Episode Summary:
Donna joins the Santos campaign—hired by Lou Thornton, not Josh—in an episode dominated by abortion politics. An attack ad on Santos by a pro-life group puts Vinick in a bind: the furious Santos wants Vinick to repudiate it or “the gloves are off.” But the pro-choice Vinick will offend the GOP’s right wing if he does. Meanwhile, Will takes Toby’s old job, and runs into a buzz saw over the NASA leak in the press briefings.
Script:
7x06 - "THE AL SMITH DINNER" WRITTEN BY ELI ATTIE DIRECTED BY LESLI LINKA GLATTER Transcribed by Soundman for www.twiztv.com. Send feedback to [email protected]. TEASER FADE IN: EXT. ALLEYWAY BUILDING NIGHT DEARBORN, MICHIGAN 63 DAYS BEFORE ELECTION DAY Santos, Lou, Josh and Bram have gotten out of the SUV and are walking in to the hotel. LOU Do you realize how few voters read that ink-stained rag? SANTOS The New York Times? Every network producer reads it. Every nationally syndicated columnist reads it. LOU We can't run a campaign for editorial writers. We'd have 12 votes, half of them within walking distance of zay-bars. JOSH That Times piece is ten times worse for Vinick. He's the one dragging his feet on debate negotiations. He's the one who rejected the debate commission's plan. LOU They called it 'a classic case of a front-runner trying to sit on a lead.' SANTOS Well, I can see how it's classic. He's been leading for two months now. JOSH I don't know why the Times slammed us, too. We're doing everything we can to get debates; the dates Vinick wants, the locations Vinick wants. SANTOS You know, it's starting to look like I'm desperate to debate him. CUT TO: EXT. ENTRYWAY VINICK HQ NIGHT WASHINGTON, D.C. VINICK-SULLIVAN CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS Vinick, Bruno and Sheila are getting out of the SUV to go to his next campaign stop. VINICK Will you stop?! SHEILA I'm just saying, watch it with the body parts. VINICK That's ridiculous. SHEILA You're the next President of the United States. VINICK Don't say that. SHEILA You have a standard to uphold. VINICK She held out her forearm. You want me to refuse to sign autographs? SHEILA You signed higher than her forearm. At which body part do you draw the line? VINICK Bruno, help me out here. BRUNO The guy's a rock star; David Cassidy meets David Rockefeller; all those body part votes. SHEILA He's the next President of the United States. VINICK Would you please stop saying that? CUT TO: INT. HOTEL NIGHT Santos, Lou, Josh, Bram and several people are walking to where the next campaign stop is. SANTOS Vinick is a terrific debater. And every time he backs away from the negotiating table, every time his aide tells the New York Times that I'm the greatest debater since Socrates, they're lowering expectations on his performance and raising mine through the roof. JOSH But he doesn't need the debates. We do. There's no way to hide that. SANTOS What good are debates if I have to demolish him to win? JOSH I've got another negotiating session with Bruno tomorrow in Washington. SANTOS Break the logjam. And lower expectations. JOSH Okay, those are contradictory orders, 'cause the more I give to get an agreement, the more it's going to look... SANTOS Get it done. Santos has gotten into the elevator and he leaves. CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ NIGHT Vinick, Sheila, and Bruno are walking. BRUNO Santos pulled out of North Dakota and West Virginia. There is not a single state we're not competing in. We could win all 50. Get used to it, Senator. VINICK Neither of you is worried about this Times editorial? BRUNO Nope. VINICK They're calling me the roadblock to democracy. We still have a shot at the Times' endorsement. BRUNO We're going to get a deal on debates soon enough and on our terms. The Times is just rapping us on the knuckles. SHEILA The governor of New York called again, urging you to reconsider... VINICK I'm not going to the Al Smith dinner. SHEILA Presidential nominees always go. No one's thrilled that it's just going to be the Vice Presidential candidates. VINICK You know what they're going to want me to talk about. SHEILA The biggest political event in New York, obviously a huge deal on the Catholic community; you could go, speak about your opposition to partial-birth abortion. BRUNO Ohh, bad idea. VINICK I'm not going to give a speech about partial-birth abortion in a room full of people who think any abortion is a sin. SHEILA New York's competitive, Catholic vote's critical. VINICK And I'm pro-choice, same as Santos. I'd be crazy to engage this issue. