ACT ONE
INT. JOSH'S OFFICE, MONDAY MORNING
"Lou, what's the message this week?" Josh stalked into his office. The staff traded glances. Josh was in a mood and they were all about to suffer for it.
"Education."
"Education. This week's message is education. Yet there was an op/ed in the Washington Post this week with blind quotes from one of our people about the Superfund lawsuit, and the closing topic on Hardball was whether or not Donna and I should bare our souls to Barbara Walters. Why was that?"
"Because nature abhors a vacuum?" Lester piped up to the amusement of everyone but Josh.
"You know, Lester's right," Lou chimed in when the chuckling died away. "If you two would just throw the media a bone and sit down with..."
"The White House doesn't comment on the personal lives of staffers," Sam interrupted, noting the imminent eruption on Josh's face. "Trust me that at one point or another you will all be glad for that policy in the next four years."
"Tell me how we're going to recapture the news cycle?" Josh glared at everyone in the room in turn before settling on the now mute press secretary. "Lester?"
After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Amy Gardner came to Lester's rescue. "I can get up on the Hill and start feeling people out on some of our education proposals," she offered. "The minute word gets around we're shopping the reform package people will start howling, though. Are we ready for the heat?"
Sam gave her a look wondering just what she was up to, but Josh nodded and then turned to look at Lou. "Lou? Do you think you can keep our people on topic the rest of the week?"
"Our people aren't the problem, Josh. Our people are on topic," Lou retorted. This was why she had never taken a job in government before. There were just too many variables to control for too long. It was too easy to lose control of the message. "It's not that hard to stay on topic if the topic is something the media wants to talk about. The problem is that the media doesn't want to talk about education right now. They want to talk about this Superfund lawsuit that we barely know anything about and you and your girlfriend, which we can't comment about."
"Since someone in this building is feeding anonymous quotes about both subjects to the media and those quotes showed up in an op/ed in the Post yesterday, you'll pardon me if I have trouble believing you. Nail down the leaks and get the fundamentals of our education reform policy out there," Josh barked.
"I'm sorry. How, exactly, do you know the leaks are coming from Communications?" Lou refused to be intimidated.
"I don't care if the leaks are coming from the East Wing, Lou. Plug them. Amy, get up the Hill and get the feel of the place, but it's an intelligence gathering visit only. Get the lay of the land and find out where we're going to have problems. I'd like to hear about them from you before I read about them on the front page of the New York Times, but promise nothing. Anything else?" Josh waited half a heartbeat for everyone to shake their heads. "Good. Everyone get to work. Sam?"
Sam waited until Lou, Otto, Lester and Amy filtered out of the office. "You're giving education to Amy?" he asked, his voice a mix of concern over Amy's ability to handle the issue, and hurt feelings that Josh seemed to be taking it away from him. "I thought we'd agreed that I would take the lead on education reform. This is going to require a deft touch and she's more of a bull in a china shop."
"I'm sending Amy up to the Hill to feel things out. The two of you sit down when she gets back and start to devise a strategy for getting what we want."
"I can do that, sure. It's just the education thing is important and..."
"The education reform package is very important, but these first meetings, Sam buddy, they're below your paid grade. Let Amy have them, just keep a close eye on her. You okay with that?"
"Yeah, and you're right. I'm up to my eyeballs in the Baker confirmation, I don't have time to be up on the Hill all day listening to people ramble on about whatever," Sam agreed.
"And thanks for..." Josh trailed off, looking down at his desk and fiddling uncomfortably with the papers covering it.
He accepted that the staff blamed him for the situation, but there'd been no doubt in his mind they were off stage when he had kissed Donna so passionately in the Convention Center. If he'd thought there was any chance people or photographers could see them, he'd have never been so demonstrative. The magazine covers had left him feeling naked and violated and he had little desire to repeat the experience on national television. Never mind the effect all the pressure and attention was having on his ability to control his temper. On top of the fact that his job was to stay the hell out of the spotlight and put the focus on his boss's agenda.
