“Gone Quiet” · Season 3
In this episode: Sam Seaborn (2), Abbey Bartlet (2), Bruno Gianelli (2), Oliver Babish (2), Josiah Bartlet (1), Josh Lyman (1), Toby Ziegler (1), C.J. Cregg (1)
We've got to meet with Albie.
Bartlet He's going to scold me. He's been at the State Department since Truman. He thinks I'm a kid and that he outranks me.
You'll be fine.
I've got to tell him I lost a submarine. Can I make something up like say 'what if a friend of mine hypothetically...'
I was hiking, Oliver. I was hiking. Are you really that much an enemy of nature?
Nature is to be protected from. Nature, like a woman, will seduce you with its sights...and its scents and its touch...and then it breaks your ankle, also like a woman.
What the hell kind of dates are you going on, Oliver?
I hear ya.
[quoting] We have the greatest technology of any people, of any country in the world, along with the greatest - not the greatest but very serious problems confronting our people. And I want to be President in order to focus on these problems in a way that uses the energy of our people to move us forward, basically.
Yes!
It's the 'basically' that makes it art.
You broke some laws, Abbey, and quite frankly you should be ashamed of yourself, but this investigation isn't about that.
Look–
It's about the criminalization of politics. An attempt to do in the hearing room what they couldn't do at the ballot box.
I understand, but we don't have the luxury...
Abbey, stop eating fruits, stop eating vegetables, it's doing something bad to you. Fruits and vegetables will seduce you, like a woman, with their...
Oliver!
Truth isn't a luxury. You're going to go in there, you're going to swear an oath, you're going to get asked questions, and you're going to tell the truth. It's the way you stand up and say 'Stop!'
You should be careful, Oliver. You keep talking like a person, they're going to kick you out of the bar.
I've been kicked out of bars before.
I meant–
I know what you meant.
Why are you so bent on countering these idiot leaflets?
Because I am tired of working for candidates who make me think I should be embarrassed to believe what I believe, Sam. I'm tired of getting them elected. You all need some therapy, because somebody came along and said liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on communism, soft on defense, and we're going to tax ya back to the stone age, because people shouldn't have to go to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, leave it to beaver trip back to the fifties,' we cowered in the corner. And said 'Please Don't Hurt Me'. No more. I really don't care who's right, who's wrong. We're both right. We're both wrong. Let's have two parties, huh, what do you say?
Why are you so bent on countering these idiot leaflets?
Because I am tired of working for candidates who make me think I should be embarrassed to believe what I believe, Sam. I'm tired of getting them elected. You all need some therapy, because somebody came along and said liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on communism, soft on defense, and we're going to tax you back to the stone age, because people shouldn't have to go to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave it to Beaver trip back to the fifties,' we cowered in the corner. And said 'Please don't hurt me.' No more. I really don't care who's right, who's wrong. We're both right. We're both wrong. Let's have two parties, huh, what do you say?
I agree.
Toby...
So let's stick to the spirit of the law.
The spirit of the law means no soft money.
No, I'm saying let's do an issue ad, an actual issue ad. Let's do a bunch. Health care, equal opportunity--
School construction.
School construction. Does anyone think that raising awareness of crumbling schools won't help us?
There's actually a reasonable point here. New polls see Republicans as better on education with no basis for it.
And the ad could spark a debate on the issue, which would help.
And we take a parallel path on our free media.
Across America, our schools are crumbling, holes in the walls, kids packed into trailers like sardines in a can. Half of America's schools are in disrepair.
And when schools fall down, so do test scores.
This isn't bad, I like this.
Yes.
Why am I nervous?
It's not amoral.
[laughs] Yeah.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
