The West Wing s05e14 Episode Script
An Khe
Previously on The West Wing: We just survived a national crisis, which I guess you slept through so there's a lot to do here.
- Explain to him why I can't go sailing.
- Dude, Ryan's not onboard because he's taking some boxes over to the OEOB for me.
She's either gullible, an idiot or so completely out of the loop she shouldn 't get paid.
- I wanna see him call you chicken.
Me and Nancy and Fitz are standing right next to you.
When you get information, you don't need to remember it.
And we're standing right next to you when you give orders.
You're not gonna hurt anybody.
Tango Outlaw 16.
Raven One approaching An Khe.
Roger, One.
Operation is in heavy contact at Bravo Romeo 945374.
They need FAC ASAP.
Fox Mike 45.
8.
- On your wing, lead.
Drawing targets? - Roger, Two.
- First drop, just beyond the tree line.
- I've got it.
Keep up your speed.
Don't stop.
- They've just salvoed.
- Locked on target.
Raven Two locked on target.
We've been hit.
Fire light's on.
You see, Two? Clean off your wing.
You've got two tanks near the fire.
Lost hydraulics.
Tango Outlaw 16, looking for a bailout over Thud Ridge.
- We gotta punch out.
- Gotta clear the ridge.
We're not going to make it.
Tango Outlaw 16, punching out two klicks west of Thud Ridge.
So he says, "That's my mulligan.
" And I say, "But you've already taken your mulligan.
" "Yeah," Kenny says, "but we're playing Texas rules.
" Okay, let's try to forget for a moment his success in the private sector.
Creating jobs and generating enormous tax revenues the president and I get to fool around with.
And let's talk about his commitment to his community.
Chairman of the board of University Medical Center.
The Opera Society and Symphony.
Although I suspect the opera thing is more Sally.
CEO and chairman of Mueller-Wright Aeronautics and this year's Chicago Business Conference Humanitarian of the Year.
The finest man that I have ever had the great privilege to call my friend: Your own Kenneth Sean O'Neal.
- Thanks for coming, Leo.
- I wouldn't miss it for the world.
- How are Beth and Sandy? - Beth's expecting again.
- And Sandy's Sandy.
- How's Ramses coming along? Armed Services is holding it up again.
I'm gonna go talk to him on Thursday.
- You free for lunch? - lf I'm not, I'll make sure I will be.
- You want me to place a call? - To Hunt? No, thanks.
Congratulations, Kenny.
You're coming to Hilton Head this summer.
No arguments, no lame excuses that you're saving the world for democracy.
Saving it from democracy is more what it feels like.
I'll see you Thursday.
- Thursday.
- Bye, now.
- Stop being a baby about this.
- I don't need a portrait.
Of course you do.
What, me with my Irish wolfhound gazing with portent out over the Potomac? - You don't have an Irish wolfhound.
- My point exactly.
Yeah.
Sure, send him in.
Charlie.
When am I supposed to find time to sit for some cut-rate Rubens while he angles me just so to catch the late afternoon light? You do know it's not a nude, right? Excuse me, Mr.
President.
Mrs.
Bartlet.
Sorry to bother.
No, come on in.
Bring your jammies.
We're about to start the pillow fight.
- The general's waiting outside.
- Why not invite him in too.
I'll pop some popcorn, we'll watch Patton on cable.
- Sorry to disturb you, sir.
- What's happened? A Navy E-2 Hawkeye providing command and control for Carl Vinson Carrier Battle Group went down in Sea of Japan.
- Any survivors? - Yes, sir, we believe so.
We're getting signals from four of the five GPS locators.
- So we go get them.
- That may be difficult in their location.
- Where are they? - Somewhere north of Kimch'aek.
Three hundred kilometers northeast of Pyongyang, the Republic of North Korea.
Mr.
McGarry.
- How was Chicago? - Quick.
- Where are we? - An E-2C Hawkeye was harassed by two North Korean MiGs over the Sea of Japan.
The MiGs made two nonfiring passes, one less than 10 feet off his wing.
- The crew make it out? - We've located four of the five and identified two pieces of wreckage a mile off the coast.
- Our people are in water? - They were.
Now the GPS beacons show they're on land.
- In North Korea.
- What will the crew do? Lay low, stay out of sight, wait for us to come get them.
We can't get them.
Sending a Special Forces covert retrieval team into North Korea is an act of war.
We're still at war with them.
We never signed an armistice.
If they capture our people, they'll be held as POWs.
- Or they'll deny they even have them.
- We can negotiate for their safe return.
Can you guarantee that? Can you guarantee you can go get them without starting a war? - Can we confirm that they're still alive? - They were in the water, now on land.
We have any Keyhole satellites currently in position? We've got reconnaissance out of Okinawa and Osan.
- Should be over the site in three hours.
- Call when you know.
Thank you, sir.
Last night's summaries, the daybook, press guns from the NSC and the policy shops, State Department cables.
Legislative Affairs says an amendment is moving through Ways and Means.
Congressman Wendt wants a tax cut for stay-at-home moms.
Too late to get incentives for stay-at-home congressmen? President's flying to Wendt's district in South Carolina Saturday.
Read the guidance before, it might come up.
- Really? You think? - So tomorrow's the big day.
- What? - Mystery Ben.
- What about him? - Coming to say hello.
- No, he isn't.
- He's in town and he called.
- You gave an appointment? - He seemed nice.
- He is nice.
Very nice.
Also very married.
- Not anymore.
He and Katie split up? - Katie's in Portland now.
- Really.
- And Toby and Josh are in your office.
- Why? - To make fun of you.
- You let them in? - And got them coffee.
- Problem with the South Carolina trip.
Wendt, who single-handedly blocked our tax credit to expand childcare for working families wants to bind the feet of your gender with his paleochauvinist stay-at-home-mom tax cut.
I'm gonna read the bill and supporting materials now.
Kick up a cloud of dust about the revenue impact and note he's the Darth Vader of childcare.
Let me read the bill and supporting materials.
We're already rolling over on the tax side.
- The indexing provision - Can I take a moment to read the bill and supporting materials? Okay, what? You should go on the Taylor Reid show.
- The chicken thing has legs.
- With pointy little toes.
- No.
- Washington wire has Tyson Foods offering you a lifetime supply of wings and thighs if you do a print ad for fryers.
Reliable Source notes that the Oval Room - Your favorite.
- Has a new menu item a combo of chicken, avocado and poached eggs called "The C.
J.
Cregg Egg.
" - You enjoy this.
Go on the show, call his bluff, show you have a sense of humor.
- Wear a chicken suit.
- Take him semi-seriously, he'll lay off.
- A chicken suit.
- Josh, Leo's looking for you.
- Read the Wendt amendment.
- I'm trying to read it.
It's pretty narrowly drawn.
Not the worst thing.
- She see it last night? - What? - She doesn't know? - What? Taylor Reid talked about your spin on the decline in manufacturing jobs and said "The tall lady's back to telling tall tales.
" - The tall lady.
- Tall lady.
Carol.
Call the Taylor Reid show, book me on the next open slot.
I'm gonna reach down and rip off his puny little face.
- You're already here.
- I came in straight from Dulles.
- At 2 in the morning? - I need a clean shirt.
What happened to the one I brought in? It had a hole in the sleeve, so I took it home.
