Legislative survival: The White House scramble to recover the votes needed to pass the gun‑control bill — institutional crisis that forces tactical coercion, bargaining, and invocation of higher power brokers.
Legislative survival: The White House scramble to recover the votes needed to pass the gun‑control bill — institutional crisis that forces tactical coercion, bargaining, and invocation of higher power brokers.
Events in This Arc
Backstage joy collapses into crisis when Leo interrupts President Bartlet's triumphant speech to report: they are five votes short on the gun-control bill. The celebratory ballroom atmosphere fractures as Josh …
On the Capitol steps Josh turns persuasion into coercion, methodically dismantling Congressman Katzenmoyer's fundraising rationale and exposing the political cost of dissent. He punctures policy with a brutal human statistic, …
In the Vice President's office at night Leo arrives raw and disoriented—five votes are lost and, worse, his marriage has just collapsed. Hoynes immediately both fixes the political emergency (promising …