Courtly Verse and Quiet Alarm
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby discovers and shares with Bartlet and Will that the Chief Justice wrote a dissenting opinion in poetic meter, sparking amusement and puzzlement.
Bartlet and Leo discuss the bizarre behavior of the Chief Justice, hinting at deeper concerns about his fitness, blending humor with underlying seriousness.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not directly observable; scene implies possible senescent eccentricity that unnerves senior staff.
Not physically present; his authored dissent functions as the comic object that catalyzes the group's reaction and raises concern about his judgment and age.
- • As an institutional figure, maintain judicial voice (implicit).
- • His writing unintentionally prompts staff to reassess the Court's steadiness.
- • Dissent expresses individual judicial perspective even if stylistically odd.
- • Judicial writing is part of public record and can influence perceptions.
Mildly amused by the judicial poem, slightly skeptical, maintaining professional detachment while attentive to how rhetoric will matter publicly.
Mocks Bartlet lightly at the start, listens to Toby's meter explanation, offers the sideways joke about coded messages, and remains poised as staff exit to leave Bartlet and Leo discussing Khundu.
- • Protect the President's public image by smoothing briefing optics.
- • Monitor rhetoric that will shape press narratives during the inauguration.
- • Small, human moments (like a poetic dissent) can change public perception if mishandled.
- • Language and messaging must be controlled carefully by communications staff.
Amused intellectualism on the surface; professional focus and impatience about State Department language underneath.
Reads the faxed dissent aloud, laughs at the discovery, diagnoses its meter, hands the paper to the President, cues the prompter operator for line 144, and assigns Will to meet State Department counterparts.
- • Ensure precise, defensible foreign‑policy wording for the inaugural address.
- • Integrate White House and State inputs while defending institutional prerogatives.
- • Move Will into the role of active liaison/speechwriter.
- • Rhetorical precision matters; careless language invites diplomatic problems.
- • State Department expects input on phrasing and must be engaged formally.
- • Oddities (like a poetic dissent) are worth noting but should not derail policy work.
Polite, slightly apologetic about logistical constraints; focused on being useful and solving problems.
Interrupts with logistics: reports Mr. Hollowman's timetable for the George Washington Bible, answers Bartlet's questions, then offers to help Will obtain archival speeches, moving between ceremonial details and practical research support.
- • Ensure the President has an appropriate Bible for the oath.
- • Support Will's research needs by tapping archival resources.
- • Keep ceremonial logistics from derailing policy work.
- • Ceremonial details require advance planning and trusted custodians.
- • Practical staff work (archives, logistics) underpins presidential performance.
Amused by the dissent's oddity, bemused about judicial eccentricity, then shifts to firm resolve and concern when policy and humanitarian costs intrude.
Leads the room from jokey banter into policy rehearsal, questions Toby about the paper, pushes the prompter to load foreign policy copy, asserts that inaugural language must be meaningful, and then listens as Leo delivers bad intelligence about Khundu.
- • Ensure his inaugural foreign‑policy language has moral and rhetorical weight.
- • Maintain control of the Oval Office tempo between ceremony and crisis.
- • Confirm logistics for the inauguration ritual (Bible choice) to preserve ceremony.
- • Presidential words should 'mean' something and not be hollow boilerplate.
- • Institutional rituals (Bible, oath) matter to legitimacy and must be handled practically.
- • Humanitarian crises demand attention even amid ceremonial preparations.
Dryly amused regarding the Chief Justice, quickly shifting to sober concern and managerial focus when reporting the Khundu crisis.
Curtails the meeting with 'That's all. Thank you,' then, in hallway conversation, offers a joking concern about the Chief Justice's age and delivers the Khundu intelligence: reports of mass killings and American missionaries to be evacuated.
- • Keep the staff focused and move meetings along.
- • Inform the President of urgent international developments requiring action.
- • Coordinate immediate next steps for evacuation and intelligence follow‑up.
- • Senior officials must triage ceremony and pressing international crises.
