Object

Leaked Annual List of Assistant Salaries

This pilfered congressional ledger—dense columns of White House assistant salaries ripped from subcommittee oversight files—hurtles toward Washington Times ink tomorrow, detonating backlash in the Communications Office. Margaret's commands slice through tense air, Donna amplifies with patriotic fire as male and female assistants clap resolve, Josh shadows the huddle; the absent paper fuels a loyalty lockdown against opposition's sabotage grenade.

2 appearances

Purpose

Catalog annual salaries of White House assistants as compiled by congressional subcommittees for budgetary oversight and public accountability.

Significance

Triggers frantic damage-control rally, baring administration's raw nerve to partisan leaks amid terror shadows and internal fractures, transmuting staff grievance into ironclad silence that shields the Bartlet White House from self-inflicted hemorrhage.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S3E19 · The Black Vera Wang

Margaret and Donna Rally Assistants Against Salary Leak Backlash

Serves as the inciting incident for the meeting; Margaret reveals its theft from congressional files and impending Washington Times splash, Donna traces its path from subcommittee submissions to opposition sabotage, transforming the absent ledger into a rallying cry for silence and loyalty that underscores the administration's vulnerability to internal data weaponization.

Before: Leaked from congressional subcommittee files to opposition and Washington Times, poised for publication.

After: Still scheduled for next-day printing, but staff mobilized to neutralize its PR fallout.

View full event

S3E19 · The Black Vera Wang

Josh Confronts Donna Over Intern's eBay Moose Meat Sale

Leaked assistant salaries list looms as meeting's catalyst, framing Donna's exit into Josh's ambush; embodies opposition sabotage pressuring staff loyalty, contrasting petty pay woes with moose meat's absurd personal stakes for comic relief.

Before: Submitted to subcommittee, en route to Washington Times publication

After: Impending print threat, staff pledged to silence

View full event