U.S. Senate
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Affiliated Characters
Event Involvements
Events with structured involvement data
C.J. specifies Barrie's temporary duty aboard U.S.S. Brooke under Navy ops, a non-combat deployment that voids his medal claim; it underscores routine sea service versus valor, tying personal hypocrisy to institutional service norms.
Via vessel deployment history
Barrie's Navy stint exposed as insufficient for claims, empowering C.J.
Highlights valor verification in military culture
Central battleground as staff blueprints reshuffle across committees to sideline Mitchell, weighs lame duck backlash, and plans nose counts amid Stensen fallout, driving ratification calculus.
Via discussed senators and committees
Targeted for White House procedural siege
Exposes fragility of narrow majorities to executive maneuvers
Leadership temperature checks amid reshuffle chains
U.S. Senate dominates discussion as ratification battleground, with staff plotting reshuffles, lame-duck summons, nose counts, and leadership temperatures to counter defections and Mitchell, framing procedural chess for treaty survival.
Via referenced committee seats and vote arithmetic
Institutional obstacle wielded against executive agenda
Exposes razor-thin majorities vulnerable to flips
Fluid reshuffles testing loyalties
U.S. Senate looms as ratification battleground, dissected via shuffles (Budget to Foreign Relations chain), lame duck risks debated (ire, stalls), temperature/nose counts ordered to crack cats-in-parade defiance.
Via committee assignments and leadership temps invoked
Institutional obstacle challenged by executive procedural gambits
Exposes lame duck as high-wire against gridlock
Seniority-driven shuffles breed resentment
Skinner wields the Senate's 85-0 landslide—including 29 Democratic defections—as veto-proof armor for the Marriage Recognition Act, thrusting its bipartisan might into the debate to bully Josh toward capitulation and expose White House vulnerabilities.
Via congressman's cited supermajority vote arithmetic
Looms as legislative juggernaut threatening Executive override
Highlights congressional supremacy in cultural policy battles
Cross-party consensus fracturing traditional lines
Skinner wields the U.S. Senate's bipartisan supermajority (85 votes, 29 Democratic defections) as veto-override weapon, predicting the Marriage Recognition Act's unstoppable return in January, twice defeating presidential resistance and crushing White House delay tactics.
Referenced as arithmetic juggernaut in legislative debate
Overpowers executive veto with raw voting supremacy
Transforms Congress into decisive arena fracturing party discipline
Bipartisan coalition overriding traditional lines
U.S. Senate's filibuster grips bullpen TVs—Stackhouse alone stalling nine-hour-overdue vote; broadcasts colleagues' impatience and B-roll family, catalyzing Donna's probe that fractures White House scorn into advocacy.
Through live chamber proceedings on news
Wields procedural stranglehold over legislation
Exposes funding priority clashes (autism vs. others)
Bipartisan relay sustains marathon
U.S. Senate looms via TV report as filibuster epicenter, with Stackhouse alone in well delaying vote nine hours past schedule, colleagues waiting restlessly—casting procedural shadow over White House bullpen calculations and igniting staff scrutiny.
Through televised proceedings and newscaster dispatch
Exerting procedural dominance, stalling executive priorities
Highlights filibuster as veto over rushed legislation
Bipartisan impatience building against lone holdout
U.S. Senate manifests through newscaster's TV report on Stackhouse's solo filibuster in the chamber well, stalling a vote nine hours late; the broadcast discrepancy in B-roll draws White House scrutiny, highlighting Senate's procedural power to derail agendas and force empathy-driven pivots.
Via live news coverage of chamber proceedings and B-roll
Exerting obstructionist leverage over White House legislative priorities
Underscores Senate's veto-proof coalitions and personal crusades clashing with executive pushes
Colleagues impatiently awaiting vote amid bipartisan relay potential
U.S. Senate manifests via TV as filibuster epicenter: Chairman enforces rules, Grissom/Stackhouse execute yield, McNamara/Gianelli relay floor—its procedures bend to sustain autism stand, drawing White House awe at 28 senators' decency surge.
Via live floor action and procedural gambits
Institutional rules challenged yet enabling human solidarity
Exposes reservoirs of decency beyond partisanship
Grandfathers overriding partisan fatigue
U.S. Senate enacts procedural drama—Stackhouse drones, Grissom maneuvers point of order, Chairman arbitrates yield—unleashing grandfather relay that sustains autism filibuster, exposing cross-aisle reservoirs amid White House gaze.
