to start with the impetus of as Josh calls it ‘the news cycle that wouldn’t end.”

In it the Secretary of HUD Deborah O’Leary (CCH Pounder) has reacted to a Republican congressman’s comments at a subcommittee hearing. She’s ask if he’s a racist and O’Leary says: “If the shoe fits…” (The President’s actually more upset that this is the most imaginative phrasing O’Leary could use than the actual remarks.)

Through circumstances that I wouldn’t dare spoil, O’Leary is told by Leo she has to apologize. There’s an exchange in this conversation that I heard dozens of times but only recently realized how pertinent a remark Sorkin was making:

O’Leary: “Why should I have to apologize to his narrow-minded constituents?”

Leo: “Because his narrow-minded constituents are also our narrow-minded constituents.”

It’s here we see a clear illustration of the divide between being part of the government and leading it. O’Leary has already made it clear that she has a responsibility as ‘the highest ranking African-American in the administration” and that’s who she was playing to. She’s forgotten she’s part of Bartlet’s administration and that administration is in charge of all of America, not just hers.

O’Leary chooses to deflect by saying: “When are you  going to stop running for President?” and Leo acknowledges there is some truth in this, but there’s a larger story that far too many conservatives and progressives ignore. The President’s job is to deal with all Americans, not just the ones who voted for him. There may be conservatives who will say that Obama “wasn’t their President” but there was a lot of progressives who wished that Obama would start taking this statement seriously.

In an article I wrote I mentioned a meeting between Robert La Follette, the Progressive Senator with Theodore Roosevelt in 1906:

 Roosevelt believed that leadership came from preserving order between the old guard and the radicals like La Follette. When La Follette presented a bill and spent two hours defending to TR, the President pointed out that it would never get through Congress. La Follette told him that passage of the bill was not his first consideration. “But I want to do something,:” TR said. The clash between idealism and pragmatism has been something that the extremists have never been able to reconcile, and it was certainly true in the case of La Follette. The idea of half a loaf, the whole purpose behind democracy and government, was something that La Follette refused to accept.

This is the kind of story that Jed Bartlet no doubt would have loved telling his staff, if perhaps not in those exact words. Some would have been frustrating by it – Toby Ziegler in particular – but they would have understood it. And while Bartlet never said it, it played out so many times with members of the Democratic coalition who had relatively little power in Congress but were just enough of a menace to make the job of Bartlet’s White House even harder than it had to be. There are countless examples of this, but the one that I’m going to use that is the most pertinent is one of the first episodes in the series: ‘Five Votes Down’.

In the previous episode we learned that the White House is on the verge of passing a gun control bill through Congress. (In the late 1990s, this was still something that could achieve some kind of bipartisan support.) In the teaser for ‘Five Votes Down’, President Bartlet is giving a speech announcing that bill will be passed within the next few days. As he concludes the speech, Josh receives a phone call informing him that they have lost five votes, all on the Democratic side. The Bartlet Staff reconvenes that night to deal with the problem.

There are several things to note about the episode before further discussion. First, it opens with a long tracking shot with no cuts which was a major directing feat even then. Second, the opening scene is one of only two in which we see Martin Sheen in the entire episode: it was a bold decision by Sorkin to keep Bartlett out of the action this early in the series.

Now a reminder from my first article: Bartlet is a Democratic President but the House is Republican. As we shall learn as the episode progress, this bill is a fairly weak bill but was no doubt the best that the administration could get to receive whatever little bipartisan support they could manage. At the time, there were also several conservative Democrats who were against gun control – and this episode will involve two of them.

In the discussion Leo utters one of the most famous adages in DC: “There are two things you never want to see get made: laws and sausages.” The West Wing will show several episodes involving this but this is the most detailed because it involves all of the contortions that have to be managed to get bills passed – and it is so exhausting that at one point in the episode Josh, one of the most cynical characters says: “I’m so sick of Congress I could vomit.”

They have 72 hours to pass the bill. Over Chinese food, Leo tells them that he knows who two of the holdouts: Katzenmoyer and Chris Wick. Josh thinks one is O’Bannon, but he thinks Wick is a mistake. Sam says that he believes O’Bannon and Katzenmoyer are two of them, and he guesses the other two hold outs are Tillinghouse and Leibrandt. Sam says they’ll need help, but when he tells him they’ll need the Vice President (a Texas Democrat) Leo automatically says No.

