Major Tate

rule-bound authoritative procedural defensive conservative

Major Tate acts within the Roosevelt Room, providing military procedural guidance.

4 appearances

Also known as: Major Tate, MAJOR TATE

Major Tate's Journey

A timeline through the narrative

4 moments

S1E19 · Let Bartlet Be Bartlet

Slate Rebuked; 'Don't Ask' Reform Runs Into a Wall

Bluntly certain — professional and uncompromising in citing statutory constraint.

Delivers the decisive legal rebuke: explains that amending the Uniform Code requires an act of Congress and that sodomy is a crime under the code, effectively terminating the staff's proposed …

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S1E19 · Let Bartlet Be Bartlet

Roosevelt Room: Legal Roadblock

Steady, unsympathetic to rhetorical appeals, confident in legal correctness.

Major Tate intervenes as the meeting's legal authority, delivering a concise, definitive rebuke that changing the Uniform Code requires Congress and noting the code still criminalizes sodomy—his statement halts the …

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S1E19 · Let Bartlet Be Bartlet

Sam's Evidence Meets Military Stonewalling; Fitzwallace Breaks the Room

Calmly doctrinaire — confident in legal/organizational justification, subtly dismissive of civilian moral framing.

Major Tate echoes bureaucratic protocol, insists the services are not prejudiced, and invokes discipline/cohesion arguments in response to Sam's evidence, attempting legalistic distance from the human cases Sam cites.

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S1E19 · Let Bartlet Be Bartlet

Fitzwallace Calls the Question

Flushed discomfort and constrained defensiveness; trying to protect institutional posture while exposed.

Major Tate attempts professional composure, deflects by asserting lack of prejudice, answers Fitzwallace directly when pressed and concedes 'No sir, I don't,' thereby revealing the underlying exclusionary position.

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