- To do what with it? - Sew the hole.
- You're mending my clothes? - Want breakfast? - I want a clean shirt.
- You looking for me? You still on good terms with Hunt? I don't know if he'll have me to his ranch to lasso a bull any time soon, but he returns my calls.
- The LC 104 Ramses project - They need you in the Sit Room.
Mueller-Wright's chopper for the Army? - Hunt's bottling it up in committee.
- Because it's being built in 16 states.
- None of them named Arizona.
- Find out what's going on with Ramses.
Wendt has stuck on another one of his "moving America back to the Mamie Eisenhower era" amendments.
- What this time? - Tax cuts for stay-at-home moms.
The president's headed to his district on Saturday.
Yeah, I don't think the timing's accidental.
Okay, pull together a briefing, I'll get you a few minutes with the president.
Donna.
Can you see if Senator Hunt's office can find me a couple of minutes this morning? - Is Jimmy Olsen with us today? - Ryan.
Do you know who Sam Wendt is? - Democrat from the Oregon 5th.
- Republican from the South Carolina 2nd.
But you were close.
He introduced an amendment to use the tax code to subsidize stay-at-home moms.
- That's interesting.
No.
Not really.
He kills childcare proposals and tries to get us to print the Ten Commandments on back of the $2 bill.
Be nice to have them wallet-sized.
Read the different drafts of the amendment.
Show how more women would benefit from the president's childcare tax credit than from Wendt's proposal.
Treasury, JTC scoring and a year-by-year impact on the deficit for a presidential briefing tomorrow.
- I'm going to brief the president? - No, I brief him and take credit, but you get to come.
Great.
Sure.
Tomorrow.
- JCT is? - Joint Tax Committee.
- What? It's scutwork.
- Presidential scutwork.
You wanna spend a day reading mind-numbing spreadsheets? - Mind-numbing presidential spreadsheets? - Channel your disappointment into getting me five minutes with Matt Hunt, okay? Please? No activity in the crew's location.
No movement of troops or equipment.
The Hook-112 receivers indicate our people are in this densely wooded area.
There is extraordinary activity out to sea, in the vicinity of the crash site.
How long before they figure our guys made it to shore? It's hard to say.
It looks as if they're assuming no one got out.
- What's the plan, admiral? - Four-man SEAL team will HALO drop under cover of darkness.
- HALO drop? - They parachute out at 40,000 feet deploy their chutes at 2000 feet.
- They'll gather the crew get them into a Zodiac and head back out to sea, 12 miles due east they'll meet a Super Sea Stallion rescue chopper.
The Sea Stallion will then fly them east So your SEAL team, they'll be armed.
- Yes, sir.
- And if they run into resistance from the North Koreans, they shoot? - You want them unarmed? Mr.
President, if the North Koreans find armed American soldiers on Korean soil - We go get them.
- Mr.
President, there are We don't leave our people in harm's way, Mr.
Barrow.
We bring them home.
- Admiral, go get our boys.
- Thank you, sir.
- Mr.
President.
- Thank you.
The senator will see you now, Mr.
Lyman.
Thank you for seeing me, senator.
You still getting in a little handball, Josh? As the years go by, I like my sports with a little more leverage, like, say, a racket.
Well, I'm at the club most mornings, I don't know if my ego could take another shellacking.
So, what can I do for you? The LC 104 Ramses Transport Chopper program.
- The DOD has approved the purchase.
- At 6 billion.
- Now Mueller-Wright says it will cost 10.
- The Army changed the order.
The upgrades are subcontractor parts and reactive armor was required in the initial RFP.
Well, the Army needs them and needs them sooner rather than later.
Gonna lecture me on military preparedness, Josh? What branch of the service did you serve in? I've forgotten.
Why are you here? Kenny O'Neal pick up the phone and call Leo? What's your real concern here, senator? That no Ramses project subcontractors are from Arizona? Tell Leo the Armed Services Committee will exercise its oversight prerogatives.
Mr.
O'Neal is just gonna have to wait.
Taylor Reid show wants you tomorrow.
They're gonna clear scheduled guests.
- I'm gonna carve him into McNuggets.
- Be there by 11:45 for the noon slot.
You're on air for seven minutes.
Back by 1, in time to say hello to Ben.
Ask Media Affairs to do a background on Reid's style and a list of recurring topics.
Interior's transferring Ben to D.
C.
He's looking for advice on where to live.
- Excuse me.
I hope I'm not interrupting.
- No, ma'am.
Please come in.
Carol's trying to get me excited about an old beau.
- He's a ranger.
- Dashing.
- Works with at-risk kids too.
- Sold.
- How are you, Mrs.
Bartlet? - Fine.
I wanted to give you a heads-up in case it's mentioned at a press briefing.
- I'm gonna start volunteering.
- Volunteering? - Washington Free Clinic.
- You're gonna practice medicine again? I'll be helping out a bit.
Not any heart transplants.
I'm sorry.
Are you licensed to practice medicine? I voluntarily chose to stop practicing, C.
J.
And now I'm choosing to give a few underprivileged toddlers vaccinations.
I never said I was hanging up my stethoscope for good.
See if Leo's available, and find out if Senator Canton's around.
- A call or face-to-face? - A call.
Canton's in Seattle.
NAACP convention.
- What do you need Canton for? - Hunt threatens to bottle the Ramses.
I need a Democrat on Armed Services to run interference.
I've thought about this Wendt amendment.
- We should give it another look.
- Tax credits for stay-at-home moms? - May not be a bad thing.
- For the floor-wax industry.
Working families struggle.
They need help.
You already auditioning one-liners for New Hampshire? I've been reading this Wendt stuff.
It may not be a bad thing.
- See, what did I tell you? - A major study Wendt commissioned of 1364 children showed links between parents dumping kids in daycare and added hyperactivity, lack of discipline and violence.
- Can I see that? - Jeffrey Dahmer's problem was daycare? We harp about root causes of crime and violence.
I work for the federal government.
I've never heard of Wendt's federal study.
Because all TV news programs are produced by mothers who dump their kids in daycare.
I think we need more women in the work force to keep you two out.
The MC-130's approaching the drop zone at 48,000 feet.
They do a descent to 38,000 for the drop.
Carolina to ODS.
Confirming traffic lights.
Locations scattered in angle formation east.
Mapped to the grid in five.
Pilot is confirming North Korean lights below him.
Affirmative.
Same from top.
Operation Shore Leave to commence at 0402.
They're waiting for your go, sir.
- That's affirmative.
- That's affirmative, Carolina.
- Roger, ODS.
Going dark.
- God be with you.
Jump permission granted.
SEALs One and Two.
Go.
SEAL Three.
Go.
Mission deployed.
I think it's broken.
- You gotta go.
I'll be okay.
- We bailed pretty close to Rest Camp.
- We'll head that way.
- It's a couple miles.
You can't be dragging me all over the jungle.
You won't make it with me along.
You're not so heavy, old man.
Leo? You got a minute? Yeah.
Sure.
Hunt isn't gonna back off.
What's his problem? He implied you had me ask on behalf of O'Neal.
- I'll call Hunt.
- I tracked down Dave Canton.
Asked him what had the chairman so riled up.
Canton says Mueller-Wright circumvented DOD protocol to get the deal approved.
There are thousands of procurement regs over at DOD.
