“Third-Day Story” · Season 6
In this episode: Josiah Bartlet (5), Toby Ziegler (2), Abbey Bartlet (2), Josh Lyman (1), Leo McGarry (1)
[about Leo's heart attack] Stress actually restricts the flow of blood to the coronary arteries. What I'm saying is it's physiological. Unless you wanted him meditating his way through intelligence briefings and sleeping in a flotation device... There's nothing you did–
I fired him.
What?
Last night at Camp David, I fired him. What does that do to the flow of blood?
We're fumbling. Our diplomatic strategy is a game of telephone.
Read the coverage. We're doing fine.
Today, sure, and the second day's story is how you pulled it off. But the third-day story is that Congress doesn't want to pay, that our coalition's fraying, that the spokes are coming off the wheels–
It's a couple of days. This was totally unexpected.
No, it wasn't. Not with Leo's history with alcohol, with pills. Mr. President, surely you had a process in place.
Not for this. You think we'd even be doing this without him?
No, sir, but Leo is one person and there are 290 million more and they come first.
You think this is your fault? It's not.
He's my best friend. I'm not the kind of person who has best friends.
Because your life is your work, and so is his; your work.
What are you trying to say?
You chose this; both of you. You're running a country, for God's sake, not a tree house.
Well, Leo stays in the tree house if he wants to. We'll work around his recovery; half-days, whatever it takes.
He's not going to work half days. He's not going to work around his recovery. He's not going to do whatever it takes.
That's his decision.
And we know what that decision is going to be.
So I should wake him up and fire him again? Because it worked so well the first time?
Let's talk about this time. You've got to keep him out of that job. He'll kill himself for you if you don't.
I'd like to know why my Treasury Secretary's on national television denouncing a tax cut I never saw because of an estimate I never asked for.
We did offer to brief you on the details.
Brief me now.
We're not quite ready to brief you on the details.
Because you made a complete hash of it; the Leadership's sole request before taking up peacekeeping.
We're close to 60 Democratic votes.
It's just that you might face a decision about the fall legislative agenda.
What is that?
Would you prefer a bill to appoint an American monarch...
...or a ban on the institution of marriage, except in casinos and department stores.
You tell the Speaker and the Majority Leader that with my newfound royal authority, with all my free time now that my marriage has been banned, and with the support of every NATO member in my pocket I'm sending those peacekeepers to the Middle East. If Congress wants to feed them, pay them, or ever bring them back, that's entirely up to them.
I assume we're free to play with the language on that.
We're done here.
Mr. President.
A morphine drip, and we can skip the formalities. I might get one myself... wheel it into meetings with the joint chiefs. You're not fired, Leo. You can delegate, work part-time. Bring the morphine with you for all I care.
You... You remember... what you told me... when you offered me the job?
"I need you to jump off a cliff."
And I did. And I'd do it again. But you need a new... chief of staff.
We came here to put the job first. Spend our lives for something that would outlast us. I just thought we'd have a longer line of credit is all. I'm gonna need that list of names.
Only one name.
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