Josiah Bartlet quotes from The West Wing

Bartlet

We started this, Leo.

Leo

This isn't about Shareef.

Bartlet

You're right; it's not. It's about our allowing situations in these countries to develop in the first place.

Leo

I'm not gonna let you do this.

Bartlet

We choose the order and certainty of petty despots over the uncertainty and chaos of developing democracies.

Leo

Shareef ordered the assassination of women and children. He wasn't a nationalist or a fledgling Democrat. He was a cold-blooded murderer.

Bartlet

Six more American boys are dead.

Leo

And that doesn't make you angry?

Bartlet

[yelling] Of course that makes me angry! [pause] "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral. Returning violence with violence only multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars."

Leo

Dr. King.

Bartlet

I'm part of that darkness now, Leo. When did that happen?

Leo

Dr. King wasn't wrong. He just didn't have your job.

Bartlet

Are you a horseman Bob? I'm looking at your boots.

Russell

Oh, I love to ride.... No, I wear these boots, um... Oh, I could give you some crap about remembering my roots, but I wear these because I've got flat feet and they don't hurt my arches.

Bartlet

Leo tells me you have a strong view on this?

C.J.

Yes sir, for one thing sending him back would seem to be illegal.

Leo

Our hand's not legally forced unless he tells anyone.

Bartlet

You know the rationale for sending him back.

Leo

So the Iranians don't wake up one morning and decide, hey, it's a good day to nuke Israel.

Bartlet

Is that such an unreasonable distinction? But this isn't your real argument.

C.J.

Sending him back will play as a disaster in the press if it ever gets out.

Bartlet

[shakes head] That's not your real argument either.

C.J.

No sir, it's not. This young man's asking for freedom. It's what this country was built on; everyone's from somewhere else, some place less free. That's my argument.

Bartlet

Are we having a problem?

C.J.

No.

Bartlet

I feel as if I did more good in the last 24 hours than in the last six months.

C.J.

Yes, sir.

Bartlet

You resent me taking a few extra hours to console grieving people?

Bartlet

I'm asking you a direct question, C.J.

C.J.

Honestly, sir? I resent you ignoring the responsibilities of your office. If you want to reach out and touch people, teach math at East Saint Louis after your term expires.

Bartlet

So you think my staying longer was some sort of personal indulgence?

C.J.

I think it's been a difficult time for you sir. For all of us.

Bartlet

What's this really about, C.J.?

C.J.

I understand there was no time, sir. I can't imagine what it was like. I don't have children.

Bartlet

It's like I knew who I was, then woke up one morning and didn't have a clue.

C.J.

I understand, sir. But I need more. You're the President of the United States. My President. I'm frightened. We're all frightened. This is... the world is too dangerous now. Unpredictable. I need you back. I need you to lead.

Bartlet

I'm glad to see you doing so well, sir.

Are you?

Bartlet

Yes, I am.

Can you do it?

Bartlet

I don't want to. But if it's time, if your condition warrants.

Who'd you get to replace me?

Bartlet

I'd hoped to consult with you.

Holmes.

Bartlet

Holmes?

Oliver Wendell. Marshall, John or Thurgood, either one. I want Brandeis, Blackmun, Douglas. But you can't get them, can you? Because it's all compromises now, the ones who have no record of scholarship, no body of opinions, nothing you can hold them to, that's who they'll confirm, raging mediocrities.

Bartlet

The other eight are preparing to take it away from you, Roy. Holding over cases, the major decisions. How long can the country wait?

My clerks are preparing a brief. There's an Arab-American man, grabbed out of a line at the airport. What's next? Tribunals, identity cards, bar codes tattooed on our forearms?

Bartlet

Then give me a name.

Daniel Robenov, New York State Supreme Court. Susan Bengaly, Ninth Circuit. [shakes his finger at Bartlet] But they won't confirm them, will they? I have good days, and bad. But on my worst day, I am better than the ambulance chasers you can get confirmed by the Senate. You can't do it, Jed. You're not strong enough. The Speaker's running the table. And I can't take a chance.