- • Accurate intelligence and quick administrative response are critical in humanitarian emergencies.
Neutral professionalism; focused on completing a technical task without comment.
Receives instructions to load line 144 onto the teleprompter, responds practically to Toby and Bartlet's cue, enabling the administrative transition from riffing to speech rehearsal.
- • Load the requested foreign‑policy copy promptly and accurately.
- • Keep teleprompter operations smooth to support rehearsal.
- • Technical reliability underpins polished public performance.
- • Follow direct instructions promptly to avoid delays during rehearsals.
Not present; implied curt professionalism and insistence on process.
Referenced by Charlie as the person who controls access to the George Washington Bible and who requires lead time to bring it, creating a logistical constraint for the inauguration ritual.
- • Protect custodial procedures for the George Washington Bible.
- • Ensure artifacts are handled with appropriate notice and care.
- • Historic artifacts require protocol and lead time to release.
- • Custodial authority entitles him to set retrieval conditions.
Not present; implied expectation of territorial defensiveness over wording.
Referenced by Toby as the counterpart who will review the White House's foreign‑policy language and assert State's customary input; not physically present but institutionally active.
- • Influence presidential language to align with diplomatic norms.
- • Maintain State Department's role in crafting public policy wording.
- • Precise diplomatic phrasing prevents unintended obligations.
- • State must be consulted on foreign policy rhetoric.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Bartlet's Oval Office desk is the material center of the meeting—papers, the prompter cue, and Charlie's interruptions happen around it. It anchors the ceremonial and administrative mix of the scene and is where Bartlet reads, reacts, and directs staff.
The George Washington Bible is referenced as a desired ceremonial object; Charlie reports Mr. Hollowman requires days' notice to bring it, which forces Bartlet to decide on a backup (the Bartlet family Bible). The Bible functions as a symbol of ritual legitimacy and a logistical headache.
Toby reads from this faxed copy of the Chief Justice's dissent aloud; its metrical oddity provides comic relief and a conversational pivot. The paper is passed to Bartlet and functions as the catalyst for questions about the Chief Justice's judgment and for group levity that then yields to policy urgency.
The Oval Office teleprompter is cued by Toby/President to load '144' — the foreign policy passage under debate — enabling the rehearsal of inaugural rhetoric and underscoring the shift from private drafting to public performance preparedness.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The West Wing hallway functions as a transitional space where Bartlet and Leo move to discuss the Chief Justice's odd dissent and where Bartlet receives Leo's terse Khundu briefing; it helps dramatize the shift from the contained Oval meeting to executive action.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The State Department is invoked as the institutional guardrail over diplomatic phrasing; Toby warns that the speech's foreign‑policy language reads like 'State Department language,' and he directs Will to coordinate with State's Communications Director, signaling interagency friction over wording and responsibility.
The New York Freemasons appear as custodians of the George Washington Bible; their control introduces a procedural constraint that forces the President to choose an alternative and exposes how private custodianship of national rituals can tangibly affect state ceremony.
The Arkutu‑directed forces (an antagonistic organization) are named by Leo as the perpetrators of the Bitanga killings in Khundu; their violence is the immediate cause of evacuation decisions and places humanitarian urgency onto the President's agenda.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Leo's briefing on the escalating violence in Khundu prompts Bartlet to order a forced depletion report."
"Charlie's initial logistical issues with the Bible lead to Bartlet's later decision to change his mind about which Bible to use."
"Charlie's initial logistical issues with the Bible lead to Bartlet's later decision to change his mind about which Bible to use."
"Bartlet's dissatisfaction with State Department's conservative language parallels Will's proposal of a bold new doctrine based on American values."
"Bartlet's dissatisfaction with State Department's conservative language parallels Will's proposal of a bold new doctrine based on American values."
Key Dialogue
"TOBY: He... I don't know how to say this. He wrote it in meter."
"BARTLET: The Chief Justice wrote a poem."
"LEO: He's trying to get the Court to adopt powdered wigs."