If somebody at Mueller forgot to do some due diligence, they'll sort it out.
Canton said they never did an AOA.
Hunt has an investigation going.
He wants subpoenas, hearings.
- Over an AOA? - Canton says O'Neal will be the first.
Margaret.
Call Matt Hunt's office.
Tell him I'm coming over now.
You worked for Mueller-Wright.
If they're involved in procurement irregularities, any attempt by you to impede a Senate - I'm not going to impede anything.
Thanks.
I'll take it from here.
Did you know Senator Hunt in the military? No, he was later.
Cambodia and Laos.
It was a big war.
Please.
- You gotta go.
- I'm not leaving you, Leo.
So forget it.
Come on.
Let's go.
The Army sped up the timeline because, if you haven't noticed the threat to our guys increased.
- You questioning my patriotism? Oh, cut the crap, Matt.
I got old service ribbons gathering dust somewhere too.
- We had companies with lower bids.
- Airbus? Congress wouldn't let the Pentagon give a $ 10-billion defense contract to France.
If Mueller-Wright can't make choppers on price, they shouldn't bid.
Now you gonna drag O'Neal in front of a network perp-walk over a weapons systems we need that no one builds? - lf O'Neal is called to appear before my committee, it'll be for legit questions about how Mueller-Wright secured contracts.
You know the charge screams louder than the verdict.
If you don't like the price, tell the DOD to renegotiate it.
It's not about price anymore, Leo.
It's about process and patronage.
You're accusing me of using my influence to get them the contract? How many years did you work for Mueller-Wright? Was it 10, 12? Don't try to embarrass me and the president by humiliating an outstanding American patriot.
Well, now who's waving the flag, Leo? If you're drawing up partisan subpoena lists, Matt, put my name on top.
When you talk, address Taylor, not the camera.
- lf he points to the Truth Meter - Am I on a game show? Keep looking at Taylor.
If I'm dunked in a river and float, am I a witch? - Back in 10.
- Thank you, Bambi, very much.
God, it's great you could join us.
I am a huge fan.
Thanks.
- Five.
Four.
Three.
- She's okay, let's go.
As told, White House Press Secretary C.
J.
Cregg has finally agreed to join us.
Ms.
Cregg, global warming.
Liberal fantasy, huh? - No, it's not.
- Voodoo environmentalism without any There are about 16 Nobel Laureates, and 17 scientific studies - That is the U.
N.
for tree-huggers.
They think companies that create jobs and help - That's ridiculous.
- lf so, you should stop funding them.
Judicial nominees.
The United States Senate doesn't think it's a good idea to approve Bartlet's liberal judges that treat the Constitution like a beer coaster.
The president has nominated dozens of highly qualified judges.
- How's she doing? - You'll pack courts with liberal judges to institute gay marriage rights.
- Your nominees - We're not seeking that.
I think the Christians did a little better with the lions.
Let's take a commercial break.
We'll be back with C.
J.
Cregg.
- You're watching - It's the first round.
Still testing her jab.
She better go to her hook soon.
I just got a call from Hunt's office.
Leo has asked to be subpoenaed for the hearings on the Ramses.
He asked to be subpoenaed? Hunt's asking for all e-mails within the DOD and Mueller-Wright.
He thinks the bid process was rigged.
He threatened to subpoena O'Neal.
Apparently, Leo rose to Ken's defense.
Leo can't testify in front of the Armed Services Committee.
- Did you talk to him? - I tried.
- Does the president know? - Should he? - Mr.
President.
Mr.
President.
- We get them back? We had single confirmation bursts from the SEAL team's CSELs.
They're now with the downed crew from the Hawkeye.
- Are they in the water? - No, but closer to this beach area stopped in the woods.
- Why? - The sun came up.
- So now what? They just wait around until the sun goes down again? Yes, sir.
Here's hoping nobody decides to go berry-picking in those woods today.
- Sure you don't want anything in it? - No.
Black's great.
Maybe it would be better to wait in the lobby.
No.
Please.
C.
J.
should be back soon.
We met in Principles of Sociology.
That was the only class at Berkeley that the land-management kids and the poli sci students took together.
- You studied range management? - Grassland, savanna, shrubland ecology.
Thank God the Park Service hired me.
What else was my education good for? Selling seed catalogs, maybe.
I don't know.
I've got a picture of us together in college.
Would you like to see it? It's a Now, that's right after we started living together.
God.
She was something in a bikini, huh? She ever tell you about getting arrested? You know, for stealing that donkey down in Cabo.
Wrestling the hard issues.
Demanding the real answers.
This is The Whole Truth with Taylor Reid.
You're not giving me a chance to answer.
If you wanna bloviate, I'll leave a cutout of myself and you can talk all you want.
- In five, four, three You're doing great.
We are back with C.
J.
Cregg, who says she could've sent a cardboard cutout of herself for all we'll get today.
C.
J.
, the first lady is back to practicing medicine at a Southeast D.
C.
clinic.
Isn't she breaking her promise to the American people? Didn't she say she wouldn't practice medicine after lying about her husband's health to the American voters? She is volunteering in a free clinic in a poor neighborhood helping to save children.
She should try to fix health care as opposed to repairing her own self-image.
She's an M.
D.
She can fix whatever she pleases.
If it's health care, you'd block it.
I'm for sensible care.
Not socialized medicine.
- No, you're not.
- The first lady lied to the people.
She lied.
What about your paid speeches to the pharmaceutical lobby? And your speeches to the HMO and insurance lobby and how when health-care reform comes up, you're against it.
First lady gets things done, you're not because you're depositing their checks.
Let's talk about who's chicken.
The insurance - She won that round on all cards.
- How much longer, do you think? I have no idea.
Leo knows he can't testify on behalf of a major defense contractor.
- What's he thinking? - He's not thinking.
- How long did they serve together? - Leo and O'Neal? I don't know.
- A while before they were shot down.
- Leo was shot down? Over Hanoi.
They hid out in the jungle till they were rescued.
Can I get a ballpark how much longer it's gonna be? An era? A Tchaikovsky symphony, a brief ice age, perhaps? You have some food stuck in your beard.
- How long was he there for? - Three days.
Excuse me, sir.
Mr.
Ziegler is being rather insistent.
As he so often is.
Well, thank you, Mr.
Thomas.
Let me think about it.
Mr.
President.
So, what's so important? Someone get the words to "Yellow Submarine" wrong again? - It's about Leo, sir.
- We still haven 't heard from Ken? I left messages at his office, and with his hotel in Chicago.
We were supposed to have lunch.
Call his office back and find out what meetings he had this morning.
- Got a minute? - Yes, sir.
Of course.
- No word yet on the SEAL team? - No, sir.
Not yet.
Toby and Josh came to see me about this Mueller-Wright thing.
I told Josh I'd handle it.
By going before the Armed Services Committee? Hunt's trying to use my friendship with O'Neal to embarrass this administration.
Testifying before a congressional committee will lessen that? - Hunt's bluffing.
He's upset Arizona manufacturers didn't get any of the contract.
You were a senior corporate officer at Mueller-Wright for over 10 years, right, Leo? You can't testify.
It's not gonna come to that.
It opens you to being called by the congressional committees on a whim.
I won't stand by while Hunt slanders a good man's name for political purposes.
- Josh seems to think that - Josh doesn't know what he's saying.
