He's a featherweight who only looks like a lightweight because he's got you propping him up.
Don't say 'heir apparent' when we have men in moon suits hermetically sealing the Oval. This is Russell's only shot... A night like this. You're comfortable with that?
This and voter fraud, another option.
Or a mob hit would also work.
Someday there's going to be a newer, younger political operative moving on to your landscape. Somebody up through the ranks from the domestic policy shop, and you'll be able to foist all your jealousy and resentment onto his unsuspecting shoulders and you'll give me a break for three consecutive minutes.
You've had one win in your career, one. And you're looking sunset in the face, and I'm just getting started, and that's eating you apart like some psychological melanoma.
It's an adrenaline sport and you're exhausted. If you had another fight in you, you'd be grooming Matt Packard or Howard Sturgis and you'd take me down, me and my anemic candidate. But you don't have it. I say this with a great amount of respect. I would be eternally grateful if you would back off.
What you wrote for Russell tonight was profoundly disturbing.
Because he upstaged the President?
Who was the first person to shake his hand after the speech tonight?
In a room full of 600 reporters McGill's not a golf buddy, he's Chairman of Ways and Means. You made a calculation; you positioned him brilliantly. It never for a second crossed my mind before, but if you keep this up, he might win.
It wasn't a compliment. You need to get the hell out of there. You're grooming this clown for a win and then what?
Four more years. A better prescription drug plan, maybe the educational overhaul you guys can't seem to get off the ground.
With Howdy Doody at the helm?
This isn't a dictatorship. There are hundreds of people running this White House. The salient detail being they're all Democrats. You most of all...
There are no launch codes at my desk! At the event of what I perceive to be a threat, I can't deploy troops to invade so much as a 7-Eleven. I don't care who you surround this guy with, he's going to wield a tremendous amount of power.
He'll be fine. The Party wants a win. 60 million Democrats want...
You only hit it once, and maybe never again.
Because you back the guy who should win, not the guy who will win. I backed a man of vision, who's still hanging on to his integrity with his teeth. You're damn straight I won't win again.
There has to be a future, Toby. Someone will take the torch. You will despise the very notion of them whoever they may be.
Go find someone you can honestly respect. Groom him.
I'll comb the countryside.
We went to Hokumville, New Hampshire, to find one, yeah. Comb the countryside.
You go. If it's so important, you go. [pause] That's what I thought.
[on the phone] Are you kidding? Do you know the term "decent interval"? Go away. [hangs up] Magley from the DNC, wants to talk about who to run for the two vacant House seats.
They're still picking up pieces of these guys over there, he's talking about DeSantos' poachable district.
What's he calling you for?
He thought Josh'd be upset about Donna being in the car. I guess he figured since my ex-wife was only almost blown up that I'd be only almost upset.
Leo. You wanted to see me?
Yeah, listen. With Nancy McNally out of the country, you're going to have to be our go-to... I was gonna say "guy". The problem with English: "guy" is wrong, "gal" is patronizing, and "person" sounds arch.
Good, 'cause you're it. Which is a lot to throw at you weeks into the job. I want you to know you have my and the President's full support.
I appreciate your confidence.
We'll need you to coordinate all the intelligence agencies, including the FBI and CIA. You may have heard: they don't play nicely together.
And don't be afraid to knock heads together. We don't want petty turf wars slowing down the intel.
You run into resistance, you let me know.
I hope that won't be necessary.
Another thing: the President's not crazy about the DCI. It's chemical; just rubs him the wrong way.
This isn't gossip; it's guidance. If the CIA's got something, the Director's not always the most effective vessel for communicating it.
I'll make sure to underline anything I think is significant.
We just need you to be all over this. State, Defense. You're the White House point... person.
I won't let you down. Oh, and on that whole language score: I was in the military. I "manned" battleships, was "one of the boys," occasionally was exhorted to "drop my ...," you know, and "grab my socks." I've made my peace with the colloquial.
Just between us girls. Thanks, Leo.
One reason some people say nothing can happen till these guys are gone is the feeling they both may be stuck in old attitudes or assumptions. There was a time when Palestinians and all Arabs wanted to drive Jews into the sea, but some would argue that time's past.
Listen to some Arab broadcasts.
Rabble-rousing to distract their street.
I'm not sure any credible Arab leader truly expects Israel's demise anymore, not even the Chairman.
Well, there's a view that...
Don't keep saying "Some argue" and "There's a view." Can we restrict it to your view?
Okay. Palestinians are no longer fighting to destroy the Jewish state. They're fighting for a state of their own, a revolutionary struggle against an occupying force, and revolutionaries will outlast and out-die occupiers every time.
I don't know if that's more simplistic or naive.
It's tribal. It can't be solved. It's Hatfield and McCoy and there is no end.
The Mideast reminds me of that joke about the optimist and the pessimist. The pessimist says "Everything is terrible. It can't get any worse." The optimist says "Oh, yes it can."
It can get easy to forget that there's a silent majority on both sides who just want to live their lives.
Unfortunately, you spend all your time focusing on what's drowning them out: the invective and bomb blasts.
Isn't it our ultimate moral responsibility to them?
It's quicksand. An ego trip.
Chasing that Nobel Peace Prize right down the same sinkhole.
After 50 years of strife and futility, there's no dishonor in failure. The only dishonor might be not to try.
Listen, we need to make a call on Camden Yards.
It's Memorial Day. He's gonna toss out the first pitch at Camden Yards.
Cancel it. Eh, can't cancel it; sends the wrong message. Ask for a moment of silence. And Toby, he's gotta, you need to take him out with gloves and a ball.
It's a six foot toss from the stands. It's Little League.
FDR threw from the stands; beaned one of his photographers in '37, extended the Depression by four years.
You know, on May 13th, the day before Israeli Independence Day, the TV stations in Israel screen the names of every soldier who's fallen for the country. A name flashes on the screen for a second or two, then the next name appears, you go to bed, you get up, the names are still flashing. That's how they observe Memorial Day.