The next day Sam confirms that there are all five. Sam tells Josh ‘votes are expensive’ and makes clear what O’Bannon and Katzenmoyer will want. Josh, who plays the heavy well, says that he doesn’t want to give away anything. “L.B.J. would never have taken this kind of crap from Democrats in Congress. He would have said: “You’re voting my way, in exchange for which, it is possible that I might remember your name.”  When Josh asks Leo for ‘permission to kick his ass”. Leo in wary: “We do that. It doesn’t work, we can’t do it again.” Josh tells him: “if it doesn’t work he’ll back off but if it does, he thinks they’ll get the other four votes no problem.”

Leo has a smile when he says: “I should sell tickets to this meeting.”

The scene that follows features one of Bradley Whitford first great moments on the show. Kaztenmoyer tells Josh that he won his district with 52 percent of the vote and can’t afford to become the target of the NRA. He says to ask him in two years.

Josh tells him: “Fifty-five thousand more people will be shot and killed with guns two years from now, but that’s very much beside the point…Forgive my bluntness, and I say this with all due respect Congressmen, but vote yes or not even going to be on the ballot two years from now. You’re going to lose in the primary.”

In the next few lines Josh makes it very clear that if Katzenmoyer doesn’t vote the way they say, the President will return to his district, personally anoint a challenger and that will be that.” As he walks away, Josh puts on his sunglasses and says: “President Bartlet’s a good man. He doesn’t hold a grudge. That’s what he pays me for.” So much of Josh’s future character is shown in this moment.

Josh comes back to the White House and says he has Katzenmoyer as well as O’Bannon and Lebrandt. (It’s not clear he has the latter two.) However he tells CJ that he can’t get Tillinghouse without the Vice President. He then tells Donna to let Chris Wick wait in the mural room. Donna, still timid, reminds him that Wick has been waiting for 20 minutes and he has another meeting in 15 minutes.

Then Josh meets with Wick is so fresh-faced he looks like he’s barely old enough to shave. Wick starts to introduce his staff but Josh tells them to leave, and says he’s not impressed. Then he vents on Wick as to how pissed he is that this made him look in front of the minority whip because he said Wick was solid and he wasn’t.

Josh didn’t mention the guns in front of Katzenmoyer, but he does in a very long way in front of Wick. It’s clear the two of them were friends and that Josh helped get him elected. Wick now makes it clear that in order to look good he needs a photo-op with the President. Wick has been in Congress less than a year.

Josh now gets infuriated: “You’re voting down a measure that would restrict the sale of deadly weapons because nobody invited you to the cool kids table?”  Wick just says: “Got your attention.” That’s when Josh utters his line about Congress. After agreeing to the photo-op, Josh says to him: (Bartlet’s gonna kick your ass.” When Wick protests, he cuts him off: “Chris, you’re a Congressman. You’ve gotta make that real. This time it was me in the Mural Room. Trust me when I tell you, you do not wanna have this conversation with the guy next door.” (Speaking for myself, I genuinely wish that Biden would have conversations like that with just about any member of the Squad from the moment he was elected until now.)

In the next scene Josh tells Leo that they have to get Tillinghouse. Everyone is agreed except Leo. Leo says he’s going to go to Richardson. Richardson, as we shall learn, is the head of the  Congressional Black Caucus and Josh has been doing this before. He warns Leo that they shouldn’t “get em any more pissed off at us than they are already.” Leo tells him he’s going to talk to Richardson alone. It’s this scene that I want to talk about.

Richardson knows exactly why Leo’s here. When Leo tells him it’s all they could get right now, Richardson tells him he didn’t work hard enough. When Leo tells them they have do this inch by inch, Richardson dismisses him saying “I know how you guys work.”  When Richardson tells Leo that ‘Keeping the White House strong is number one on my list of priorities,” Leo counters: “If the White House isn’t strong it doesn’t really matter what number two on my list is.”