- You ask Kenny if there's any truth? - I've known Ken O'Neal for 35 years.
I worked beside him, served beside him.
He hasn't done anything wrong.
You can't testify, Leo.
I won't desert him, Mr.
President.
Have you asked Kenny if there's truth to the rumors? - I don't have to.
Still nothing from General Alexander? No.
Josh is waiting to give you a Ways and Means briefing.
- What Ways and Means briefing? - The South Carolina trip, sir.
And then you have the INS on border security.
And at 4, the National Medal of Arts recipients are coming by.
You a Crosby, Stills and Nash fan? I've always been a Crazy Horse kind of gal, Mr.
President.
- Yeah, I could see how that would be.
- Although, I did have a tempestuous affair with a rodeo cowboy during the Summer of Love that the Hollies played a significant role in.
I'll call Josh in.
So, what's this problem with Saturday's trip to South Carolina? Wendt wants a tax cut for stay-at-home moms.
Unless you're a poor woman then he'd argue you have to work, or be denied welfare benefits.
He'll try to slip dishwasher subsidies into the omnibus reconciliation bill.
Our caucus has been fighting for more daycare, after-school care transportation to make it easier for poor women to get to jobs.
They can't justify spending JTC scores it at Eleven billion? To keep Wilma Flintstone in dinosaur-skin coats while most women struggle to find care for their child.
What's the tax benefit for the typical family? - About $ 100 a year.
- Closer to 300.
But that's not the point.
A typical family of four making in childcare tax credit if the wife works.
If she wants to stay at home with the kids, we don't help.
- Who's this? - Ryan Pierce.
He's interning in my office a few months.
- Pierce? - Maybe less.
- Senator Pierce's son? - He's my uncle.
So which would you choose, Ryan? Daycare tax cut or this? Daycare.
But why should we choose for everybody else? What would you suggest? Tell Wendt you understand he didn't support the childcare tax credit when there's no help for stay-at-home moms so find agreeable loophole closers to pay for both.
He's on Ways and Means.
That's where the money is.
Right? Right.
Thank you.
- That was fun.
- You did great.
Sanctimonious little guttersnipe sent a big fat one up and over the plate.
Health-care reform.
From a guy who's on the fence about the application of leeches.
- He wants you back.
- Sensible health care? He means a bedpan and a check from the "your claim's been rejected" lobby.
You missed Ben.
He hung around a bit but he had a meeting at Interior.
- How's he look? - lf you don't want him, can I have him? He still have that ruffled hair, "Redford in The Way We Were" thing going? He left you a note and a picture.
- He asked a question.
- And I was answering it.
- Incorrectly.
- You work for me.
- Don't correct me in front of him.
- Even with wrong info? - Yes.
- Really? - Xerox this.
Front to back, double-sided - Collated? - Yeah, go wild.
- Right.
Trouble in mind-numbing presidential briefing paradise? Eve Harrington here just corrected me in front of the president.
- Were you wrong? - That's not the point.
What is the point? - I'm going into my office now.
- Senator Hunt's in there.
Matt Hunt's in my office? - Senator.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
- It's okay.
- You didn't know I was coming.
- What can I do for you? I I lost my temper yesterday with Leo McGarry.
He accused me of some things, I responded in kind.
I want you to keep him from publicly supporting Ken O'Neal.
Thanks.
Senator, Leo doesn't take direction from me.
I can't keep him from making a breakfast order.
Oh, I understand loyalty.
God, there are men that I served with I would do anything for, and they for me.
But you can't let Leo get involved in this.
- You know Mark Lofton? - No.
Until six weeks ago, he was a DOD procurement officer at 80,000 a year.
He supervised the bid process on the LC 104 Ramses.
Now he is a senior vice president of a major defense contractor, making over 300,000 a year.
Wanna guess who he works for? The Sea Stallion's heading back to the Cowpens.
He should be breaking radio silence any moment.
Do we know if they've encountered any resistance? Reconnaissance saw nothing on their last trip.
Tigertail 11 to ODS.
Is this channel secure? Affirmative, Tigertail 11.
Call in.
Over.
- That's ODS on the USS Cowpens.
- Tigertail 11 en route.
Not to keep you in suspense, ODS, all five pieces of cargo were recovered.
Commander, this is President Bartlet.
What is their condition? Mr.
President, this is SEAL team leader.
Some bruised egos and a few broken bones, but all stable.
Unfortunately, we lost a member of the SEAL team.
Captain Zeretsky.
Looks like hypoxia from the jump, sir.
Commander, any unfriendly encounters? Sir, no, sir.
Heavy water traffic on our way out from the beach but they were blind as bats.
- Well done, commander.
Thank you.
- Thank you, Mr.
President.
General, can you get me a number for Captain Zeretsky's family? - Where is he? - Out of the building.
- Where out of the building? - O'Neal called.
Leo went to meet him.
I was worried about you.
Sorry about lunch.
I got held up with our general counsel.
I talked to Hunt.
I know a bit about what's going on.
He's just trying to score cheap political points off of our friendship get his face on the cover of the Journal.
- Go ahead.
- No, it's just Josh.
I'm sorry.
I got you into this mess.
He wouldn't try to make rain out of it if it weren't for me.
- It's not your fault - I told him.
If he tried to drag you in front of Armed Services, he'd have to haul me there first.
- No.
- You've come under budget.
All the times you've delivered projects on schedule under impossible You can't testify.
- lf it comes to that, I can handle Hunt.
- You can't testify.
I'm taking the Fifth.
I got the subpoena yesterday.
I spent the morning with my attorneys.
I'm gonna assert my Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions.
Why? We didn't do the AOA.
I gave a procurement officer at the DOD a job and l I got to a guy on the Defense Policy Board.
Stop looking at me like that.
Why not do the AOA? The Army wants the choppers.
- Would they buy them from the French? - No, we had to have the contract.
I've got a lot of pressure from my board.
That Hollander merger was a disaster.
And the Navy left us holding the bag on the Warrior Three missile system.
So this was about money? I have a responsibility to my employees and to our stockholders.
And, yes, I pushed a little harder than I should have.
And, yes, I'm gonna hang for it.
But it's not just me.
Who do you think was pushing me? My congressman and my senator.
This is a jobs bill for them.
So I paid an advance to a procurement officer I was planning on hiring.
Do you think I'm the first? It's a revolving door between the Pentagon and the private sector.
- How much did you make last year? - What? How much, Kenny? - Just over a million.
- How much with bonuses? Eleven million.
You okay? Kenny did it.
Josh told me.
We got the Hawkeye crew out.
All five of them in good shape.
- We lost one of the SEALs.
- What's this music? Crosby, Stills and Nash came by.
They're getting the National Medal for the Arts.
Gave me this tape.
It's beautiful, huh? We were out in the jungle for three days.
Kenny carried me on his back hid me under piles of leaves while he went to find us water.
I was delirious.
I'd lost a lot of blood.
He could have left me.
He should have left me.
He never did.
We found a clearing where we could send up a flare and a couple hours later, these two Hueys show up, taking all kind of AK fire.
Men died for us.
We had a responsibility to live our lives with integrity and honesty to honor their sacrifice.
Corruption of the best is the worst.
You've done more, much more, all on your own, to honor their memory, Leo.
They'd be as proud to know you as I am.