I want to thank you, Mr. President, on behalf of my colleagues. None of us thinks this is a perfect deal. No one likes to see the sausage made, including the guys who make it. But this is an expression of willingness by both sides to keep all avenues open to an eventual resolution.

Bartlet

Yes, thanks, Robert. And thanks for saying it this time. I think I had to make that little speech the last time around. [Everyone smiles.] Or maybe the time before. This is our third CR, our third time coming up short. We have to do better. People aren't paying us to duck the hard choices. You want to run through the details, Angela?

An act of Congress. Continuing resolution to extend no later than January 3rd, midnight, to include a reduction of one percent.

Excuse me, Mr. President, I'm sorry. There's been a change. I know we talked about a one percent cut. It's going to have to be three.

Mr. Speaker, nothing like this was even mentioned, much less disc--

Bartlet

Hold on.

I'm sorry I couldn't give more notice, but I just came from our conference, and I had significant opposition to only one percent.

Bartlet

Only one percent.

Yes, sir.

Bartlet

We had a deal at one percent.

But now my members have to go back to their districts for the holidays, explain why we kept the gravy train running with a rising deficit and an economy crying out for tax relief. It's an economic situation that calls for action, not status quo spending. Now three percent may sound painful but it's only for two months. It'll show we're serious.

Bartlet

What's next?

Sir?

Bartlet

In two months. Five percent? 50? How many rounds do we go, Jeff? I'm just asking.

There is no next, sir. I mean not to get too technical, but this government runs out of money at midnight. And my guys are going home. This is it.

Bartlet

No.

There is no altering this offer, Mr. President.

Bartlet

And I said no.

Let's be clear, sir. We cannot, we will not, vote to keep on footing the bill. You will be held responsible for shutting down the federal government.

Bartlet

Then shut it down.

Bartlet

She dumped a Rhodes Scholar for this guy. Zoey left Charlie for the frog. Ellie and the guitar player with the purple van. My children choose morons, every one.

They say daughters look for their fathers.

I can't dress for this thing without you. Which one screams "dominance"?

Abbey

Do I get to wear it afterwards?

No Comment

Toby

More college kids think they'll see UFOs than Social Security checks.

Bartlet

But they don't tell you how many believe in UFOs; that's the number we ought to be worried about.

Bartlet

Social Security is the third rail of American politics. Touch it, and you die.

Toby

That's 'cause the third rail's where all the power is.

Bartlet

[about Social Security] If it becomes public we've even discussed this, both sides will go crazy. It'll jeopardize our whole agenda on the Hill.

Toby

What if I do it? I'll do all the negotiating. You'll have total deniability. No one else in this building has to know.

Bartlet

And if it blows up, I'm supposed to pretend we've never met?

Toby

We'll always have Paris. [beat] Mr. President, life expectancy's rising. The biggest generation, ever, is retiring and we don't have the money! Every year we wait means we have to cut deeper, take away more, 'til Social Security's not enough to live on... 'til retirement's a one- way ticket to a flop house. We have an opening. There's seventeen ways to fix it. Twenty years of blue-ribbon commissions have told us how. This isn't a government program, it is a moral covenant. We don't want to be the administration that saves it from oblivion? We don't want that legacy?

Bartlet

Social Security is the third rail of American politics. Touch it, and you die.

Toby

That's 'cause the third rail's where all the power is.

Leo

There's a reason we have a chain of command. So people don't take flyers and I don't hand you their resignations.

Bartlet

I wanted to believe he could do it. I wanted to believe as much as he did.

Leo

This isn't Never-never Land, sir. Believing is not enough.

Bartlet

You would've stopped it.

Leo

Because it's my job.

Bartlet

It's my life, Leo. I'm the one who's accountable. And not in the morning papers, not in the Democratic cloakroom, but in 50 or a 100 years when Tuesday's poll samples have crumbled into dust.

