EPISODE 8.6 - Written by Jen
CONSEQUENCES
TEASER
INT. OVAL OFFICE
Otto stood in front of the president’s desk nervously tapping his foot while the president read what he’d spent the entire day working on. He knew he should be growing a thick skin, but he still winced when the president took a pen and starting marking things out. Not only was it a blow to his already fractured ego, they didn’t really have time for changes at this point.
“Josh and Lou have seen this?” the president asked without looking up.
“Yes sir. Sir, we really don’t have much…”
“What if we leave this part out?” the president said, interrupting him as he circled a section, a rather large section, and turned the paper half towards him.
Otto winced again and took a deep breath, preparing himself for the conversation about to take place. Where the hell was his second line of defense? “Sir…”
“Josh and Lou want you to suggest leaving it in?”
“Strongly suggest, sir. Also…” he paused and handed another piece of paper to the president. The latest add on at Lou’s request after she and Josh had torn his first draft to shreds. He hadn’t even proofed it yet; he’d finished it literally moments before coming into the Oval Office. “They’d like to add this to the end.”
The president raised his eyebrows and took the paper from Otto, starting to read it while shaking his head. Ronna walked in, handing the president a slip of paper, and he took it from her and read it instead, then turned to her.
“This is going to have to wait until tomorrow morning.”
Ronna nodded. “I told him that.”
“I’ll call him on the way to
Ronna smiled. “Yes, sir. You’ve got five minutes, sir.”
“How ‘bout you do it for me?”
“Nice try,” she said with a chuckle as she left.
The president went back to Otto’s paper. He shook his head again as he read and Otto looked up to the ceiling. They really didn’t have time for this.
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INT. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF
Margaret let the speaker of the house into Josh’s darkened office and Josh stood up and shook the man’s hand, then ushered him over to the couch, choosing to sit in Leo’s chair. He rarely did that and still cringed when someone else did, but the situation called for it. Because just as Leo knew, there was something about sitting in that chair next to that couch in that near dark office that made people listen to you.
“They brought me in a different way tonight,” Speaker Sellner said with questioning eyes.
“We wanted to keep the press away from you,” Josh said, leaning back and crossing his legs. He brought a hand up to his mouth. “Mr. Speaker, we need you to call the vote.”
“The vote?”
“The vice-president.”
The speaker looked slightly shocked. “The republican leadership isn’t done questioning him.”
“The country just went through a major catastrophe. It needs to know who its leaders are.”
The speaker shook his head. “If we rush this through, they’ll say we stampeded them. That we denied the American public the right to evaluate the qualifications of their vice-president. They’re already mumbling about special elections and constitutional amendments.”
“Let them grumble,” Josh said calmly. “Call the vote.”
The speaker paused, studying Josh. Leaning forward, he spoke quietly. “What’s the rush, Josh?”
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INT. OVAL OFFICE
Lou walked into the Oval Office in a rush. Otto should have done his part by then, but she was their second line of defense. As she walked in, she saw Otto and the president leaned over the desk, marking things out, changing words, moving paragraphs, and she shook her head. Otto could write, she’d give him that, and he wasn’t half-bad in bed, especially when it came to stamina. But he hadn’t learned how to handle the president.
“Good evening, sir,” she said, walking quickly towards the desk.
Without looking up, the president spoke. “You think we should add this?”
She took the final steps to stand in front of his desk. “Yes sir. It’s alright to say we had varying opinions and took the majority of those opinions.”
He looked up at her for the first time. “I could have called the governors; let them decide for themselves.”
“Yes,” she said nodding. And why he didn’t, she’d probably never know. “But there still would’ve been a volcanic eruption. It was a natural disaster; those aren’t predictable. We have experts and we trusted them. We made a decision and while we regret what that decision led to, it was a responsible thought out decision.
“That killed hundreds of people.”
Ronna came inside, knocking on the open door lightly. “Mr. President, they’re ready for you.”