Via floor senators and presiding chairman
Institutional rules empower individual crusades
Bends gridlock to human principle
Grandfathers overriding partisan fatigue
U.S. Senate enacts pivotal drama on TV—Grissom's ploy, yield, 28 grandfathers' relay—bending procedures to sustain Stackhouse, exposing reservoirs of cross-aisle decency against stalled reforms.
Via senators' floor actions and Chairman's oversight
Institutional rules challenged yet upheld by human solidarity
Shatters 50-50 deadlock, reopens legislative paths
Grandfather faction overriding partisan fatigue
Related Events
Events mentioning this organization
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At 2:38 A.M. the episode opens on a taut, pre-dawn mobilization that crystallizes every pressure bearing down on President Jed Bartlet. Staff move like a …
Vice President Hoynes arrives in Leo's office expecting routine conversation but the tone snaps taut when Leo tells him the Senate is 50-50 and the …
In Leo's office Leo delivers the President's pragmatic, regret-tinged request that Vice President Hoynes travel to the Senate and break a deadlocked vote on the …
Outside a Washington building late at night, Leo escorts Vice President Hoynes to his car and delivers a blunt, paternal warning: if Hoynes breaks a …
Donna bursts into Josh’s office with urgent vote counts, and Josh temporarily deflects the crisis by obsessing over a scrawled “panda bear” note — a …
Riding a wave of irritation from a humiliating public outing, Bartlet seizes a rare institutional opening when Josh reports two simultaneous F.E.C. resignations. Leo counsels …
After a bruising lunch with Senate and leadership aides, Josh is left alone in a Capitol Hill room to absorb the political cost they've just …
In a dim Senate conference room a jovial, dismissive mood — centered on an insulting debate about cognac versus brandy — is suddenly ruptured. Steve …
On live television President Bartlet names two outspoken campaign‑finance reformers — John Branford Bacon and Patricia Calhoun — to the F.E.C. In a smoke‑filled Senate …
In the Senate offices amid Josh Lyman's growing disillusionment with Hoynes' campaign, Leo McGarry makes an unannounced entrance, catching Josh off-guard while flying under the …
In a flashback three years earlier at Hank's Tavern in Nashua, NH, a visibly drunk Toby Ziegler, smoking a cigar, chats with a woman at …
Leo verifies the astonishing 81% approval rating from credible sources like CNN and USA Today, dismissing 'soft' doubts as Sam details Bartlet's 61% edge over …
In a chaotic Oval Office briefing, Sam, Josh, and C.J. rapidly outline a intricate Senate committee reshuffle to slot incoming opponent Mitchell onto Foreign Relations, …
Amid frenzied Oval Office crosstalk on Senate reshuffles for the Test Ban Treaty, President Bartlet quips about the circus-like disarray, then demands aspirin and a …
In the Oval Office, amid frenetic staff briefings on Senate committee shuffles to block Mitchell, Toby reports unanimous liaison advice to call a lame duck …
In the yellow hallway transitioning to her office, C.J. sharply confronts Danny over the Washington Post's fourth anti-Test Ban Treaty editorial in two weeks, accusing …
Danny follows C.J. into her office, seizing on her call to the majority leader's spokesperson to press for confirmation of a lame duck Senate session …
In the hushed Outer Oval Office at night, Charlie Young works diligently, reviewing files in his office area. C.J. Cregg enters with purpose, initiating contact …
In the White House Mess over beers, gay Republican Congressman Skinner pressures Josh with the bill's overwhelming bipartisan passage (85 Senate votes, 342 House) and …
In a charged hallway exchange escalating into Josh's office, Josh hammers Skinner with polling data favoring gay spousal benefits and a strict 14th Amendment reading …
In her office, C.J. dismisses Steve and turns to the TV as the Republican press conference begins. A congressman announces the Senate Majority Leader's sudden …
The episode fades in on a nocturnal Washington, D.C. skyline as C.J.'s voiceover delivers a heartfelt, apologetic letter to her father. She wishes him happy …
In her office at night, C.J. types her email as her voice-over narration delivers stark exposition on the Senate filibuster's brutal mechanics: endless talking without …
In her office at night, C.J. types an email as her voice-over narration grimly outlines the brutal, unyielding rules of their first Senate filibuster—no talking …
In Josh's bullpen at night, a newscaster vividly reports on 78-year-old Senator Howard Stackhouse's marathon filibuster, transforming day to night and delaying a Senate vote …