Scoring Hell to Ultimatum: OMB Delay Meets Kuhndu Deadline
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet expresses exasperation over repeated OMB delays for revenue calculations on the tax plan despite 14 prior meetings.
Bartlet sarcastically compares NEC economic scoring meetings to casual drinking, revealing his impatience with political formalities.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Conveyed concern and frustration through Bartlet's report of failed pleas.
The Unnamed U.N. Secretary‑General is invoked by Bartlet as having pleaded for a cease‑fire, supplying moral and diplomatic weight to justify intervention.
- • Prevent further mass killing through diplomatic pressure.
- • Mobilize international consensus to end atrocities.
- • Diplomatic appeals are the proper first recourse to stop mass violence.
- • Multilateral pressure should constrain perpetrators.
Outwardly dignified but clearly alarmed and outraged — pressing the legal/diplomatic case while confronted with overwhelming American power.
Ambassador Tiki enters as the diplomatic interlocutor and immediately protests U.S. actions as violations of sovereignty on Nzele's behalf, attempting to shame or restrain Bartlet's military posture.
- • Defend his nation's sovereignty and advocate for Nzele's government in front of the U.S. President.
- • Persuade the President to rescind or modify U.S. military actions and avoid escalation.
- • Sovereignty is a primary shield for national legitimacy and must be defended diplomatically.
- • Appeals to protocol and international norms can constrain even powerful states' actions.
Not present; inferred concern through poll numbers—her data creates anxiety for campaign planners.
Joey Lucas is referenced indirectly through Leo's report about polls: her numbers drive the domestic political pressure that frames the earlier banter.
- • Provide polling data to shape campaign strategy.
- • Highlight vulnerabilities that require tactical responses.
- • Polling translates into political strategy.
- • Electoral vulnerabilities can force White House scheduling choices.
Controlled, resolute anger — uses urbane wit to mask moral outrage and impatience with domestic pettiness in the face of atrocity.
President Bartlet dominates the beat: he shifts from wry, exasperated banter about NEC/OMB delays to a controlled, hard-edged commander who announces force deployment, the airport seizure, and a 36‑hour ultimatum. He punctuates the threat with dry courtesy—offering coffee—reclaiming authority.
- • Force an immediate end to the slaughter by creating an actionable military deadline.
- • Reframe the White House agenda so humanitarian crisis supersedes domestic scheduling fights.
- • The U.S. has both the capacity and moral duty to stop genocidal slaughter.
- • Domestic political scheduling is trivial compared to preventing mass murder; forceful, visible action will sway international and domestic pressure.
Inferred defiance and obstinacy — portrayed through Bartlet's contempt and international isolation.
President Nzele is not present but is the target of Bartlet's ultimatum; his forces and decisions are the pivot around which the military threat and diplomatic protests revolve.
- • Maintain regime power and control over Khundu.
- • Resist international pressure to disarm or cede authority.
- • Sovereign authority justifies internal security measures; outside intervention is illegitimate.
- • International moral appeals are less important than regime survival.
Expressed moral urgency indirectly; represents failed appeals and moral outrage.
The Holy Father (Vatican) is invoked as another moral voice whose appeals to Nzele have failed; Bartlet uses this to heighten the moral stakes.
- • Protect vulnerable civilians through moral and diplomatic appeals.
- • Use spiritual authority to pressure cessation of violence.
- • Moral leadership can influence secular rulers.
- • Failure of appeals increases the legitimacy of stronger interventions.
Expressed collective disapproval and diplomatic distancing; implied sternness.
The Heads of Ghana, Nigeria, and Zaire are referenced as having 'sent packing' Nzele's envoys, signaling regional isolation used by Bartlet to justify U.S. pressure.
- • Condemn and isolate Nzele's regime diplomatically.
- • Pressure for an end to mass violence in the region.
- • Regional stability requires rejecting mass atrocities.
- • Collective regional action strengthens international response.
Portrayed as suffering and endangered; emotional state conveyed through Bartlet's urgent moral language rather than direct depiction.
The Induye people are invoked as the victims whose slaughter justifies U.S. intervention; their suffering is the moral core Bartlet uses to override procedural objections.
- • Survive the ongoing massacres.
- • Receive international protection and humanitarian aid.
- • Appeals to international moral authority and intervention are necessary for survival.