The president looked at Ronna and nodded, then stood up. He adjusted his jacket and looked at Lou and Otto before walking towards the door. “I made this decision. I need to stand up and take responsibility for it.”
Lou grabbed the changes off his desk and followed him quickly, Otto on her heels. “This isn’t thwarting responsibility. But there were major mistakes at the USGS and we can’t ignore that just because you don’t want to point the finger.” He looked at her as they walked quickly through the hallway. “Sir, you can’t offer yourself up as a sacrificial lamb. You’ll never recover from it.”
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INT. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF
Josh looked at the speaker, half appalled. “The rush?” he asked incredulously. ‘It’s been four months. The country has a right to a vice-president and the house is denying them that right.”
“The country had a year to decide on a president; it’s not unreasonable to spend four months on a vice-president.”
“It is unreasonable,” he said a little louder. “It’s also unconstitutional. There’s a line of succession. I know you’re next in it, but…”
Speaker Sellner cut him off. “That’s ridiculous and you know it. It was Sam Seaborn who asked me to wait until we had a unanimous vote.”
Josh shook his head and stood up. “We can’t wait. We have enough votes to confirm and we need to do it.”
The speaker stood up and followed Josh to his desk, standing in front of it while Josh walked around to the other side. “A unanimous vote would show the country that congress respects the decision the president made. It would give us weight. You have the education bill coming up; now isn’t the time to look weak.”
Josh put his hands on the desk in front of him and spoke quietly, but with authority. “Mr. Speaker, call the vote.”
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INT. WHITE HOUSE CORRIDOR
Lester saw them walking down the hallway and stepped out of his office. Lou had called him the third line of defense, and while he wasn’t exactly a fan of them ganging up on the president, this situation needed a little finesse. There was a reason they waited until the last second to add the things in about the mess at the USGS. They didn’t want to give him time to argue.
“Good evening, Mr. President,” he said with a smile.
The president turned to Lou and took the piece of paper from her hand, holding it up for Lester to see. “You’ve read this?”
Lester nodded. “Yes sir.”
“And you agree with it?”
He did. Of course he did. But his view differed from Lou’s. “Yes Sir. But the focus shouldn’t be on what happened. It should be on our next step. No one’s perfect and we’re admitting that, but we’re not dwelling on what can’t be changed. There’s work to be done. We’re visiting
“It won’t seem like I’m blowing past it?”
“No sir,” Lester said, shaking his head. “We’re still on topic as long as we stick with the volcano. We don’t bring up the vice-president’s confirmation or the education bill, we don’t entertain questions on those two things; we stick to topic. We just focus on what comes next.”
They arrived at the door and the president paused before looking at Lou. “Josh…”
“Thinks this should be added, yes.”
The president took a deep breath and then nodded at Lester. Lester walked inside and closed the door behind him while the other three stood outside.
“Why is it ‘we’ when ‘I’ made the mistake?” the president mumbled to himself.
“They’re our failures and your successes, sir,” Lou said to him.
INT. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF
The room was quiet for several seconds before the speaker spoke. “If I call the vote now, there will be 60 votes against, all for spite. Wait until the education bill passes. Let the republicans ask him a thousand more questions that don’t mean crap. No one will want to vote against the president after passing such huge legislation. Not when he’s that popular.”
“Mr. Speaker,” Josh said in a clear slow voice. “The president is about to announce that he was advised of a possible eruption at Mr. St. Helens and chose not to evacuate the area or inform the governors of Washington and Oregon. We need to give the press something else to focus on. Call the damn vote.”
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INT. PRESS ROOM
The door was opened from the inside, lights bright and cameras flashing at the president as he walked into the room. Lester backed away from the podium and moved to the side of the room, leaving the empty platform for the president. He took a deep breath and looked at Lou, who nodded, then walked quickly and confidently to the podium, putting the changes down in front of him.
“I have a brief announcement to make regarding last night’s eruption at
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