The West Wing · Season 6
I'm going to need a converter for China, and I can't find my garment bag.
I think baggage claim is in the next terminal over.
You used to love it when I couldn't dress myself without you.
I used to love peppermint ice cream, too, but now those little pieces of candy, they get stuck in your teeth in a way that I find irritating.
[to C.J.] Sure. I'll start pulling together the briefing packets for you. Come on, you're going; you need Toby to deal with the press. Somebody's got to man the fort here. I'm fine staying. You're his guy. You're in the room, in the chair. He needs you. That's how it was with Leo; that's how it's supposed to be.
[to Josh] He's smart enough to take your advice... Bob Russell might be the next President of the United States. You get in now, you can make him the candidate you want him to be. After that we make him the President we need him to be.
Ever see Arnie Vinick campaign? He'll go into those high school gymnasiums in Iowa and New Hampshire and blow them all away. He'll shake every hand in the joint, kiss every baby, hug every widow on Social Security and sound smarter and more honest than any Republican they've ever seen. Because he is.
[About Bob Russell] He's not stupid.
That's your bumper sticker?
You have to care who's going to sit in that chair after Jed Bartlet is gone.
I do. That's why I don't want Bob Russell to be President.
[woken by his staff, in his cabin on Air Force One] I thought you were gonna let me rest.
I'm so sorry, sir. State just got a heads-up from the IAEA that they're gonna report tomorrow that the South Korean government has admitted to conducting an experiment to enrich uranium. [as C.J. is talking, Bartlet is looking down at his legs and his arm, in some realization] South Korea is not releasing any details. We need you to get on the phone and get the President to come clean. We can't ask China to help stop North Korean nuclear experiments if the South is doing it too. [she picks up a phone] Get us a secure line with the South Korean President.
[softly] C.J....hold it.
Sir?
...I can't move.
[moments later, the President is taken on a stretcher to another part of the plane]
Progressive paralysis, he had trouble with his hands, now it's both legs and his right arm...
[sarcastically] So much for being staff-dependent in China.
Fairbanks is closer, but Anchorage is better--
I've got better doctors up here than I do down there.
Mr. President, we can't take the chance--
Let's not pretend we didn't know this was gonna happen.
No, Mr. President, I didn't know...
I mean, we always knew it was gonna happen someday. I'm ready for it, you better be too.
Mr. President, we can't land in China--
[sternly] This plane is going to China. That's a direct order from your Commander-in-Chief.
What if we burned a flag, not in protest, but in celebration of the very freedoms that allow us to burn a flag - the freedoms that everyone who has ever worked in this magnificent building has pledged to preserve and protect?
[taken aback] Did you go to law school?
No, clown school.
[about to be carried downstairs] I'm just saying, you drop me, that's a moment that follows you the rest of your life.
There's someone here from NASA. He needs to speak to whoever's in charge, and at this point I have no idea who that is.
Maybe, keep the philosophical questions to yourself?
What happened to the good old days when a couple of hacks with cigars chose the nominee in a smoked filled back room?
They didn't do so bad, did they?
We need a back room.
Wow. Hi.
How ya doin'?
You lost?
Could be. Could be.
Come on in.
Um, sorry to bug you at home, but there wasn't time to wait for you to get back to Washington.
I'm there next week.
I'm on a bit of a deadline. It's a filing deadline.
Josh, Josh, Josh.
Matt?
It's a little crazy, I know.
I'm not running for Congress again, Josh. You came a long way and I'm sorry about that, but it's just...
I'm not talking about Congress.
I'm in one meeting the whole day. All they did was feed me tea made with Tienchi Ginseng and deer horn glue. You see, it's the thing for the nerve damage. But that meant I had to piss every twelve minutes, which is more of an ordeal than it was when I could stand without assistance. The new kid, Curtis, and I are becoming very close.
Cabinet meeting?
...an informal conversation with senior members of the administration.
President doesn't need the Cabinet swooping in on their shining steeds.
Wanna step into your office or something?
The president is still running the show, on two continents. Russell can stop with the less than subtle insinuations to the contrary. There will be no cabinet meeting.
It's been announced. You don't think it will be more awkward if it doesn't happen.
You know what? Watch yourself. You and the candidate.
You done?
No. Free advice for the campaign trail - stop with the ceaseless mentions of his tennis game. Doesn't make him look young and vigorous, it makes him look like a dilettante who can't settle down with a thick book.
Wheels down in Beijing in a minute or so.
[Will leaves]
A cabinet meeting.
You really think all the talk about tennis makes him look flaky?
No, I think it makes him look young and vigorous.
I just looked at the tape.
Vinick's announcement? Makes you want to cry like a little girl, doesn't it?
It's a tough primary for him. I wouldn't tear my shirt yet.
Russell offered me campaign manager.
Really?
Turned him down. Hoynes asked too.
Popular. You change your cologne or something?
Think Hoynes could win?
With Baker out? Russell's got a huge financial advantage. Sitting VP, he's going to raise a lot more money and he's in a position to offer a lot more favors.
Hoynes is a guy without a job.
That said, Hoynes is much more experienced in the job that Bob Russell holds, he was elected senator of a huge, complicated, and usually Republican state and Russell got elected representative of a district the size of my thumb.
Hoynes is smarter than Russell. He'll kick his ass in the debates.
And he's got more foreign policy experience. It could happen. But you gotta want to work for him and you gotta want him to win. You want that?
I want to get Jed Bartlet a third term.
Yeah. What happened to the good old days when a couple of hacks with cigars chose the nominee in a smoke-filled back room?
They didn't do so bad, did they? Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower.
We need a back room.
Well, we just about outlawed smoking and at this point I'm not allowed to look at a cigar. But we're it. You and me. This is the back room.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