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY HOTEL NIGHT Santos is walking to his room. Bram is walking with him. BRAM You got another call from the New York State Party about... SANTOS Have Josh return it. BRAM Who's Al Smith anyway? SANTOS First Catholic to run for President; 1928. They walk into Santos's room. BRAM Why's the dinner such a big deal? SANTOS Oh, it's a big benefit to Catholic charities. It's the most political non-political event in New York. BRAM A ballroom full of Catholics should be your crowd. Vinick doesn't even go to church. SANTOS That's just what I need. He flips on the TV. SANTOS A contest over who gets the most 'boos' for the line 'I support a woman's right to choose.' Leo will handle it. BRAM 6:00 wake-up? SANTOS Make it 5:30. Bram leaves. We hear a newsanchor on TV. ANCHOR While Senator Vinick is back in Washington, Congressman Matthew Santos is in Michigan fighting for the state's 17 electoral votes. As the electoral math narrows, you can bet they'll both be in Michigan... CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ NIGHT Vinick, Sheila, and Bruno are walking. VINICK Why are we talking about the environment in Michigan this weekend? SHEILA You talk about it everywhere. VINICK It's Michigan. Hug a tree, kill a Chrysler. BRUNO We're four points up there; we don't need to get hit for pandering. SHEILA You want to spend a few minutes on thank you notes for those New Mexico electorates? VINICK Nah, I've got the list. It's been a great day; why don't you guys get some rest. BRUNO Are you sure? VINICK Yeah. Go ahead. He walks into his office. SHEILA Okay, see you in the morning. VINICK Okay. ... He turns the TV on and sits at his desk. ANCHOR Matthew Santos is in Michigan fighting for the state's 17 electoral votes. As the electoral math narrows, you can bet they'll both be in Michigan more and more. We'll be right back after this. As the news goes to a commercial, an election ad begins playing. ANNOUNCER This November, America faces a vote of conscience. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS' ROOM CONTINUOUS Santos is watching the same ad on TV. He picks up his phone and dials. ANNOUNCER [cont.] Matt Santos on human life: SANTOS [on ad] Do I want to limit access to abortion? No. SANTOS Turn on MSNBC. CUT TO: INT. VINICK'S OFFICE CONTINUOUS Vinick is still watching the ad. He picks up his phone and punches in a number. ANNOUNCER No, on telling you when your daughter wants an abortion. No, on banning partial-birth abortion. VINICK I need Sheila. ANNOUNCER Paid for by the Committee for the Integrity of Human Life. VINICK Who the hell is the Committee for the Integrity of Human Life, and who told them to drag abortion into my campaign? SMASH CUT TO: MAIN TITLES. END TEASER. * * * ACT ONE FADE IN: INT. VINICK'S OFFICE NIGHT Vinick is seated at his desk, talking to Sheila and Bruno. VINICK It's a bare-knuckle attack ad. SHEILA It's not our ad. BRUNO The public won't make the distinction. VINICK And you think some left-leaning committee for something or other isn't going to slam us right back? BRUNO Then we're in a negative ad war. VINICK Plus, they're hitting Santos for what a lot of Republicans think is my position on abortion. SHEILA The ad does lay out some pretty clear differences. BRUNO Which may play great to a few right-wing partisans, but it'll look phony and political to everyone else. VINICK I want this ad pulled. I want the Chairman of the Republican Party to say that this committee does not speak for us. I'll say it, too. If any of our people are involved in this, fire them. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS' ROOM NIGHT Santos is talking to Josh and Lou. SANTOS The quote is completely out of context. JOSH Do you remember the quote? SANTOS I remember what I think. They make it seem like I'm for abortion on demand. LOU I'm not defending the ad... SANTOS It's a right-wing parody of my position. LOU We'll find whatever piece of legislation... SANTOS You'll find it tonight. LOU It'll be hard to rebut. You voted against the partial-birth abortion ban. SANTOS The Republicans wouldn't carve out a clear exception for the life and health of mother. LOU You voted against parental consent. SANTOS There was no judicial override. There are pro-life judges out there refusing requests even for incest victims. I am not for unlimited abortion. JOSH Look, I don't know how we respond, but by tomorrow this is going to be on every cable network across the country. It's news for free and it's going to hurt us with swing voters. LOU If Vinick's taking the gloves off, so can we: 20 years of Senate flip-flops, 50 conflicts with his party's platform. Its fair game, no one can say it's not. SANTOS Josh? JOSH We don't know that Vinick's behind this. LOU He sure benefits from it. JOSH If we turn this campaign full-tilt negative, we can never go back. Santos gets up. SANTOS Call Vinick's people. Tell them to call this the lie that it is and get it off the air. I want a counter-attack ready to go by morning if they don't. He leaves. CUT TO: INT. COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE DAY DAY TWO Will and Margaret are carrying some things into Will's new office, Toby's old office. WILL I don't really feel comfortable working in Toby's old office. MARGARET Think of it as the Communications Director's office. WILL I can't help thinking of it as a federal crime scene. They walk in and set the stuff down. WILL Have you heard from the policy shops? This Toby thing will drown out everything for another few