Sam chose his words carefully. They'd had this conversation before and he doubted Josh would be any more receptive today than he had been previously. "You know Lester has a point."
"Sam..." Josh began, clearly tired of discussing the issue.
"Look, I know you're sick of it, but even Leo made a statement about his drug addiction." Sam paused at the door.
"Do you honestly think that if we do an interview, these people will go away? Throw them a bone? Give them a little something?" Josh lost his patience and snapped, the frustrations of the past several weeks pouring out of him. "Donna and I talked about it and we agreed, doing an interview sets the precedent that the press has access to our personal lives, Sam, and we're not giving them that. Ever. Because once we give it away, we can never take it back. We can never say no and we don't want People magazine telling us when I have to propose or Donna has to get pregnant or whatever! We want our personal life to be personal. Just because our salaries are public record does not mean we are fair game for the media!"
"But at one point you both were," Sam pointed out, refusing to take being the object of Josh's frustrated scolding personally. He'd poked the hornets' nest, he'd known he was likely to get stung.
"Just because you get shot or blown up in a car bomb and somebody takes pictures of it or writes a newspaper article about it doesn't make you a celebrity. It makes you a victim of crime or terrorism. And remind me again just how many interviews I gave after I got out of the hospital?" Josh stared at his deputy. "Oh, wait, I remember. None. The exact same number as Donna gave. We both made a choice to return to the White House and our jobs and anonymity and to not do interviews and to not sue anybody and to not sell our stories to
Sam looked down at the floor before he looked back up at his friend. "And Donna really agrees with you on this?"
Josh ran his hands through his hair and chuckled once ruefully. "You mean did I uncork on her like I just did on you? No. Did we talk bout it? Yes, we did and she said she understood and agreed. Look, I'm sorry, but it's getting old to hear it every single day from people."
"I'd imagine it probably does," Sam empathized. "Just, you know, try not to do that to anybody else."
"Yeah."
"I'm going to go work."
Taking a deep breath, Josh gathered himself after Sam's departure and entered the Oval Office. As bad as his week was starting, he couldn't let the President see it. It was Monday morning and they had a long week ahead. He needed to do everything he could to keep Matt in a decent mood and that meant putting on a happy face in the Oval Office. He stood quietly against the curved wall while General McClain and the head of the CIA completed their daily briefing on
"Both the Chinese and Russian armies are maintaining their positions, sir, and everything is relatively calm."
"What about recon flights? Is either side trying to conduct them?"
"We're patrolling the no-fly zone at both low altitudes with Army and Marine Corps helicopters and at higher altitudes with AWACS directed fighter aircraft. We're also taking this opportunity to refine the
doctrine for the new Joint STARS program," the General explained.
"I don't know that I've heard of that before."
"It's part of the new digital battlefield, sir. It's the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. It's a plane equipped with a long-range, air-to-ground surveillance system designed to locate, classify and track ground targets in all weather conditions. They're testing it in coordination with the Ranger units we've got on the ground conducting recon of the Chinese and Russian positions."
"Do I want to know how close those guys are getting to those positions?"
The CIA chief shook his head. "I've seen the photos, Mr. President. Let's just say we know what flavor vodka the Russians are drinking and that the Chinese aren't eating Minute Rice."
"Tell those guys to keep safe. I don't want to make any more phone calls." Matt stood up. "Thank you, gentlemen."
"The digital battlefield." The President shook his head in wonder once the two men left the office. "I remember when I was going through Officers' Basic Course at
battlefield was my watch."
"I thought you were a pilot, sir," Josh replied. "What were you doing on the battlefield?"
"I was a pilot, but the Marine Corps, in its infinite wisdom, still made me run around the boondocks conducting the platoon in assault drills before I could go learn how to fly airplanes. Every marine is a rifleman, Josh, didn't you know that?"
"So you could repel boarders if it came down to that, sir?"
"Now that you mention it, that's something they never taught us how to do,"
"I'm sending Amy up to the Hill to lay the groundwork for the education plan. Do a little recon work, so to speak."
"Can she take pictures of what kind of vodka they're drinking up there?"
