Hey, I'm proud of my voting record. Well, most of it. I'd quit the Senate in a second if I thought it'd help us win. Now it would just look like a cheap stunt.
“Message of the Week” · Season 7
In this episode: Arnold Vinick (5), Bruno Gianelli (3), Matt Santos (1), Lou (1)
MRMale reporter
Senator, what do you think of Congressman Santos doing his Reserve duty in the middle of the campaign?
FRFemale reporter
Do you think it was a stunt?
A stunt? No, that was... that was devotion to duty. That's what makes the American military the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And I hope Congressman Santos continues to do his duty when I'm Commander-in-Chief.
I've always won the Latino vote in California. Why should I give up on that now?
Well, I don't know. Let me think. Well, maybe because you're running against a Latino candidate who's going to get about... 2,000 percent of the Latino vote.
You know, I introduced a guest worker program the first year I was in Congress. I couldn't even get a hearing on it. Vinick opens his mouth about it once, it's like he's parting the Red Sea.
LLou
If you agree with it you're going to look like a follower, not a leader.
He's the one that's following me on this.
LLou
It won't look like it; not now. We can't be chasing reporters around with a six-year old page from the Congressional Record to prove you got there first.
Yeah, well, I shouldn't have been hiding on these issues. I didn't want to be the brown candidate. I didn't want to be stereotyped. Josh was right; I should have gotten out in front of all this stuff during the primaries.
He should resign the Senate now so we can't be forced into any more difficult votes.
SSheila
[on the phone] He'd be breaking his promise to Californian voters to serve his full six-year term.
We've already got enough problems with his voting record.
Hey, I'm proud of my voting record. Well, most of it. I'd quit the Senate in a second if I thought it'd help us win. Now it would just look like a cheap stunt.
I'm just saying...
Vinick': Forget it. I'm not quitting the Senate.
SSheila
We'll just have to turn the Senate into an advantage.
No senator has won the Presidency since 1960. There is a reason for that.
Sheila, will you please tell Bruno that when I make a decision, that's the end of the discussion.
We've got to shake this up now. This is not business as usual.
Santos got a polling bump from the Reserve thing. That is gonna disappear just as fast...
Santos is not the standard-issue Democratic candidate.
DDan
Yeah, he's weaker than the standard-issue Democratic candidate.
Matt Santos is a lot smarter and tougher than you think. We've got to take it to him. We've got to put Santos in a jam. We can't just cross our fingers and hope for the Houston Police Union to do it for us.
LLeon
First one to go negative is a show of weakness.
I want to knock him off message without ever mentioning his name.
Look, we can find ways that can surprise him.
I don't want to surprise him. I want to shock him.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.