またどこかで会おう。え？終わり？

LEO
How bad is it?

TOBY
CNN/USA Today puts our job approval at 42%.

LEO
We dropped five points?

TOBY
Yeah.

LEO
In a week?

TOBY
His unfavorables are higher than his favorables for the first time. Fifty-four percent of the country is likely to vote for a Republican Congressional candidate in November.

LEO
We dropped five points in a week?

TOBY
Yeah.

LEO
We didn't do anything last week.

TOBY
I'll say.

LEO
Toby, when you start thinking about jumping ship, you'll let me know, right?

TOBY
One victory in a year, Leo.

LEO
Toby-

TOBY
Mendoza. We got Mendoza on the Court.

LEO
This President was elected with 48% of the vote, Toby.

TOBY
Yeah, but he was elected.

LEO
Without a mandate. The majority of people in the country voted for somebody else.

TOBY
I don't care, Leo. He was elected. He was sworn in. I was standing ten feet from the chief justice.

LEO
I'm saying it's not the easiest circumstance on...

TOBY
Who the hell said it would be easy?

LEO
... One victory in a year isn't so bad!

TOBY
One victory in a year stinks in a life of an administration. But it's not the ones we lose that bother me, Leo. It's the ones we don't suit up for! [pause] And I'm not too crazy about you questioning my loyalty just then.

Someone knocks.

LEO
Yeah?

C.J.
[comes in] Hey.

LEO
Oh. Hey C.J.

C.J.
The President's reading Mandy's memo. I just gave it to him.

LEO
I wish you hadn't done that, C.J.

C.J.
Why?

LEO
It's just gonna piss him off.

C.J.
It's gonna be in the newspapers tomorrow.

LEO
Did you find out who has it?

C.J.
Danny.

LEO
And he's writing it?

C.J.
Yeah. It should run right next to the new polling numbers.

Josh and Sam come in from the other door.

JOSH
How did we drop five points in a week?

LEO
It happened. Let's move on.

JOSH
What I think is, the Senate will confirm Bacon and Calhoun. They'll have to ‘cause their credentials are too good, and the voters want campaign reform. As a punishment, they'll roll out a legislative agenda designed to force the President to come down on the unpopular side of everything. For instance, they'll bring out English as the national language. I believe-

LEO
We're not gonna let it on the table.

JOSH
I think we shouldn't be afraid-

LEO
Josh!

JOSH
Leo, I think we shouldn't be afraid to get into it on English as the-

LEO
He's not gonna let it on the table.

JOSH
Then we'll live with their candidates for the F.E.C.

LEO
As we always have.

JOSH
Yes.

LEO
[to Sam] What about you?

SAM
My meeting?

LEO
Yeah.

SAM
It was the same meeting we've been having for... [beat] It was fine.

Everyone's faces are covered with sadness. Charlie knocks and walks in from the Oval Office.

LEO
Yeah?

CHARLIE
I'm sorry to interrupt. [points to the Oval Office]

LEO
Yeah.

Leo stands and goes into THE OVAL OFFICE. Bartlet is seated in a chair, with memo in his hand. Leo comes in. Charlie closes the door and stays there.

BARTLET
Who's got this?

LEO
Danny Concannon.

BARTLET
Why am I just finding out about this now?

LEO
We spent most of the day learning about it ourselves.

BARTLET
I really did wake up energized this morning.

LEO
I know.

BARTLET
I never go to bed that way.

LEO
I know.

BARTLET
Just once, in this job, I'd like to end a day feeling as good as I did when the day started. [pause] Are you bothered by this?

LEO
The memo?

BARTLET
Yeah.

LEO
Yes.

BARTLET
We've heard it all before, Leo. You drive me to political safe ground. It's not true.

LEO
I know it's not true.

BARTLET
Good. [heads for his desk]

LEO
You drive me there.

BARTLET
[turns] What the hell did you say?

LEO
And you know it too.

BARTLET
Leo?

LEO
We're stuck in neutral because that's where you tell me to stay.

BARTLET
You're wrong.

LEO
No. I'm not, sir.

BARTLET
You want to do this now?

LEO
Sir?

BARTLET
You came to my house, Leo.

LEO
Mr. President?

BARTLET
You came to my house, and you said, “Jed, let's run for President.” I said, “Why?” And you said, “So that you can open your mouth and say what you think!” Where'd that part go, Leo?

LEO
You tell me, Mr. President. I don't see a shortage of cameras or microphones around here. What the hell were you waiting for?

BARTLET
Look...

LEO
Everything you do...

BARTLET
This morning-

LEO
Everything you do says: “For God's sakes, Leo. I don't want to be a one-term President.”

BARTLET
Did I not say put our guys on the F.E.C.?

LEO
No sir. You did not do that.

BARTLET
Leo!

LEO
You said -- No! You said, let's dangle our feet in the water of whatever the hell it is we dangle our feet in, when we want to make it look like we're trying without pissing too many people off!

BARTLET
You're writing a fascinating version of history, my friend.

LEO
Oh, take a look at Mandy's memo, Mr. President, and you'll read a fascinating version of it.

BARTLET
You brought me in on teachers. You brought me in on capital gains. You brought me in on China. And you brought me in on guns.

LEO
Brought you in from where? You've never been out there on guns. You've never been out there on teachers. You dangle your feet, and I'm the hall monitor around here. It's my job to make sure nobody runs too fast or goes off too far. I tell Josh to go to the Hill on campaign finance, he knows nothing's gonna come out of it.

BARTLET
That's crap.

LEO
Sam can't get real on Don't Ask, Don't Tell because you're not gonna be there, and every guy sitting across the room from him knows that.

BARTLET
Leo, if I ever told you to get aggressive about campaign finance or gays in the military, you would tell me, “Don't run too fast or go to far.”

LEO
If you ever told me to get aggressive about anything, I'd say I serve at the pleasure of the President. [pause] But we'll never know, sir, because I don't think you're ever gonna say it.

BARTLET
I have said it, and nothing's every happened!

LEO
You want to see me orchestrate this right now? You want to see me mobilize these people? These people who would walk into fire if you told them to. These people who showed up to lead. These people who showed up to fight. [points at Charlie] That guy gets death threats because he's black and he dates your daughter. He was warned: “Do not show up to this place. You're life will be in danger.” He said, “To hell with that, I'm going anyway.” You said, “No.” Prudent, or not prudent, this 21 year old for 600 dollars a week says, “I'm going where I want to because a man stands up.”
[pause] Everyone's waiting for you. I don't know how much longer.

BARTLET
I don't want to feel like this anymore.

LEO
You don't have to.

BARTLET
I don't want to go to sleep like this.

LEO
You don't have to.

BARTLET
I want to speak.

LEO
Say it out loud. Say it to me.

BARTLET
This is more important than reelection. I want to speak now.

LEO
Say it again.

BARTLET
This is more important than reelection. I want to speak now.

LEO
Now we're in business!

Leo goes to the table and picks up a pen and writes on a pad.

BARTLET
What's happening?

LEO
We got our asses kicked in the first quarter, and it's time we move up the mat.

BARTLET
Yes!

LEO
Say it.

BARTLET
This is more important than reelection. I want to speak now.

LEO
[while writing] I'm gonna talk to the staff. I'm gonna take them off the leash.

BARTLET
You have a strategy for all this?

LEO
I have the beginnings of one.

BARTLET
What is it?

LEO
I'm gonna try that out for a little while.

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