"I knew I should have asked the CIA for a pinhole camera."
"What's going on with this thing in the Northwest?"
"Nothing for you to worry about."
"You sure?"
"If we're talking about the Superfund lawsuit, then yes, sir. It's nothing we can't handle. I'm heading down to the Counsel's office later today and we'll get it taken care of."
"Okay." Matt nodded and Josh turned to leave. Before he could reach the door, Matt spoke again. "Hey, what do you think about the new HPV vaccine?"
"Sir?"
"What do you think the FDA advisory panel is going to recommend?"
"I think they're going to recommend approval. The vaccine looked good in clinical trials, and there's no reason we shouldn't be preventing cancer."
"Yeah?"
"You're worried about the religious right?" Josh asked.
"And you aren't?" The idea of Josh not worrying about the political downside of something made Matt chuckle.
"It's education week." Josh spread his arms wide.
"Yeah."
"I've got a meeting."
"Go." Matt waved his Chief of Staff out of the room.
CUT TO:
INT. LESTER'S OFFICE, SAME TIME
"Do you see any other way of getting this thing to disappear?" Lou asked Lester.
They were standing on opposite sides of Lester's office with the door closed, strategizing.
"At this point, no. And I'm not sure that there ever was. It's the first and last topic brought up in the gaggle almost every day. Not a day goes by that one of those right-wing tinfoil hat-wearing blogs isn't coming up with some kind of new conspiracy that trickles its way into the gaggle somehow. I have to assign an intern to monitor these sites just so my jaw doesn't hit the floor at the audacity of some of these questions."
"They aren't hitting the press room are they?" Lou asked.
"No," Lester shook his head. "But I don't doubt it will eventually. Right now, they're still cute. Everyone still loves them, but what if somebody hits on something? What if this thing turns ugly? Don't we want to be in control of the story by then?"
"I've tried, you've tried, Sam's tried..." Lou shook her head.
"Have you tried Donna? You guys were pretty close during the campaign. Maybe she'd be more receptive to the idea," suggested Lester.
"I tried that last week. Those two have some serious message discipline. We ought to try bottling that for the rest of the staff." As frustrating as her trip to the East Wing had been, Lou was impressed by Josh and Donna's united front.
"Who else is there that could convince them to just do a damn interview?"
Lou scratched her chin. "There's only one person left."
"Who?" Lester asked.
"The President."
"You want to go over Josh's head, directly to the President?" Lester shook his head. "Man, Lou, I don't know if that's the greatest idea or not."
"Who else is there?"
"You want to go in there, just the two of us?"
Lou thought about it for a second. "I'll get Sam on board."
"You get Sam on board, I'm in."
CUT TO:
INT. DONNA'S OFFICE, SAME TIME
"People magazine! For the second time!"
"This is mortifying."
"And US Weekly."
"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you."
"Should I look for you two on the cover of the National Enquirer soon? White House Chiefs of Staff Secretly Marry and Have Alien Baby!"
"Annabeth!" Donna moaned while letting her head drop to her desk. While she hadn't agreed with Josh's hard-line stance on not giving an interview at first, she couldn't argue with his fundamental reasoning. It was a bad precedent to set and it would give the press extraordinary access to their lives that neither of them was sure they could control in the future. The downside was the constant pressure they were both getting from their colleagues to make everyone's life easier and move the story off the front page and she was really getting annoyed with everyone's selfishness on the issue. It seemed like they wanted her to make her own life harder so their jobs would be easier.
"Oh come on, Donna. I said the National Enquirer thing as a joke. So the gossip rags are interested in you two, give someone an interview, get the hounds off the scent and move on," the petite blonde advised her friend while perching herself on the edge of the same desk Donna's head rested on.
Picking her head up and resting it in her hand, Donna launched her well-rehearsed response. "We are not the story. There is not a story here! Plus, we have actual work to do. Josh has a vice-president to confirm, an education reform plan to sell to the country and I'm chief of staff to a First Lady who has no idea what she wants to do besides check her kids' homework!"
"Feel better?"
