TobyI was warned that coming to talk to you might be insulting to your professionalism.
Well, you wouldn't want to do that.
Toby
I wasn't ready for the press yet.
Could've told me that before sending me in there.
Toby
C.J.
I flatly denied it. I said I was in the Oval Office ten minutes ago and nothing's going on.
Toby
They don't think you lied to them.
I know that. They think you lied to me, which is what happened. They don't know me. I'm from nowhere. I was just starting to get credible. I was just starting to get their respect. You know how long it's going to take me to get it back?
Toby
There's a concern.
Don't ask C.J.; she doesn't know anything.
Toby
There is a concern that you're too friendly with the press.
Toby
We know it's important that you have a friendly relationship with them...
It's important for all of us.
Toby
I don't disagree.
Does this have to do with Danny Concannon?
Toby
People see you with Danny.
Toby
This is one time, and if we erred, it's on the side of trying to...
You sent me in there uninformed so that I'd lie to the press.
Toby
We sent you in there uninformed because we thought there was a chance you couldn't.
Toby
The era of big government is over.
You want to cut the line?
Toby
I want to change the sentiment. [pause] We're running away from ourselves and I know we can score points that way, I was a principal architect of that campaign strategy right along with you, Josh. But we're here now, tomorrow night we do an immense thing; we have to say what we feel, that government, no matter what its failures in the past and in times to come for that matter, government can be a place where people come together and where no one gets left behind. No one...gets left behind. An instrument of good.
HHamlin
[on why the government should cut funding to PBS] Product licensing for this merchandise brings in over $20 million a year, none of which goes to PBS, all of which goes to the show's producer, the Children's Television Workshop. Now this is a company whose chief executive earns high six-figures in salary and benefits per year. Yet Sesame Street is subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
Toby
It's a perfectly reasonable complaint.
Toby
I don't care.
Toby
We're gonna see to all those things. In the meantime, at a time when the public is rightly concerned about the impact of sex and violence on TV this administration is gonna protect the Muppets, we're gonna protect Wall Street Week, we're gonna protect Live From Lincoln Center and by God, we are going to protect Julia Child.
Toby
The Torah doesn't prohibit capital punishment.
Toby
It says, 'An eye for an eye'.
RGRabbi Glassman
You know what it also says? It says a rebellious child can be brought to the city gates and stoned to death. It says homosexuality is an abomination and punishable by death. It says men can be polygamous and slavery is acceptable. For all I know, that thinking reflected the best wisdom of its time, but it's just plain wrong by any modern standard. Society has a right to protect itself, but it doesn't have a right to be vengeful. It has a right to punish, but it doesn't have a right to kill.
RGRabbi Glassman
Say what you will about the Catholic Church, but their position on life is unimpeachable: no abortion, no death penalty.
Toby
I spent yesterday...
RGRabbi Glassman
You spent yesterday hoping the President wouldn't call the Pope.
Toby
You're damn right I did.
RGRabbi Glassman
If he had done it, after doing so, the fear of every non-Catholic who voted for him would be realized.
Toby
Congratulations Rabbi Glassman, you may now join the White House communications staff!
He's driving from Nova Scotia to Washington?
Oh, my guess is, he'll take the Trans-Canada Highway to New Brunswick, then maybe catch the 1 and take the scenic route along the coast of Maine. 95 through New Hampshire to the Mass Pike, and then cut over to the Merritt Parkway round Milford.
Toby
Something really kinda freakish about you, you know that?
MMendoza
You pull all the strings you want, Toby, but not for me. Come Monday, I'm gonna avail myself of the criminal justice system for which I have worked my entire adult life.
Toby
Judge, due respect. Get your things and let's go.
MMendoza
[angrily] My kid was in the car, Toby. They patted me down and they handcuffed me in front of my nine-year-old boy. Then he and his mother got to see them put me in the squad car and drive away.
Toby
He's also seen you wearing a robe with a gavel in your hand.
MMendoza
He doesn't understand that. He doesn't know what that is. He understands what the police are because he watches television. That's what he's gonna remember, his father being handcuffed. So America just got another pissed-off guy with dark skin.
AKAl Kiefer
Mr. President, do you want to sew up reelection right now? Do you want a lock on your second term right here, right now in this room?
Why do you encourage him?
AKAl Kiefer
A truckload of voters, Mr. President, about 47%, overwhelmingly white men, pool and patio types, who voted against you by 20 plus points. They share an affinity towards authority, a President. And they see you as smart and having vision, so why didn't they vote for you? Because they also see you as a wimp. Two-thirds of them on a thermometer place you as some degree of weak.
We've heard these numbers before.
Yeah, but I never get tired of hearing them, you know. Especially in front of my daughter.
AKAl Kiefer
Look, I get that this is not the most popular idea in the room. But I got numbers, and I know numbers, and I trust numbers. And the reason you're all looking a little pale right now is so do you. This is not theoretical. The flag burning amendment made it through the House with 20 votes over the required two-thirds. It hasn't made it through the Senate yet, but that day will come, that day will come, that day will come soon. Laws against flag burning are favored overwhelmingly in the polls, and a constitutional amendment won't be subject to a Presidential veto, or overturning by the Supreme Court.
Toby
Look...
AKAl Kiefer
This all adds up to one thing, Mr. President. It's over! The game's been played and won. But because of guys like me, you get the results before anyone else does, so you get to pick which side you're on. And not only do we get to be on the winning team, we get to lead the winning team.
[Josh's phone rings. He walks away from the table.]
AKAl Kiefer
Toby, you're smiling.
Toby
I just figured out who you were.
AKAl Kiefer
He's going to say Satan.
Toby
No. You're the guy that runs into 7-Eleven to get Satan a pack of cigarettes.
The West Wing · 913 quotes