There’s a certain measure of this that is logical in Richardson’s argument: as we will learn later this bill is for show more than anything else. But there’s a larger message here that Sorkin is illustrating for the first time and will come back to repeatedly: even bills that are for show can do some good. Richardson has clearly been in charge of the caucus long enough that he is served under Republican Presidents but his decision to equate Bartlet with ‘you guys’ shows a very clear demarcation on the left’s frequent refusal to recognize reality. That a stronger bill likely could not have gotten through Congress doesn’t matter to Richardson or his caucus. Bartlet wants to get something done but as far as the black caucus is concerned, something is worse than nothing. The irony is, as we shall see, people in the administration hold the same idea.

While this is going on there is a story of how Leo has forgotten his wife’s anniversary and is trying to make up by holding a huge celebratory dinner. He’s bought a diamond choker and is trying to hire a musician. However when he gets back home, he finds his wife has packed her bags and is telling him that she’s leaving him because he has put the job first. She walks out on him.

The scene that follows is one of the more moving in the episode. Leo goes to see Hoynes and he is almost in tears. Hoynes picks up on this and asks if he’s okay. Leo tells him that his wife has left him. Hoynes pats Leo on the back, asks for a glass of ice water, offers a shoulder to cry on and without a second thought tells Leo he’ll get the vote. Leo is about to leave when Hoynes asks with genuine compassion: “When was the last time you went to a meeting?” Leo acknowledges for the first time he’s a recovering alcoholic and what meeting he could go to. Hoynes says: ‘Mine. I’ve got my own meeting. Every week. Nine of us. Three senators, two cabinet secretaries, one federal judge and two agency directors. There’s an agent outside, the whole thing looks like a card game.”

Leo is stunned. “Do I have enemies in this room?” Hoynes assures him they’re ‘all are own people.” Leo nods and John assures him that everything will be okay. At the end of the episode Leo goes to the ‘card game’

The next day Hoynes meets with Tillinghouse, whose clearly a Southern Democrat and Tillinghouse tells him that he’s voting his conscience and there are members of the House unhappy with Josh’s behavior towards them. Hoynes nods and tells him: “Which is why you’re going to vote yes on the bill. And you might want to pass that message on.” “And why would I do that?” Tillinghouse asks, Hoynes tells him: “Because I’m going to be President someday and you’re not.”

When the episode ends the bill has passed by one vote. However, the Vice President receives most of the credit from Congressional Democrats. And Richardson has no comment which is considering by reporters as a snub. Everyone is upset except Leo. “We got what we deserved. It was hubris and we got what we deserved.” That night Josh goes to see Hoynes. Hoynes congratulates him on the bill and Josh admits it’s a crappy law. “I helped write it. I’d say it’s roughly the equivalent of fighting the war against tobacco by banning certain color matchbooks covers.” (This is, remember, the man who shouted at his friend for not wanting to ban a grenade launcher.) Josh then says. “You did well sir. In fact, you might be the only one who did.” Hoynes says nothing but when he leaves he pats his former aide on the shoulder and says: “Welcome to the NFL.”

This episodes tell you lot about what Sorkin thinks about gun control legislation even at a time when it seemed feasible. There’s also a subtler message that I didn’t pick up until years later, and it would be the far from the last time Sorkin tried to make it clear.

Richardson’s gesture about not having the caucus vote for the bill and saying nothing about is as symbolic as Chris Wick’s decision to demand a photo op with a president. But there is something more damaging about it that says a lot about not only the black caucus but so many other leftists. Josh acknowledges it’s a pathetic bill but even the worst bill is better than nothing. Richardson is one of many Democrats who will demand a pound of flesh for their support when they believe they have the White House over a barrel. On several occasions in his tenure on The West Wing,  the administration will often go to Republicans rather than the extremes on either end of their party because they are far easier to deal with. Time after time, the various wings of the coalition – African-Americans, environmentalists, women’s group – all demand that the impossible be done for them even though it might hurt the Democrats down the road or even sooner. Sorkin is making a very clear point about the difference of leading a coalition and leading a party.  This message was probably lost under Sorkin’s clear Democratic policies but they are obvious all the same on second and third viewings.

To paraphrase Lincoln, my opinion of democracy is that you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Five Votes Down is the first time Sorkin makes it clear that even within the Democratic party, the individual units each consider the last statement is possible – as long as their group is the ‘all’.  The president has to deal with every American, not just the ones who voted for him. Sorkin, for all his admiration for progressive ideals, makes it very clear in ‘Five Votes Down’ that ideals are not enough if you want to get something done.