Tactics versus principles: Josh Lyman's turn to hardball pressure on wavering congressmen (threats, public humiliation, patronage leverage) — an interpersonal/political arc testing whether ends justify means.
Tactics versus principles: Josh Lyman's turn to hardball pressure on wavering congressmen (threats, public humiliation, patronage leverage) — an interpersonal/political arc testing whether ends justify means.
Events in This Arc
During a fraught exchange in Toby's office about a sudden, suspicious stock windfall, Carol pokes her head in and delivers a single line that collapses the room's immediate political panic: …
When the President's gun-control bill is found five votes short, Josh pivots immediately into a ruthless posture: he argues, invoking L.B.J., that they must win without conceding anything and boasts …
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, …