“Six Meetings Before Lunch” · Season 1
In this episode: Sam Seaborn (3), Toby Ziegler (2), Mallory (2), Josiah Bartlet (1), Josh Lyman (1), C.J. Cregg (1), Leo McGarry (1), Mandy Hampton (1)
You got a dollar?
Yeah.
Take it out. Look at the back. The seal, the pyramid, it's unfinished, with the eye of God looking over it, and the words annuit coeptis - he, God, favors our undertaking. The seal is meant to be unfinished, because this country's meant to be unfinished. We're meant to keep doing better. We're meant to keep discussing and debating. And, we're meant to read books by great historical scholars and then talk about them...
Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.
I feel like I've lost 180 pounds. I am smiling, I am laughing, I am enjoying the people I work with - I gotta snap outta this. What's on your mind?
I want you to help me get the Chinese to give us a new panda bear to replace LumLum.
Well that did the trick.
[reading from a book by George Washington] "In public, put not your hands on any part of your body that is usually covered."
Well... I do what it takes to keep the press corps happy, Mr. President.
[The office staff watches the Senate start to vote on Mendoza's confirmation to the Supreme Court and begin celebrating. Bonnie starts handing around a bottle of champagne]
Put it down! Put it down!
Toby!
No champagne.
We're just getting--
Put it down. Everyone in this room, let me have your attention! Please. The law of our land mandates that Presidential appointees be confirmed by a majority of the Senate, a majority being a total of half plus one for a total of what, Ginger?
Fifty-one.
Fifty-one 'yea' votes is what we see on these screens before a drop of wine is swallowed! Because there's a little thing called what, Bonnie?
"Tempting fate"?
"Tempting fate" is what it's called. In the three months that this man has been on my radar screen, I have aged forty-eight years. This is my day of jubilee, I will not have it screwed up by what, Bonnie?
By tempting fate.
By tempting fate! These things take patience. These things take skill. These things take luck. In the fifteen months we've been in office, what kind of luck have we had? Ginger?
Bad luck.
[clears his throat and raises his eyebrows] What kind of luck?
Very bad luck.
We've had very bad luck.
Mallory, everything that you're saying makes sense. I just think that the state of urban schools is such that if you can save even one kid...
[stands] You can save more than one kid...
Tell me how.
By asking Congress to approve, not just a little, but a lot more money for public education.
[Sam laughs]
What?
[stands] Public education has been a public policy disaster for 40 years. Having spent around four trillion dollars on public schools since 1965, the result has been a steady and inexorable decline in every measurable standard of student performance, to say nothing of health and safety. But don't worry about it, because the U.S. House of Representatives is on the case. I feel better already.
[beat] Wow.
What?
For a guy who's trying to date me, that was pretty snotty.
Well, hang on. These are office hours. If I'd known I was working on that I would have had a whole different attitude.
He's in favor of school vouchers, Dad.
No, Mallory. He's really not.
Yes, he is.
No, he's not.
I read the position paper.
It's opposition prep.
Opposition prep?
When we're gearing up for a debate, we have the smart guys take the other side.
[to Sam] You stood there and argued with me.
Yes.
Why?
You made an appointment.
Sam...
Would the two of you take it outside?
I thought you were trying to drive a wedge between us.
Yeah, but now you're just boring the crap out of me.
Hey...
Mallory, education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
