A couple of things for you to bear in mind. First of all, he didn't know she was a call girl when he slept with her. He didn't pay her. He didn't participate in, have knowledge of, or witness anything illegal. Or for that matter, unethical, amoral, or suspect.
Okay. A couple things for you to bear in mind. None of that matters on Hard Copy!
As women are prone to do.
That's always what you mean.
You know what, C.J., I really think I'm the best judge of what I mean, you paranoid Berkeley shiksa feminista! ...whoa, that was way too far.
No, no. Well, I've got a staff meeting to go to and so do you, you elitist Harvard fascist missed-the-deans-list-two-semesters-in-a-row Yankee jackass!
Feel better getting that off your chest there, C.J.?
You look like a million bucks, by the way.
Don't try to make up with me.
[reading a newspaper article, quoting a congressman] Folks down here are patriotic, fiercely patriotic. The President better not be planning on making any visits to this base. If he does, he may not get out alive.
He said that? Sitting there with military officers?
You'd better believe I'm going to take the bait.
There ought to be a law against it.
Why'd you get him started?
[Leo shrugs]
There is a law against it! How about threatening the life of the President? He was talking to other people: how about conspiracy? They were military officers, how about treason? That was a member of our own party, Leo. That was a Democrat who said that!
What are you going to do?
Have the Justice Department bring him in pending felony charges.
Toby's right. What's the good of being in power if you're not going to haul your enemies in for questioning?
We're really not gonna do anything about this?
Yeah, cause what we really need to do is arrest people for being mean to the President.
There is no law. There is no decency.
He's just getting that now.
What's the virtue of the proportional response?
What is the virtue of a proportional response? Why's it good? They hit an airplane, so we hit a transmitter, right? That's a proportional response.
Sir, in the case of Pericles 1 --
[talking over him] They hit a barracks, so we hit two transmitters.
That's roughly it, yes, sir.
This is what we do. I mean, this is what we do.
Yes, sir, it's what we do. It's what we've always done.
Well, if it's what we do, if it's what we've always done, don't they know we're going to do it?
Sir, if you'd turn your attention to Pericles 1 --
I have turned my attention to Pericles 1. It's two ammo dumps, an abandoned railroad bridge and a Syrian intelligence agency.
Those are four highly-rated targets, sir.
But they know we're gonna do that. They know we're gonna do that! Those areas have been abandoned for three days now. We know that from the satellite, right? We have the intelligence. [over Leo's attempt to speak up] They did that, so we did this. It's the cost of doing business. It's been factored in, right?
Am I right, or am I missing something here?
No, sir. You're right, sir.
Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?
It isn't virtuous, Mr. President. It's all there is, sir.
Sir, Admiral Fitzwallace --
Excuse me, Leo...pardon me, Mr. President, just what else is there?
The disproportional response. Let the word ring forth, from this time and this place, gentlemen, you kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster! [He bangs the table]
GGeneral
Are you suggesting that we carpet-bomb Damascus?
I am suggesting, General, that you, and Admiral Fitzwallace, and Secretary Hutchinson, and the rest of the National Security Team take the next sixty minutes and put together an American response scenario that doesn't make me think we're just docking somebody's damn allowance!
Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus -- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens. Where was Morris's protection, or anybody else on that airplane? Where was the retribution for the families, and where is the warning to the rest of the world that Americans shall walk this Earth unharmed, lest the clenched fist of the most mighty military force in the history of mankind comes crashing down on your house?! In other words, Leo, what the hell are we doing here?!
We are behaving the way a superpower ought to behave.
Well our behavior has produced some crappy results, in fact I'm not a hundred per cent sure it hasn't induced it.
What are you talking about?
I'm talking about two hundred and eighty-six American marines in Beirut, I'm talking about Somalia, I'm talking about Nairobi-
And you think ratcheting up the body count's gonna act as a deterrent?
Oh, then you are just as stupid as these guys who think capital punishment is going to be a deterrent for drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn't live their day to day lives under the possibility of execution, and their executions are a lot less dainty than ours and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due process. So, my friend, if you want to start using American military strength as the arm of the Lord, you can do that. We're the only superpower left. You can conquer the world, like Charlemagne! But you better be prepared to kill everyone. And you better start with me, because I will raise up an army against you and I will beat you!
He had a ten day old baby at home.
We are not doing nothing.
Four high-rated military targets!
Of course it's not good. There is no good. It's what there is! It's how you behave if you're the most powerful nation in the world. It's proportional, it's reasonable, it's responsible, it's merciful! It's not nothing. Four high-rated military targets.
Which they'll rebuild again in six months.
Then we'll blow 'em up again in six months! We're getting really good at it... It's what our fathers taught us.
Why didn't you say so? Oh, Leo...when I think of all the work you put in to get me to run and all the work you did to get me elected...I could pummel your ass with a baseball bat.
I have to tell you, he's ordinarily an extremely kind man, placing a very high premium on civility. Today...it's just been a very difficult few days for him.
I think I should probably go.
[Bartlet comes in]
Excuse me, Charlie? Can I see you inside, please? Come on, it's okay.
[Charlie walks toward him hesitantly and Bartlet sticks out his hand]
But you prefer Charlie, right? Listen, Leo McGarry filled me in on the situation with your mother. I'm so very sorry. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of calling Tom Connolly, the FBI Director, and we had the computer spit out some quick information. Your mother was killed by a Western .38 revolver firing KTWs, or what are known as cop-killer bullets. Now, we have not had a whole lot of success yet in banning that weapon and those bullets off the streets, but we're planning on taking a big whack at it when Congress comes back from recess. So, what do you say? You want to come help us out?
[smiling] Yes, sir, I do.
Thank you, Charlie. [shakes his hand]
...
I've never felt like this before.