Leo.
Leo, come on.
They're here.
We're going home.
- Explain to him why I can't go sailing.
- Dude, Ryan's not onboard because he's taking some boxes over to the OEOB for me.
She's either gullible, an idiot or so completely out of the loop she shouldn 't get paid.
- I wanna see him call you chicken.
Me and Nancy and Fitz are standing right next to you.
When you get information, you don't need to remember it.
And we're standing right next to you when you give orders.
You're not gonna hurt anybody.
Tango Outlaw 16.
Raven One approaching An Khe.
Roger, One.
Operation is in heavy contact at Bravo Romeo 945374.
They need FAC ASAP.
Fox Mike 45.
8.
- On your wing, lead.
Drawing targets? - Roger, Two.
- First drop, just beyond the tree line.
- I've got it.
Keep up your speed.
Don't stop.
- They've just salvoed.
- Locked on target.
Raven Two locked on target.
We've been hit.
Fire light's on.
You see, Two? Clean off your wing.
You've got two tanks near the fire.
Lost hydraulics.
Tango Outlaw 16, looking for a bailout over Thud Ridge.
- We gotta punch out.
- Gotta clear the ridge.
We're not going to make it.
Tango Outlaw 16, punching out two klicks west of Thud Ridge.
So he says, "That's my mulligan.
" And I say, "But you've already taken your mulligan.
" "Yeah," Kenny says, "but we're playing Texas rules.
" Okay, let's try to forget for a moment his success in the private sector.
Creating jobs and generating enormous tax revenues the president and I get to fool around with.
And let's talk about his commitment to his community.
Chairman of the board of University Medical Center.
The Opera Society and Symphony.
Although I suspect the opera thing is more Sally.
CEO and chairman of Mueller-Wright Aeronautics and this year's Chicago Business Conference Humanitarian of the Year.
The finest man that I have ever had the great privilege to call my friend: Your own Kenneth Sean O'Neal.
- Thanks for coming, Leo.
- I wouldn't miss it for the world.
- How are Beth and Sandy? - Beth's expecting again.
- And Sandy's Sandy.
- How's Ramses coming along? Armed Services is holding it up again.
I'm gonna go talk to him on Thursday.
- You free for lunch? - lf I'm not, I'll make sure I will be.
- You want me to place a call? - To Hunt? No, thanks.
Congratulations, Kenny.
You're coming to Hilton Head this summer.
No arguments, no lame excuses that you're saving the world for democracy.
Saving it from democracy is more what it feels like.
I'll see you Thursday.
- Thursday.
- Bye, now.
- Stop being a baby about this.
- I don't need a portrait.
Of course you do.
What, me with my Irish wolfhound gazing with portent out over the Potomac? - You don't have an Irish wolfhound.
- My point exactly.
Yeah.
Sure, send him in.
Charlie.
When am I supposed to find time to sit for some cut-rate Rubens while he angles me just so to catch the late afternoon light? You do know it's not a nude, right? Excuse me, Mr.
President.
Mrs.
Bartlet.
Sorry to bother.
No, come on in.
Bring your jammies.
We're about to start the pillow fight.
- The general's waiting outside.
- Why not invite him in too.
I'll pop some popcorn, we'll watch Patton on cable.
- Sorry to disturb you, sir.
- What's happened? A Navy E-2 Hawkeye providing command and control for Carl Vinson Carrier Battle Group went down in Sea of Japan.
- Any survivors? - Yes, sir, we believe so.
We're getting signals from four of the five GPS locators.
- So we go get them.
- That may be difficult in their location.
- Where are they? - Somewhere north of Kimch'aek.
Three hundred kilometers northeast of Pyongyang, the Republic of North Korea.
Mr.
McGarry.
- How was Chicago? - Quick.
- Where are we? - An E-2C Hawkeye was harassed by two North Korean MiGs over the Sea of Japan.
The MiGs made two nonfiring passes, one less than 10 feet off his wing.
- The crew make it out? - We've located four of the five and identified two pieces of wreckage a mile off the coast.
- Our people are in water? - They were.
Now the GPS beacons show they're on land.
- In North Korea.
- What will the crew do? Lay low, stay out of sight, wait for us to come get them.
We can't get them.
Sending a Special Forces covert retrieval team into North Korea is an act of war.
We're still at war with them.
We never signed an armistice.
If they capture our people, they'll be held as POWs.
- Or they'll deny they even have them.
- We can negotiate for their safe return.
Can you guarantee that? Can you guarantee you can go get them without starting a war? - Can we confirm that they're still alive? - They were in the water, now on land.
We have any Keyhole satellites currently in position? We've got reconnaissance out of Okinawa and Osan.
- Should be over the site in three hours.
- Call when you know.
Thank you, sir.
Last night's summaries, the daybook, press guns from the NSC and the policy shops, State Department cables.
Legislative Affairs says an amendment is moving through Ways and Means.
Congressman Wendt wants a tax cut for stay-at-home moms.
Too late to get incentives for stay-at-home congressmen? President's flying to Wendt's district in South Carolina Saturday.
Read the guidance before, it might come up.
- Really? You think? - So tomorrow's the big day.
- What? - Mystery Ben.
- What about him? - Coming to say hello.
- No, he isn't.
- He's in town and he called.
- You gave an appointment? - He seemed nice.
- He is nice.
Very nice.
Also very married.
- Not anymore.
He and Katie split up? - Katie's in Portland now.
- Really.
- And Toby and Josh are in your office.
- Why? - To make fun of you.
- You let them in? - And got them coffee.
- Problem with the South Carolina trip.
Wendt, who single-handedly blocked our tax credit to expand childcare for working families wants to bind the feet of your gender with his paleochauvinist stay-at-home-mom tax cut.
I'm gonna read the bill and supporting materials now.
Kick up a cloud of dust about the revenue impact and note he's the Darth Vader of childcare.
Let me read the bill and supporting materials.
We're already rolling over on the tax side.
- The indexing provision - Can I take a moment to read the bill and supporting materials? Okay, what? You should go on the Taylor Reid show.
- The chicken thing has legs.
- With pointy little toes.
- No.
- Washington wire has Tyson Foods offering you a lifetime supply of wings and thighs if you do a print ad for fryers.
Reliable Source notes that the Oval Room - Your favorite.
- Has a new menu item a combo of chicken, avocado and poached eggs called "The C.
J.
Cregg Egg.
" - You enjoy this.
Go on the show, call his bluff, show you have a sense of humor.
- Wear a chicken suit.
- Take him semi-seriously, he'll lay off.
- A chicken suit.
- Josh, Leo's looking for you.
- Read the Wendt amendment.
- I'm trying to read it.
It's pretty narrowly drawn.
Not the worst thing.
- She see it last night? - What? - She doesn't know? - What? Taylor Reid talked about your spin on the decline in manufacturing jobs and said "The tall lady's back to telling tall tales.
" - The tall lady.
- Tall lady.
Carol.
Call the Taylor Reid show, book me on the next open slot.
I'm gonna reach down and rip off his puny little face.
- You're already here.
- I came in straight from Dulles.
- At 2 in the morning? - I need a clean shirt.
What happened to the one I brought in? It had a hole in the sleeve, so I took it home.
- To do what with it? - Sew the hole.
- You're mending my clothes? - Want breakfast? - I want a clean shirt.
