Vindictive Rider Upsets Banking Vote — Team Rushes to Bartlet
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby informs Sam that the Banking Bill is set to pass the House and suggests preparing a statement.
Josh arrives and contradicts Toby's optimism, revealing a land-use rider attached to the bill by Broderick and Eaton.
Sam dismisses concerns about the rider, while Josh insists it's an act of retribution, not just environmental policy.
The team realizes the severity of the situation and agrees to see the President immediately.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Calmly alarmed — measured surface control masking recognition of reputational danger and the need for careful language.
Toby initially treats the win as routine message work but quickly absorbs Josh's framing, acknowledging the rider as a politically motivated attack and joining the call to escalate to the President while still maintaining a focus on how it will shape public messaging.
- • Protect the President's voice and the administration's public messaging.
- • Prevent the rider from becoming the defining story that undermines the Banking Bill's passage.
- • Language and framing will determine how the public perceives the administration's handling of the crisis.
- • This rider, if left unchecked, will be used by opponents to paint the administration as weak or complicit.
Absent in person; implied to be instrumentally indifferent to environmental consequences and focused on political effect.
Eaton is named alongside Broderick as a co‑sponsor of the rider; he functions narratively as the allied representative enabling the attachment and partisan pressure, though he appears only as reported action.
- • Advance the rider to alter land‑use law in their district/interests.
- • Apply political pressure on the administration through procedural means.
- • Using amendments and riders is an effective way to secure policy goals without broader debate.
- • The political benefit of the rider outweighs potential environmental criticism.
Angry and driven; outrage at perceived political malice layered over pragmatic urgency to force executive intervention.
Joshua Lyman bursts into Toby's office, interrupts the casual certainty about the Banking Bill, names Broderick and Eaton as the riders' sponsors and reframes the item as deliberate political retribution tied to extractive interests.
- • Expose the rider and its sponsors publicly within the team so action can be taken.
- • Compel senior leadership (the President) to intervene to prevent the bill from being tarnished or derailed.
- • The rider is deliberate retribution, not accidental legislative noise.
- • Allowing the rider to stand would harm both policy outcomes and the administration's credibility.
Mr. Crane is referenced as the off‑stage broker who assured the team the Banking Bill was 'in the bag'; his …
Representative Broderick is presented off‑stage as the sponsor of a punitive land‑use rider, operating through procedural attachment to the Banking …
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Banking Bill functions as the central legislative object around which the meeting is organized; staff intend to prepare a statement for its passage until the rider is revealed, converting the Bill from a victory to a political risk.
The Vindictive Land‑Use Rider is named and framed as the toxic, clandestine amendment that turns the scene into a crisis; characters treat it like a political weapon—its existence reframes strategic priorities and forces escalation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Toby's office (the communications room nexus) hosts the exchange: a normally procedural workspace where drafts are written becomes the site where political reality intrudes, and staff must pivot from sentence‑crafting to crisis management.
Montana exists here as a referenced political geography and moral stake—the threatened 'length and breadth' of the state is invoked to make the rider's consequences tangible and emotionally resonant.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"TOBY: "Banking Bill's gonna pass the house, let's prepare a statement.""
"JOSH: "A land-use rider.""
"JOSH: "Big Sky Federal Reserve, Sam. They want to strip mine the length and breadth of Montana.""