Stricken Bartlet Speech Resurfaces
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Intern Stacy delivers a previously stricken Bartlet speech on foreign policy, which Toby and Will recognize as potentially significant for their current task.
Will takes the speech and begins reading, with Toby smiling in approval as he exits, signaling a potential breakthrough in their policy drafting.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Neutral, businesslike — focused on correct delivery and provenance of the document.
Enters deferentially with a file from the Congressional Research Service and places an old Bartlet foreign‑policy speech before Will, explicitly stating it was stricken from the Congressional Record at the President's request; performs the role of efficient courier of archival material.
- • Deliver requested archival material promptly and correctly.
- • Maintain chain‑of‑custody and clarity about the speech's provenance.
- • Proper sourcing and documentation matter to senior staff.
- • Administrative tasks should be handled cleanly and without fuss.
Urgent and pragmatic with a flicker of satisfaction — outwardly brisk, inwardly relieved that concrete material has arrived to speed progress.
Bursts into Will's office, interrogates Will about whether he's focused on tone or policy, reminds the room of the five‑day deadline, offers a brief approving smile when the speech is handed off, then exits — acting as time‑keeper and skeptical steward of deliverables.
- • Ensure speech drafting proceeds on a strict timetable so the inauguration deadline is met.
- • Keep Will focused on policy substance rather than only tone.
- • Signal approval only when useful material arrives to move the work forward.
- • Deadlines matter and will not be met without discipline.
- • Rhetoric must be grounded in policy; idealism alone won't suffice.
- • Concrete source material accelerates productive work.
Not physically present; implied purposeful and controlling with regard to his public record and rhetorical choices.
Absent from the room but functionally present through the delivered speech — referenced as the author and the person who ordered the speech stricken from the Congressional Record, which highlights his control over his rhetoric and record.
- • Control how his foreign‑policy pronouncements are recorded and remembered.
- • Protect certain formulations from official record until strategically appropriate.
- • Rhetoric is consequential and must be curated.
- • There are political moments when lines should be kept private or removed from public record.
Casual, mildly amused and quietly confident in Will's process — providing family steadiness rather than technical input.
Sits on the edge of the office table, listens and banters lightly with Will and Toby, confirms Will's simultaneous work on tone and policy, and provides a domestic, steadying presence during the exchange.
- • Reassure Will that his approach is sensible and grounded.
- • Keep the atmosphere calm and human amid administrative pressure.
- • Personal, familial perspective helps policy work stay honest.
- • A steady, funny presence reduces tension and improves creativity.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Will's office table functions as the workspace where Elsie sits, materials are piled, and the stricken speech is offered and accepted; it anchors the domestic, informal staging of what will become formal presidential rhetoric.
The stricken Bartlet foreign‑policy speech is delivered by intern Stacy, handed directly to Will, and placed on his materials pile; it functions as the narrative pivot from abstract tone study to concrete source material that can be mined for inaugural language.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Congress is present only as contextual force — its Record is where the speech was once logged and from which it was stricken, and it's referenced as the political body unlikely to enact reforms mentioned in Will's earlier remarks; it functions as the background political constraint on rhetoric and policy.
The Congressional Research Service is the institutional source that retrieved the archival Bartlet speech and routed it into the White House via intern Stacy; its involvement supplies documentary provenance and institutional memory to the drafting process.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"WILL: "Familiarizing myself with his tone.""
"TOBY: "You're not thinking about policy language?""
"INTERN STACY: "Excuse me, Will. This is from the Congressional Reasearch Service. It's an old Bartlet speech on foreign policy.""