- You looking for me? You still on good terms with Hunt? I don't know if he'll have me to his ranch to lasso a bull any time soon, but he returns my calls.
- The LC 104 Ramses project - They need you in the Sit Room.
Mueller-Wright's chopper for the Army? - Hunt's bottling it up in committee.
- Because it's being built in 16 states.
- None of them named Arizona.
- Find out what's going on with Ramses.
Wendt has stuck on another one of his "moving America back to the Mamie Eisenhower era" amendments.
- What this time? - Tax cuts for stay-at-home moms.
The president's headed to his district on Saturday.
Yeah, I don't think the timing's accidental.
Okay, pull together a briefing, I'll get you a few minutes with the president.
Donna.
Can you see if Senator Hunt's office can find me a couple of minutes this morning? - Is Jimmy Olsen with us today? - Ryan.
Do you know who Sam Wendt is? - Democrat from the Oregon 5th.
- Republican from the South Carolina 2nd.
But you were close.
He introduced an amendment to use the tax code to subsidize stay-at-home moms.
- That's interesting.
No.
Not really.
He kills childcare proposals and tries to get us to print the Ten Commandments on back of the $2 bill.
Be nice to have them wallet-sized.
Read the different drafts of the amendment.
Show how more women would benefit from the president's childcare tax credit than from Wendt's proposal.
Treasury, JTC scoring and a year-by-year impact on the deficit for a presidential briefing tomorrow.
- I'm going to brief the president? - No, I brief him and take credit, but you get to come.
Great.
Sure.
Tomorrow.
- JCT is? - Joint Tax Committee.
- What? It's scutwork.
- Presidential scutwork.
You wanna spend a day reading mind-numbing spreadsheets? - Mind-numbing presidential spreadsheets? - Channel your disappointment into getting me five minutes with Matt Hunt, okay? Please? No activity in the crew's location.
No movement of troops or equipment.
The Hook-112 receivers indicate our people are in this densely wooded area.
There is extraordinary activity out to sea, in the vicinity of the crash site.
How long before they figure our guys made it to shore? It's hard to say.
It looks as if they're assuming no one got out.
- What's the plan, admiral? - Four-man SEAL team will HALO drop under cover of darkness.
- HALO drop? - They parachute out at 40,000 feet deploy their chutes at 2000 feet.
- They'll gather the crew get them into a Zodiac and head back out to sea, 12 miles due east they'll meet a Super Sea Stallion rescue chopper.
The Sea Stallion will then fly them east So your SEAL team, they'll be armed.
- Yes, sir.
- And if they run into resistance from the North Koreans, they shoot? - You want them unarmed? Mr.
President, if the North Koreans find armed American soldiers on Korean soil - We go get them.
- Mr.
President, there are We don't leave our people in harm's way, Mr.
Barrow.
We bring them home.
- Admiral, go get our boys.
- Thank you, sir.
- Mr.
President.
- Thank you.
The senator will see you now, Mr.
Lyman.
Thank you for seeing me, senator.
You still getting in a little handball, Josh? As the years go by, I like my sports with a little more leverage, like, say, a racket.
Well, I'm at the club most mornings, I don't know if my ego could take another shellacking.
So, what can I do for you? The LC 104 Ramses Transport Chopper program.
- The DOD has approved the purchase.
- At 6 billion.
- Now Mueller-Wright says it will cost 10.
- The Army changed the order.
The upgrades are subcontractor parts and reactive armor was required in the initial RFP.
Well, the Army needs them and needs them sooner rather than later.
Gonna lecture me on military preparedness, Josh? What branch of the service did you serve in? I've forgotten.
Why are you here? Kenny O'Neal pick up the phone and call Leo? What's your real concern here, senator? That no Ramses project subcontractors are from Arizona? Tell Leo the Armed Services Committee will exercise its oversight prerogatives.
Mr.
O'Neal is just gonna have to wait.
Taylor Reid show wants you tomorrow.
They're gonna clear scheduled guests.
- I'm gonna carve him into McNuggets.
- Be there by 11:45 for the noon slot.
You're on air for seven minutes.
Back by 1, in time to say hello to Ben.
Ask Media Affairs to do a background on Reid's style and a list of recurring topics.
Interior's transferring Ben to D.
C.
He's looking for advice on where to live.
- Excuse me.
I hope I'm not interrupting.
- No, ma'am.
Please come in.
Carol's trying to get me excited about an old beau.
- He's a ranger.
- Dashing.
- Works with at-risk kids too.
- Sold.
- How are you, Mrs.
Bartlet? - Fine.
I wanted to give you a heads-up in case it's mentioned at a press briefing.
- I'm gonna start volunteering.
- Volunteering? - Washington Free Clinic.
- You're gonna practice medicine again? I'll be helping out a bit.
Not any heart transplants.
I'm sorry.
Are you licensed to practice medicine? I voluntarily chose to stop practicing, C.
J.
And now I'm choosing to give a few underprivileged toddlers vaccinations.
I never said I was hanging up my stethoscope for good.
See if Leo's available, and find out if Senator Canton's around.
- A call or face-to-face? - A call.
Canton's in Seattle.
NAACP convention.
- What do you need Canton for? - Hunt threatens to bottle the Ramses.
I need a Democrat on Armed Services to run interference.
I've thought about this Wendt amendment.
- We should give it another look.
- Tax credits for stay-at-home moms? - May not be a bad thing.
- For the floor-wax industry.
Working families struggle.
They need help.
You already auditioning one-liners for New Hampshire? I've been reading this Wendt stuff.
It may not be a bad thing.
- See, what did I tell you? - A major study Wendt commissioned of 1364 children showed links between parents dumping kids in daycare and added hyperactivity, lack of discipline and violence.
- Can I see that? - Jeffrey Dahmer's problem was daycare? We harp about root causes of crime and violence.
I work for the federal government.
I've never heard of Wendt's federal study.
Because all TV news programs are produced by mothers who dump their kids in daycare.
I think we need more women in the work force to keep you two out.
The MC-130's approaching the drop zone at 48,000 feet.
They do a descent to 38,000 for the drop.
Carolina to ODS.
Confirming traffic lights.
Locations scattered in angle formation east.
Mapped to the grid in five.
Pilot is confirming North Korean lights below him.
Affirmative.
Same from top.
Operation Shore Leave to commence at 0402.
They're waiting for your go, sir.
- That's affirmative.
- That's affirmative, Carolina.
- Roger, ODS.
Going dark.
- God be with you.
Jump permission granted.
SEALs One and Two.
Go.
SEAL Three.
Go.
Mission deployed.
I think it's broken.
- You gotta go.
I'll be okay.
- We bailed pretty close to Rest Camp.
- We'll head that way.
- It's a couple miles.
You can't be dragging me all over the jungle.
You won't make it with me along.
You're not so heavy, old man.
Leo? You got a minute? Yeah.
Sure.
Hunt isn't gonna back off.
What's his problem? He implied you had me ask on behalf of O'Neal.
- I'll call Hunt.
- I tracked down Dave Canton.
Asked him what had the chairman so riled up.
Canton says Mueller-Wright circumvented DOD protocol to get the deal approved.
There are thousands of procurement regs over at DOD.
If somebody at Mueller forgot to do some due diligence, they'll sort it out.
