Toby Demands the Constitution / C.J. Confesses She's Been Faking It
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby demands a copy of the Constitution, revealing his frustration with staff unpreparedness.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Amused and mildly exasperated; comfortable enough to joke but ready to act.
Sits at her desk, delivers a dry quip ('Is it still in print?') and is directed to fetch a copy—shows wry humor while executing the logistical task asked of her.
- • Comply with the request and retrieve the necessary document.
- • Maintain lightness to ease office tension while remaining effective.
- • Demonstrate competence through quick follow-through.
- • Office crises can be handled through quick, pragmatic steps.
- • Humor is an acceptable way to manage senior staff outbursts.
- • She should be ready to supply whatever the senior team needs.
Embarrassed and contrite but determined to correct a gap; anxious about credibility and eager to learn.
Enters from behind to rebuke Toby for yelling, then proceeds to Sam's office; later privately confesses to Sam that she's been 'faking' her understanding of the census and requests a tutor—revealing professional insecurity beneath public competence.
- • Protect her professional reputation while admitting a knowledge gap discreetly.
- • Secure practical help (a tutor) so she can speak credibly about the census.
- • Minimize fallout by addressing ignorance proactively rather than being exposed publicly.
- • Public-facing competence is crucial to her role and must be preserved.
- • Admitting ignorance privately and learning is safer than persisting in pretended knowledge.
- • The census matters politically enough to require real expertise.
Mildly flustered but professional; focused on solving the request rather than engaging emotionally with Toby's performance.
Seated at her desk, responds to Toby's demand with practical confusion, asks for clarification, then tasks Bonnie to retrieve a copy—acting as the operational conduit between a senior aide's urgent need and the bullpen's resources.
- • Locate the requested document quickly to satisfy Toby's immediate demand.
- • De-escalate Toby's frustration by providing a concrete response.
- • Keep routine office operations moving despite the interruption.
- • It's her responsibility to supply resources and keep things running.
- • Senior staff will lean on junior staff for quick logistical support.
- • Practical, calm action defuses theatrical displays of anger.
Righteously exasperated with an undercurrent of anxiety; angry more to provoke competence than purely punitive.
Storms into the communications office demanding Article I, Section 2, ridicules staff for not having a copy, issues flippant, urgent directives (Amazon/National Archives), then withdraws into his office—using theatrical anger to force attention to constitutional detail.
- • Secure an authoritative constitutional citation (Article I, Section 2) to frame the census argument.
- • Shock the communications team into recognizing the political and legal stakes of the census debate.
- • Reassert message discipline and signal that technical precision is non‑negotiable.
- • Accurate constitutional grounding is essential to win the census fight.
- • Staff ignorance is a political liability that must be corrected immediately.
- • Theatrics and bluntness can catalyze staff action and seriousness.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Commerce Bill is the policy object framing Sam's phone call and the office's urgency; it is the subject of the President's stated veto threat and the reason behind Toby's constitutional demand.
The bullpen phone is actively used by Sam to make a policy call in which he states the President's veto posture on the Commerce Bill; the device anchors the scene's link between hallway conversation and active legislative strategy.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The White House (as institutional location) frames the entire scene — an operational nerve center where procedural slippage becomes politically dangerous. It houses the communications office, Toby's office, and the hallway used for rapid staff triage.
Toby's private office functions as a brief refuge and cockpit for his doctrinal tirade; he exits into it after making his point, isolating himself from the bullpen's embarrassment.
The National Archives is invoked rhetorically by Toby as an authoritative repository (and a comic hyperbole about busting the display case) to emphasize the need for primary-source grounding.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"C.J.'s admission of ignorance about the census and her tutoring by Sam leads to her humorous but failed attempt to demonstrate her new knowledge to Bartlet."
"C.J.'s admission of ignorance about the census and her tutoring by Sam leads to her humorous but failed attempt to demonstrate her new knowledge to Bartlet."
Key Dialogue
"TOBY: Cathy, I need a copy of Article 1, Section 2."
"TOBY: Try Amazon.COM. If they don't have it then just bust into the glass display case at the National Archives!"
"C.J.: I've been faking it."