Leo

You can't will yourself a legacy.

Bartlet

You think there's a room at the Smithsonian for guys who never even tried?

Leo

Closest we've been to a deal in 20 years and it breaks down over who we approached first.

Josh

If you approach the Republicans, he's a right-wing sell out, if you approach the Democrats, he's a fire-breathing partisan.

Leo

Hard enough caving on principle without looking like you're caving on principle.

Josh

And, we have a little problem called the Wall Street Journal.

Bartlet

We don't take credit.

Leo

What?

Bartlet

We don't take credit at all.

Toby

It's the only way.

Bartlet

They approached each other. Bi-partisan down the line. No one can say I'm setting anyone up.

Leo

Mr. President, a victory like this comes along once in a generation.

Josh

We'll have practically saved the New Deal and no one will even know we were in the room.

Toby

We'll know. And if we don't do this... if this system collapses, which is what'll happen, if we go back to breadlines, if growing old in America means growing poor again ... we'll know that, too.

Josh

There is no such thing as an invisible legacy, sir.

Leo

You have to know you'd be giving it away.

Bartlet

All day we've been talking about my legacy, my portrait, what's going to be carved on my tombstone. Maybe we pay a little more attention to what's being rendered. And the rendering takes care of itself.

McNally

Sir, given the volatility of the region, a secret test would be how Iran would certainly proceed.

Bartlet

All right, let's put our cards on the table. What helped keep the Cold War cold was a sense of moral restraint that these weapons were too terrible to use.

Leo

That restraint won't exist in jihadists who strap bombs to their chests and enter nightclubs.

There are moderate elements on the ascendancy in Iran.

Toby

"In the Koran, God commanded to kill the wicked and those who do not see the rights of the oppressed and to murder them. If we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill." Televised address by President Alijani: Moderate.

Bartlet

Thank you for coming, Mr. Prime Minister. You've had a long flight and I've had a long last day and a half. Let's not waste any time with veiled questions and coy answers. Your government conducted an atmospheric nuclear test over the Indian Ocean 36 hours ago. This action poses enormous problems for the region, for the world.

And for the U.S.

Bartlet

Yes. It undercuts our counterproliferation policy and makes us look at best, biased, and at worst, like outright hypocrites.

You do not look hypocritical espousing nonproliferation while funding research on a new generation of tactical nuclear bombs? This is not my view. The U.S. is merely looking after its national interest. As Israel has the right to do.

Bartlet

Proliferation breeds proliferation. China's bomb produced India's. India's begat Pakistan's.

The United States' ideal number of nuclear weapon states is one. No matter if it's merited or arrogant, it is irrelevant. Our chief of Military Intelligence asserts that if Iran completes its enrichment program it will be able to produce nuclear weapons within one year.

Bartlet

No one disputes Israel lives under threat.

Threat? We are 6 million surrounded by 200 million who wish us obliterated. For Israel, deterrence is not an option, but an imperative.

Bartlet

There's a fine line between deterrence and provocation.

We model our approach on America's during the Cold War: Mutual Assured Destruction.

Bartlet

There's a reason its acronym was MAD.

It succeeded entirely in keeping the world safe. Iran will become a nuclear state. I mean, what difference if it takes one year or five or ten? What difference?

Bartlet

We can stop them. By force if it comes to that.

But should this fail, all that would stand in the way of an Iranian first strike is an assured second-strike capability. Submarines armed with nuclear missiles. Mr. President, this is essential for Israel's survival.

Bartlet

Your argument boils down to asking the world to trust you.

As does America's.

Bartlet

It's telling that the physicists involved in the creation of these weapons became the most fervid opponents of their use. Einstein, Oppenheimer, Szilárd. Hans Bethe wrote, "If we fight a war and win it with H-Bombs, what history will remember is not the ideals we were fighting for, but the methods used to accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan who brutally killed every last inhabitant of Persia."