Canton said they never did an AOA.
Hunt has an investigation going.
He wants subpoenas, hearings.
- Over an AOA? - Canton says O'Neal will be the first.
Margaret.
Call Matt Hunt's office.
Tell him I'm coming over now.
You worked for Mueller-Wright.
If they're involved in procurement irregularities, any attempt by you to impede a Senate - I'm not going to impede anything.
Thanks.
I'll take it from here.
Did you know Senator Hunt in the military? No, he was later.
Cambodia and Laos.
It was a big war.
Please.
- You gotta go.
- I'm not leaving you, Leo.
So forget it.
Come on.
Let's go.
The Army sped up the timeline because, if you haven't noticed the threat to our guys increased.
- You questioning my patriotism? Oh, cut the crap, Matt.
I got old service ribbons gathering dust somewhere too.
- We had companies with lower bids.
- Airbus? Congress wouldn't let the Pentagon give a $ 10-billion defense contract to France.
If Mueller-Wright can't make choppers on price, they shouldn't bid.
Now you gonna drag O'Neal in front of a network perp-walk over a weapons systems we need that no one builds? - lf O'Neal is called to appear before my committee, it'll be for legit questions about how Mueller-Wright secured contracts.
You know the charge screams louder than the verdict.
If you don't like the price, tell the DOD to renegotiate it.
It's not about price anymore, Leo.
It's about process and patronage.
You're accusing me of using my influence to get them the contract? How many years did you work for Mueller-Wright? Was it 10, 12? Don't try to embarrass me and the president by humiliating an outstanding American patriot.
Well, now who's waving the flag, Leo? If you're drawing up partisan subpoena lists, Matt, put my name on top.
When you talk, address Taylor, not the camera.
- lf he points to the Truth Meter - Am I on a game show? Keep looking at Taylor.
If I'm dunked in a river and float, am I a witch? - Back in 10.
- Thank you, Bambi, very much.
God, it's great you could join us.
I am a huge fan.
Thanks.
- Five.
Four.
Three.
- She's okay, let's go.
As told, White House Press Secretary C.
J.
Cregg has finally agreed to join us.
Ms.
Cregg, global warming.
Liberal fantasy, huh? - No, it's not.
- Voodoo environmentalism without any There are about 16 Nobel Laureates, and 17 scientific studies - That is the U.
N.
for tree-huggers.
They think companies that create jobs and help - That's ridiculous.
- lf so, you should stop funding them.
Judicial nominees.
The United States Senate doesn't think it's a good idea to approve Bartlet's liberal judges that treat the Constitution like a beer coaster.
The president has nominated dozens of highly qualified judges.
- How's she doing? - You'll pack courts with liberal judges to institute gay marriage rights.
- Your nominees - We're not seeking that.
I think the Christians did a little better with the lions.
Let's take a commercial break.
We'll be back with C.
J.
Cregg.
- You're watching - It's the first round.
Still testing her jab.
She better go to her hook soon.
I just got a call from Hunt's office.
Leo has asked to be subpoenaed for the hearings on the Ramses.
He asked to be subpoenaed? Hunt's asking for all e-mails within the DOD and Mueller-Wright.
He thinks the bid process was rigged.
He threatened to subpoena O'Neal.
Apparently, Leo rose to Ken's defense.
Leo can't testify in front of the Armed Services Committee.
- Did you talk to him? - I tried.
- Does the president know? - Should he? - Mr.
President.
Mr.
President.
- We get them back? We had single confirmation bursts from the SEAL team's CSELs.
They're now with the downed crew from the Hawkeye.
- Are they in the water? - No, but closer to this beach area stopped in the woods.
- Why? - The sun came up.
- So now what? They just wait around until the sun goes down again? Yes, sir.
Here's hoping nobody decides to go berry-picking in those woods today.
- Sure you don't want anything in it? - No.
Black's great.
Maybe it would be better to wait in the lobby.
No.
Please.
C.
J.
should be back soon.
We met in Principles of Sociology.
That was the only class at Berkeley that the land-management kids and the poli sci students took together.
- You studied range management? - Grassland, savanna, shrubland ecology.
Thank God the Park Service hired me.
What else was my education good for? Selling seed catalogs, maybe.
I don't know.
I've got a picture of us together in college.
Would you like to see it? It's a Now, that's right after we started living together.
God.
She was something in a bikini, huh? She ever tell you about getting arrested? You know, for stealing that donkey down in Cabo.
Wrestling the hard issues.
Demanding the real answers.
This is The Whole Truth with Taylor Reid.
You're not giving me a chance to answer.
If you wanna bloviate, I'll leave a cutout of myself and you can talk all you want.
- In five, four, three You're doing great.
We are back with C.
J.
Cregg, who says she could've sent a cardboard cutout of herself for all we'll get today.
C.
J.
, the first lady is back to practicing medicine at a Southeast D.
C.
clinic.
Isn't she breaking her promise to the American people? Didn't she say she wouldn't practice medicine after lying about her husband's health to the American voters? She is volunteering in a free clinic in a poor neighborhood helping to save children.
She should try to fix health care as opposed to repairing her own self-image.
She's an M.
D.
She can fix whatever she pleases.
If it's health care, you'd block it.
I'm for sensible care.
Not socialized medicine.
- No, you're not.
- The first lady lied to the people.
She lied.
What about your paid speeches to the pharmaceutical lobby? And your speeches to the HMO and insurance lobby and how when health-care reform comes up, you're against it.
First lady gets things done, you're not because you're depositing their checks.
Let's talk about who's chicken.
The insurance - She won that round on all cards.
- How much longer, do you think? I have no idea.
Leo knows he can't testify on behalf of a major defense contractor.
- What's he thinking? - He's not thinking.
- How long did they serve together? - Leo and O'Neal? I don't know.
- A while before they were shot down.
- Leo was shot down? Over Hanoi.
They hid out in the jungle till they were rescued.
Can I get a ballpark how much longer it's gonna be? An era? A Tchaikovsky symphony, a brief ice age, perhaps? You have some food stuck in your beard.
- How long was he there for? - Three days.
Excuse me, sir.
Mr.
Ziegler is being rather insistent.
As he so often is.
Well, thank you, Mr.
Thomas.
Let me think about it.
Mr.
President.
So, what's so important? Someone get the words to "Yellow Submarine" wrong again? - It's about Leo, sir.
- We still haven 't heard from Ken? I left messages at his office, and with his hotel in Chicago.
We were supposed to have lunch.
Call his office back and find out what meetings he had this morning.
- Got a minute? - Yes, sir.
Of course.
- No word yet on the SEAL team? - No, sir.
Not yet.
Toby and Josh came to see me about this Mueller-Wright thing.
I told Josh I'd handle it.
By going before the Armed Services Committee? Hunt's trying to use my friendship with O'Neal to embarrass this administration.
Testifying before a congressional committee will lessen that? - Hunt's bluffing.
He's upset Arizona manufacturers didn't get any of the contract.
You were a senior corporate officer at Mueller-Wright for over 10 years, right, Leo? You can't testify.
It's not gonna come to that.
It opens you to being called by the congressional committees on a whim.
I won't stand by while Hunt slanders a good man's name for political purposes.
- Josh seems to think that - Josh doesn't know what he's saying.
- You ask Kenny if there's any truth? - I've known Ken O'Neal for 35 years.