Donna took a deep breath and shook her head, looking miserable. "Not really."
"What's the matter?" Annabeth got the feeling that whatever was troubling Donna had little to do with the media or the First Lady.
"Don't worry about it," Donna replied, busying herself by going over Helen's schedule.
This was the problem with having your personal life splashed across the headlines, Donna decided. Everything had to stay hunky-dory. She couldn't be upset because Josh grudgingly helped her move the day before and then declined her invitation to stay for dinner and refused to answer any of her phone calls the entire night. She couldn't be upset with him because, according to People magazine, they were the second coming of Camelot and Camelot, last time she checked, was perfect And things between her and Josh were not exactly perfect right now.
"If it's bothering you, you should talk about it."
Donna sighed, wishing it were that simple. The stories about her and Josh being perfect were bad enough. Stories about her and Josh having a spat would be worse. The minute she breathed a word of it, someone would overhear her and it would be everywhere. "We have things to do, you know."
"No, we don't."
"Annabeth!"
"Donna, I get the same schedule you do. There's nothing on it today."
"I'd like to make a change to that."
"Ma'am!" "Mrs. Santos!" Donna and Annabeth both jumped to their feet.
"I'm sorry for barging in, but there wasn't anybody in the outer office," Helen pointed back over her shoulder.
"My assistant likes to go get coffee right about now," Donna explained. "What can we do for you?"
"I looked through this." Helen held up the battered file Donna had given her the week before. "There are a lot of good ideas in here."
"Why don't we sit?" Donna suggested, gesturing to the loveseat and chairs in one corner of her huge office. She had a feeling this was going to take all morning and couldn't be more grateful for the interruption. "Or we could move into your office, ma'am?"
"No, no," Helen led them over to the small sitting area. "This is fine. Like I said, I looked through this and there's some great stuff in here. Foreign adoptions, mentoring, this is all stuff I could get behind that would make a huge difference in people's lives. And I know I told you I thought I wanted to focus on children's issues."
"But?" Donna prompted.
"But, while Matt was flipping channels yesterday morning after Mass, I caught someone talking about how there's a new vaccine going through the approval process at the FDA. A vaccine for HPV."
Donna nodded. She hadn't seen the show, but she knew what Helen was talking about. "It's being reviewed by one of the advisory committees right now."
"One of them? How many advisory committees are there?" Helen asked.
"Typically, a drug is reviewed by two or three. If I remember right, this particular drug was put on an accelerated development and review track, so I'm not 100% certain what hoops there are for it."
"You know the drug I'm talking about?"
"Yes, ma'am," Donna replied.
"Here's the thing. When I mentioned to Matt how great it would be to have a vaccine for HPV because, as I'm sure you know, HPV causes cervical cancer, he got political on me. I don't want to see this vaccine waylaid by the political process. So, I want to make this my first issue. The HPV vaccine."
"It is a sensitive political issue ma'am," Donna pointed out cautiously. She didn't want to kill the first sign of fire Helen had shown, but she needed to be realistic too.
"It's a drug that cures a common infection that causes cervical cancer and you're telling me there are people in this country who think that's a bad thing?" Helen asked.
"I'd have to do some research to be completely certain, but I believe the manufacturer recommendation on this drug is that girls as young as age 11 receive this vaccination," Donna explained the political pitfall of the promising pharmaceutical. "There are certain people, interest groups, busybodies if you will, who maintain that vaccinating girls that young against an STD gives them a license to have sex outside the covenant of marriage."
"Never mind the fact their future husbands might be out dallying around and picking it up to pass on to them inside the covenant of marriage and nobody on the religious right seems to care much about that," said Helen with a disgusted roll of her eyes.
CUT TO:
INT. OPERATIONS BULLPEN, MID-DAY
"Bram," Lou began, walking up to him at the coffee machine. "You haven't been talking to any reporters have you?"
"I got your email, Lou and I swear I didn't talk to anybody. Besides, who'd want to talk to me? I'm just an assistant deputy chief of staff. An anonymous cog in the system, if you will." Bram poured his coffee and hurried off toward the bullpen area he shared with some of Sam's other assistant deputies.