- • Their plight merits overriding strict notions of sovereignty.
Deferential, professional — aware of timing and decorum, slightly amused by presidential wit.
Debbie Humentashen performs administrative protocol: she notifies the President that Ambassador Tiki is waiting and registers light banter, functioning as the procedural hinge moving the conversation from petty scheduling to diplomacy.
- • Ensure the President is informed and meetings proceed on schedule.
- • Maintain White House protocol and smooth transitions between conversations.
- • Procedure and protocol facilitate effective executive operations.
- • Moments of tension are best handled by quiet professionalism.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The hospitality coffee functions as a tonal device—offered by Bartlet at the end of his ultimatum to puncture tension, reassert civility, and underline the President's composed control even while threatening military action.
Ambassador Tiki's Airport (an object entry noting the airport's relation to Tiki) functions as the touchstone of Tiki's sovereignty protest; Bartlet's claim to have taken 'your airport' is the rhetorical knife that punctures diplomatic objection.
The '7,000 troops of the 101st Air Assault' are invoked as concrete military capability cleared to move by the airport seizure—part of Bartlet's inventory of coercive force that turns his ultimatum into a credible threat.
Twenty‑five battle tanks are listed as part of the ground assets supporting the threatened assault, underscoring the physical inevitability of the U.S. operation Bartlet describes.
Fifteen Apache attack helicopters are recited as part of the air component, a visceral image Bartlet uses to make the threat immediate and frightening.
Three U.S. destroyers are named to show naval support and to signal international reach; their mention broadens the assault image to include sea power.
Bitanga Airport is announced as seized by U.S. forces and the tactical lynchpin clearing runways for the 101st Air Assault; Bartlet uses its seizure as factual leverage to convert diplomacy into a timed military threat.
Nzele's troops' weapons are the explicit condition of Bartlet's demand—he requires they be handed over to the 82nd Airborne, turning the abstract moral demand into a specific, verifiable action.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Republic of Equatorial Khundu is the broader national setting for the crisis Bartlet addresses; it's the political body whose capital, people, and sovereignty are at stake in the President's ultimatum.
The Khundu Capitol is named as the ultimate objective should the 36‑hour demand fail—it's the political center the 101st is prepared to seize, making abstract threat specific and territorially focused.
Brentwood is referenced as the California fundraising event location that anchors the domestic scheduling dispute, providing the counterpoint of politics to the international crisis.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Red Cross is cited as having been denied entry three times—used as evidentiary support by Bartlet to show the regime's willful obstruction of humanitarian aid.
The 82nd Airborne is named as the U.S. division to which Nzele's troops must surrender their weapons—positioning it as the immediate, lawful custodian in Bartlet's demanded cease‑fire procedure.
The Office of Management and Budget appears as the procedural bottleneck delaying the domestic tax plan rollout—its request for more hours provides the comic/irritant background to the scene before the diplomatic rupture.
The Democratic National Committee (DCCC) is referenced as putting an event in Brentwood, representing domestic party pressure and donor choreography that competes with urgent foreign policy demands.
The National Economic Council (NEC) is invoked as the policy body whose scoring briefing is pending and whose timing drives White House scheduling anxieties.
The 101st Air Assault is the coercive instrument Bartlet threatens to use to seize the capital one minute after the deadline, making the ultimatum immediate and operationally credible.
Ways and Means Democrats are referenced as the next legislative audience for the tax plan scoring—part of the procedural chain that creates the domestic scheduling pressure preceding the diplomatic rupture.
The Vatican (Holy Father) is invoked as a moral suasion actor whose failed pleas to Nzele amplify the ethical case for intervention.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's initial 36-hour ultimatum to Nzele is compressed to 9 hours and 20 minutes after the Marines are captured, showing the escalating stakes."
Key Dialogue
"LEO: They want a few more hours for the revenue calculations, but they're saying it's definitely going to be today."
"BARTLET: Is there going to be a democrat tax plan, or am I going to be stuck in NEC scoring hell for the rest of my term?"
"BARTLET: I've just taken your airport...clearing the way for the 101st Air Assualt to take the capitol. ...President Nzele has 36 hours to give the command to his troops to hand over their weapons to the 82nd Divison Airborne Division of the United States Army. At 36 hours and one minute, I give the order for the 101st Air Assualt to take Bitanga and run up our flag."