days, but then we'll need a policy to announce. MARGARET TPC says they're pretty tapped out. They say we should highlight the good things the government's already doing. WILL Great. Wait till people find out there's a post office. She walks out. Will opens his middle drawer to put some things in. As he does, Toby's rubber ball slides forward. He takes it out and begins to bounce it. C.J. comes to the door. C.J. The President's going on a three-day tour of distressed urban areas to promote investment in jobs in inner cities. She hands him a folder and he sets it down on the desk. WILL I'll announce it next week. C.J. Try today at your first press briefing. WILL You don't want me briefing today. C.J. I do. WILL I need a few days to get up to speed. I don't know the first thing about the leak investigation and I haven't even sat down with Counsel. C.J. Refer those questions to Counsel's office. She walks out. Will follows her. WILL Those questions? What about the entire briefing? C.J. We have to show that we've replaced Toby without missing a beat. There's an ongoing investigation. There's not much we can say about it anyway. They hear something on the TV set that is next to where they stopped to talk. We see Toby being escorted into a court building. The headline reads "TOBY ZIEGLER MEETS WITH PROSECUTORS." C.J. looks at Will before walking away. CUT TO: INT. VINICK'S OFFICE DAY Vinick is watching Santos on TV as he leaves a campaign site. A reporter talks to him. REPORTER [on TV] Congressman. Sir, there's an independent ad attacking your position on abortion. SANTOS [on TV] It's a complete obstruction of my views. Bruno walks in and sits next to Vinick. VINICK What do we know? BRUNO The Committee for the Integrity of Human Life is a 527; one of these independent expenditure committees. VINICK No connection to us or the RNC? BRUNO I wouldn't say that. Its major donors all give to the RNC and a few of them are big donors of yours too. Sheila walks in. VINICK You talk to the Party Chair? SHEILA Hodder won't denounce the ad. He thinks it'd be bad for us and bad for the party. VINICK Has he seen it? Does he want us to get in a mud wrestling match with Matt Santos? SHEILA The Chairman's view is that it fires up social conservatives. It reminds them that while you may be pro-choice, Santos is for virtually unrestricted abortion. BRUNO You have to denounce it yourself before a huge bank of cameras. VINICK You want this piece of trash on the air. SHEILA No, but I don't want you or anybody else from this campaign criticizing pro-life anything. BRUNO We're trying to win a mandate in a country that's over 60% pro-choice. We cannot get cute with this. VINICK Hodder's got credibility with the right-to-lifers. I don't. He's the one who's got to kill this. I want to see him this afternoon right after the Maryland rally. Get your bank of cameras ready. Bruno's phone starts ringing. He gets up to take the phone call outside. BRUNO Excuse me. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL CONTINUOUS Josh is on the phone with Bruno. BRUNO [VO] Joshua. Looking forward to our next round of negotiations. CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ CONTINUOUS BRUNO [cont.] Maybe this time you'll propose hourly debates with breaks for IV nutrition... CUT TO: INT. HOTEL CONTINUOUS BRUNO [cont.][VO] ... for the candidates. JOSH Your side is running a vicious, baseless attack ad. BRUNO [VO] It is not my side. CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ CONTINUOUS BRUNO [cont.] It is not my ad. JOSH [VO] Get that ad off the air... CUT TO: INT. HOTEL CONTINUOUS JOSH [cont.] ...and renounce the sleazeballs who put it there or the gloves are off. CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ CONTINUOUS BRUNO There are laws against coordination with an independent... He stops as though Josh has hung up on him. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL CONTINUOUS We see that Josh has indeed hung up. CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ CONTINUOUS Bruno closes his phone and speaks to a worker who is passing by. BRUNO Call the RNC. I need copies of every negative Santos spot they've been working on. CUT TO: INT. WHITE HOUSE HALLWAY DAY Will is walking toward the Briefing Room. Margaret walks up to him and hands him a folder. MARGARET C.J. wanted you to have this revised POTUS schedule. WILL You haven't heard back from her? MARGARET About your request to postpone the briefing? WILL Right. MARGARET Unless you count her saying 'Don't ask if Will can postpone the briefing.' WILL That doesn't count. MARGARET Never heard back. She walks off and Will walks to the door of the Briefing Room. He stops at the door for a couple of seconds before going in. When he goes in, several people begin snapping pictures and the entire press corps takes notice. He walks to the podium and begins the briefing. WILL Good morning. I'm Will Bailey, assistant to the President and new Director of Communications. I'll be conducting the daily briefings from now on and I have a