"Hey, at least you have a job in the White House. Think of all the Republicans who don't," Lou called after him.
"Now that's a pep talk," Sam laughed from the door to his office where he'd observed the end of the brief exchange.
"What? It's true. Did he look guilty to you?" Lou asked, pointing in the direction Bram went.
Sam shrugged. "Not really. What are you doing, by the way?"
"I'm trying to nail down the leak." Her lack of success was written all over Lou's face.
"By personally interviewing every West Wing staffer?"
"And everyone in the East Wing." Lou wasn't sure which prospect was less enticing. Her last trip to the East Wing to try talking sense to Donna about doing an interview had ended with her having to listen to Donna recite all the reasons why the couple wouldn't be appearing on Oprah any time soon.
"Can I give you a piece of advice?" Sam offered.
"What?"
"Josh didn't say find the leaker. He said stop the leaks. Send out an email to the staff reminding them that all leaks to the press need to be approved by the Chief of Staff, the Communications Director or the Press Secretary. Anyone found to be in violation of that policy faces disciplinary action, up to and including losing their job."
"I already did. I'm personally following up with people as I see them. You have any suggestions about how to handle the East Wing?"
"Don't 'handle' them for starters." Sam couldn't help the bad taste he suddenly got in his mouth at the memories of liaising with Dr. Bartlet's staff. "Donna and Annabeth used to work in the West Wing,
they know the deal."
"Just go over there and politely ask that if they ever plan on leaking anything they give you or me or Lester a head's up about it," Josh interrupted. He tilted his head towards Sam's office. Sam took the
hint and ushered Josh in.
"I need to talk to you later, Sam," Lou called before Josh shut the door in her face.
"And I need you to kill the Superfund lawsuit," Josh announced with no preamble.
"I don't think I'm the best person to assign this thing to." Sam leaned back in his chair and twirled a pencil through his fingers.
"I do."
"Josh, this is really a job for the Counsel's office. Which is where I delegated it after you gave it to me." Sam said, standing up so he and Josh were on even footing.
"And you'll work with the Counsel's office on it," Josh acknowledged Sam's uneasiness. "I'm not asking you to litigate it. This thing has the potential to blow up in our faces and I want to make damn sure we're covering the political bases. Have you looked at this thing at all? The plaintiffs are alleging that the EPA prematurely declared the site to be cleaned up and there might have been a pay-off involved. This is something we're going to have investigate fully and fairly."
"You know Lauren's involved in this thing, Josh. She served me with the papers!" Sam protested. "It is a conflict of interest."
"Lauren didn't seem to think it was a conflict of interest for her to be involved or she wouldn't have served you with the papers," Josh pointed out. He looked at Sam for a long moment and lowered his voice. "Plus, I know she leaked those quotes..." he trailed off, leaving the rest unspoken.
Sam dropped his pencil on his desk and put his hands on his hips. He had been planning to tell Josh that it had been Lauren who had inadvertently given those quotes to a Post reporter at a firm party the weekend before, but the proper opportunity hadn't presented itself yet.
"How did you figure it out?"
"The details on the Superfund lawsuit were a close hold inside the building: you, me, Lou, the President and the Counsel's office. The quote was pretty specific and it sounded like you. Plus, the education stuff came from the conversation you and I had last week. I know you're rusty, but you're not that rusty," Josh shrugged. He had decided late the night before there was little point in tearing Sam's head off over it. He was gradually learning there were better ways to drive points home than screaming at people. "That left Lauren."
"So you're doing this to teach me a lesson?"
"I'm doing this because you're the Deputy Chief of Staff and this thing needs the type of deft political touch only you possess. Plus, you're a lawyer and I know for a fact you work well with Ainsley Hayes. I'm counting on the two of you to wrap this up quickly and efficiently."
"So I'm not being punished?" Sam asked as Josh opened the door.
"Oh yeah, you're being punished," Josh called over his shoulder in a voice so similar to Leo's that Sam had to laugh.
FADE TO BLACK