I worked beside him, served beside him.
He hasn't done anything wrong.
You can't testify, Leo.
I won't desert him, Mr.
President.
Have you asked Kenny if there's truth to the rumors? - I don't have to.
Still nothing from General Alexander? No.
Josh is waiting to give you a Ways and Means briefing.
- What Ways and Means briefing? - The South Carolina trip, sir.
And then you have the INS on border security.
And at 4, the National Medal of Arts recipients are coming by.
You a Crosby, Stills and Nash fan? I've always been a Crazy Horse kind of gal, Mr.
President.
- Yeah, I could see how that would be.
- Although, I did have a tempestuous affair with a rodeo cowboy during the Summer of Love that the Hollies played a significant role in.
I'll call Josh in.
So, what's this problem with Saturday's trip to South Carolina? Wendt wants a tax cut for stay-at-home moms.
Unless you're a poor woman then he'd argue you have to work, or be denied welfare benefits.
He'll try to slip dishwasher subsidies into the omnibus reconciliation bill.
Our caucus has been fighting for more daycare, after-school care transportation to make it easier for poor women to get to jobs.
They can't justify spending JTC scores it at Eleven billion? To keep Wilma Flintstone in dinosaur-skin coats while most women struggle to find care for their child.
What's the tax benefit for the typical family? - About $ 100 a year.
- Closer to 300.
But that's not the point.
A typical family of four making in childcare tax credit if the wife works.
If she wants to stay at home with the kids, we don't help.
- Who's this? - Ryan Pierce.
He's interning in my office a few months.
- Pierce? - Maybe less.
- Senator Pierce's son? - He's my uncle.
So which would you choose, Ryan? Daycare tax cut or this? Daycare.
But why should we choose for everybody else? What would you suggest? Tell Wendt you understand he didn't support the childcare tax credit when there's no help for stay-at-home moms so find agreeable loophole closers to pay for both.
He's on Ways and Means.
That's where the money is.
Right? Right.
Thank you.
- That was fun.
- You did great.
Sanctimonious little guttersnipe sent a big fat one up and over the plate.
Health-care reform.
From a guy who's on the fence about the application of leeches.
- He wants you back.
- Sensible health care? He means a bedpan and a check from the "your claim's been rejected" lobby.
You missed Ben.
He hung around a bit but he had a meeting at Interior.
- How's he look? - lf you don't want him, can I have him? He still have that ruffled hair, "Redford in The Way We Were" thing going? He left you a note and a picture.
- He asked a question.
- And I was answering it.
- Incorrectly.
- You work for me.
- Don't correct me in front of him.
- Even with wrong info? - Yes.
- Really? - Xerox this.
Front to back, double-sided - Collated? - Yeah, go wild.
- Right.
Trouble in mind-numbing presidential briefing paradise? Eve Harrington here just corrected me in front of the president.
- Were you wrong? - That's not the point.
What is the point? - I'm going into my office now.
- Senator Hunt's in there.
Matt Hunt's in my office? - Senator.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
- It's okay.
- You didn't know I was coming.
- What can I do for you? I I lost my temper yesterday with Leo McGarry.
He accused me of some things, I responded in kind.
I want you to keep him from publicly supporting Ken O'Neal.
Thanks.
Senator, Leo doesn't take direction from me.
I can't keep him from making a breakfast order.
Oh, I understand loyalty.
God, there are men that I served with I would do anything for, and they for me.
But you can't let Leo get involved in this.
- You know Mark Lofton? - No.
Until six weeks ago, he was a DOD procurement officer at 80,000 a year.
He supervised the bid process on the LC 104 Ramses.
Now he is a senior vice president of a major defense contractor, making over 300,000 a year.
Wanna guess who he works for? The Sea Stallion's heading back to the Cowpens.
He should be breaking radio silence any moment.
Do we know if they've encountered any resistance? Reconnaissance saw nothing on their last trip.
Tigertail 11 to ODS.
Is this channel secure? Affirmative, Tigertail 11.
Call in.
Over.
- That's ODS on the USS Cowpens.
- Tigertail 11 en route.
Not to keep you in suspense, ODS, all five pieces of cargo were recovered.
Commander, this is President Bartlet.
What is their condition? Mr.
President, this is SEAL team leader.
Some bruised egos and a few broken bones, but all stable.
Unfortunately, we lost a member of the SEAL team.
Captain Zeretsky.
Looks like hypoxia from the jump, sir.
Commander, any unfriendly encounters? Sir, no, sir.
Heavy water traffic on our way out from the beach but they were blind as bats.
- Well done, commander.
Thank you.
- Thank you, Mr.
President.
General, can you get me a number for Captain Zeretsky's family? - Where is he? - Out of the building.
- Where out of the building? - O'Neal called.
Leo went to meet him.
I was worried about you.
Sorry about lunch.
I got held up with our general counsel.
I talked to Hunt.
I know a bit about what's going on.
He's just trying to score cheap political points off of our friendship get his face on the cover of the Journal.
- Go ahead.
- No, it's just Josh.
I'm sorry.
I got you into this mess.
He wouldn't try to make rain out of it if it weren't for me.
- It's not your fault - I told him.
If he tried to drag you in front of Armed Services, he'd have to haul me there first.
- No.
- You've come under budget.
All the times you've delivered projects on schedule under impossible You can't testify.
- lf it comes to that, I can handle Hunt.
- You can't testify.
I'm taking the Fifth.
I got the subpoena yesterday.
I spent the morning with my attorneys.
I'm gonna assert my Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions.
Why? We didn't do the AOA.
I gave a procurement officer at the DOD a job and l I got to a guy on the Defense Policy Board.
Stop looking at me like that.
Why not do the AOA? The Army wants the choppers.
- Would they buy them from the French? - No, we had to have the contract.
I've got a lot of pressure from my board.
That Hollander merger was a disaster.
And the Navy left us holding the bag on the Warrior Three missile system.
So this was about money? I have a responsibility to my employees and to our stockholders.
And, yes, I pushed a little harder than I should have.
And, yes, I'm gonna hang for it.
But it's not just me.
Who do you think was pushing me? My congressman and my senator.
This is a jobs bill for them.
So I paid an advance to a procurement officer I was planning on hiring.
Do you think I'm the first? It's a revolving door between the Pentagon and the private sector.
- How much did you make last year? - What? How much, Kenny? - Just over a million.
- How much with bonuses? Eleven million.
You okay? Kenny did it.
Josh told me.
We got the Hawkeye crew out.
All five of them in good shape.
- We lost one of the SEALs.
- What's this music? Crosby, Stills and Nash came by.
They're getting the National Medal for the Arts.
Gave me this tape.
It's beautiful, huh? We were out in the jungle for three days.
Kenny carried me on his back hid me under piles of leaves while he went to find us water.
I was delirious.
I'd lost a lot of blood.
He could have left me.
He should have left me.
He never did.
We found a clearing where we could send up a flare and a couple hours later, these two Hueys show up, taking all kind of AK fire.
Men died for us.
We had a responsibility to live our lives with integrity and honesty to honor their sacrifice.
Corruption of the best is the worst.
You've done more, much more, all on your own, to honor their memory, Leo.
They'd be as proud to know you as I am.
Leo.
Leo, come on.
They're here.
We're going home.