statement to make at this time. One week from today the President will launch a bold and far-reaching new markets initiative an inter-agency effort to bring jobs and private investment to distressed urban communities. We're handing out a list of initial agency efforts small business loans, tax incentives, Commerce's new Adopt and Entrepreneur Program, which, of course, we expect to be controversial. I'll take your questions. The reporters begin clamoring for his attention. REPORTER #1 Did any of the White House staff know Toby Ziegler was leaking national security information? WILL There's an ongoing investigation. I'll refer you to the President's statement on the matter. REPORTER #1 But it doesn't speak to that question. WILL I'm not going to parse his statement. STEVE We're not asking you to parse it. WILL Which is good, because I'm not going to. REPORTER #2 Did any senior staff know Toby was lying from that very podium? WILL Toby Ziegler's been dismissed by the President. That should be an indication of what this White House thinks. REPORTER #2 I'm asking what the White House knew. Two weeks ago, Toby said... WILL I'll refer you to Counsel on that. CUT TO: INT. C.J.'S OFFICE DAY C.J. is watching the briefing. Margaret is standing at the edge of C.J.'s desk. MARGARET They're crushing him like a grape. C.J. He's doing fine. CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ DAY Vinick is walking with the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Steve Hodder. HODDER So Santos pulls out of North Dakota and West Virginia. That's great news so soon after Labor Day. VINICK Yeah. HODDER It'll give us a chance at that West Virginia second. VINICK Yeah. HODDER That Santos crew doesn't know a damn thing about party building. How you doing? They have walked into a meeting room where Bruno and Sheila are already waiting. BRUNO Mr. Chairman. HODDER Good to see you again. They sit. VINICK I don't like that abortion ad. I don't care how you deal with it; hold a press conference in the lobby, say they don't speak for the party, but I want it dealt with know. It's becoming a national story. HODDER No one showed me that ad. I probably wouldn't have run it. Do you know what kind of damage it would do to walk away from it? An attack that, quite frankly Arnie, lots of folks think should be in your stump speech. VINICK Santos and I are both pro-choice. I can't pretend there's some huge difference between our positions. HODDER Santos thinks my 14-year-old daughter needs my permission to get an aspirin in school; but not an abortion? The platform's pro-life. The people in this party, who do the phone-banking, plant the lawn signs, get half our guys elected, they're pro-life too. BRUNO Mr. Chairman, this is a rough, negative ad at a time when we don't need it. This committee knows nothing from tactics. HODDER Maybe it's not about tactics, maybe they mean what they say. SHEILA We know how hard you've been working on keeping social conservatives on the reservation. HODDER We were this close, this close, to a third-party candidacy from the religious right. I'm still concerned they stay home on Election Day. VINICK This ad hurts me as much as it hurts Santos. Maybe more. HODDER Pro-lifers have their issues with you but Santos is for unlimited abortion. VINICK If you don't denounce that ad, I'm going to have to do it myself. HODDER Can I speak candidly? VINICK Because you've been sugar-coating up till now? HODDER Corporate conservatives may love you, Neo-Cons and Libertarians may love you, Bruno Gianelli Democrats may love you too, but social conservatives don't. You never speak about their issues. You send mixed signals about judicial appointments. You are the first nominee in 20 years to skip the Al Smith dinner because, God forbid you might be near some religious voters. Well, I can't meet my responsibility to this party without them. VINICK No candidate could hold those voters together. If this were Europe the Republican Party would be three parties. HODDER Thank goodness they don't have to sleep together, they just have to show up on the same day and vote Republican. VINICK Do you realize how many states my pro-choice position puts on the table? Do you realize how we can grow this party if we're willing to reach out? HODDER I guess I'd like to see you unite the party that we have now. I'm not denouncing that ad. And I don't think you want to either, Arnie. FADE OUT. END ACT ONE. * * * ACT TWO FADE IN: SANTOS' HOTEL ROOM DAY Santos is getting ready. Lou, Bram, and Josh are there. They are watching a TV on which we see Vinick exiting a building and we hear a reporter ask him a question. REPORTER [on TV] Do you have a comment on the independent ad attacking Santos on choice? VINICK [on TV] I oppose all 527 ads. SANTOS You think Vinick's behind this? JOSH I don't know. He could be. He steps forward and puts a tape into the VCR. JOSH We found the full interview they used in the ad. It's from three years ago, KPRC in Houston. On the tape, an interview begins between Santos and a reporter. SANTOS [on tape] So let's talk legislatively. Do I want to limit access to abortion? No, because there are common sense limits under the law right now. Should we work together to reduce the number of abortions? Absolutely, and that's where I think we can work together to find common ground. SANTOS They took my quote totally out of context. JOSH Yeah. SANTOS Yeah, so why are they running the ad on television? It's fraud. JOSH Well, you just said pretty clearly that you're not for limiting access. We called the stations that are running it. They're not going to pull it. They think it's a fair charge. They have walked into the next room. Bram is on the phone and he takes the receiver away from his face. BRAM I've got Leo on the line. He's back at headquarters. He turns the speakerphone on and hangs up the phone. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS SANTOS-MCGARRY CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS Leo is on the phone with the Congressman. SANTOS [VO] Leo? LEO Congressman, you've already said it was a distortion. I worry about too tough a response beyond that. It makes this a much larger story. LOU [VO] It can't get any larger. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS LOU [cont.] They're already talking about it on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, probably the Home Shopping Network. LEO [VO] We are the pro-choice party. There's no denying it. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS LEO [cont.] I'm not sure we don't stand up and say 'Damn right I'm pro-choice. So is 60% of the country.' SANTOS [VO] I have to make it clear that I'm not for... CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS SANTOS [cont.] ...abortion without limits. LOU What if we hit Vinick on a completely different level? Taxes, corporate cronyism, we haul out a long list of all the special interest giveaways he supported in Congress. SANTOS Look, this is about something that's much more fundamental. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS SANTOS [cont.][VO] Vinick's appeal is that he's a different kind of Republican. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS SANTOS [cont.] Moderate, reasonable, pro-choice. LOU The Congressman's right. This ad shows that Vinick's centrism is just a bad coat of paint. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS LEO The guy has a long record of pro-choice votes. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS LOU Then why is his party platform pro-life straight up and down? SANTOS Well, he promised the religious right he'd appoint pro-life judges. He's obviously not too attached to that voting record. LOU Let this attack stand and we strip away what's different about Santos: he's a religious Catholic, not another secular Democrat who can be portrayed as hostile to heartland values. There is silence. SANTOS Leo? CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS LEO I worry about elevating this, but if the charge sticks it could kill us with values voters and that puts Vinick's nine-point lead in the bank. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS SANTOS We hit him and we hit him hard. He leaves. CUT TO: INT. BUILDING DAY Josh and Lou are walking and talking. LOU I don't think we start with a negative ad. JOSH No. LOU We get one ready; a tough one. But our first one on Vinick will be a free media bonanza. Why waste money on an ad buy? JOSH We use a spokesperson for this. We don't elevate it to Santos' or Leo's level. LOU Clarify that our guy is not for abortion without limits. JOSH The ad's a sham. Anyone can see from the full interview. LOU Then bam, we hit Vinick with a political two-by-four. JOSH You don't have to be happy about this. LOU You don't have to be queasy about this. JOSH You don't know Santos the way I do. If this becomes a full-out negative... LOU You think he's got a glass jaw? JOSH I think we lose a negative ad war. I think the other side is better at this and I think they have more to work with. LOU I did the Merrianhoff Senate campaign. You know those charges that he had weird financial dealings with Taiwanese businessmen? JOSH He did. LOU Those were the charges. Anyway, we ran against Barrack, clean as a bar of soap. We hit him first with everything we could find. By the time he hit back, the voters thought it was just another ugly campaign; a pox on both our houses. JOSH You're proud of that? LOU I'm proud that Merrianhoff defends Medicare and Medicaid in the Senate. I'm proud that he votes against every reckless Republican tax cut. We're the blue team and there's a real war going on. Josh, do you want the right wing to get their judges? JOSH No. LOU Then stop being so queasy. JOSH We hit Vinick for hypocrisy; for saying he's pro-choice and letting anti-choice ideologues pick his judiciary and run lying ads. LOU I'll phone the language into headquarters. JOSH Don't use our regular spokesman. Find a woman. You know, 40-something, soccer mom. LOU What about debate negotiations? JOSH I'm meeting with Bruno this afternoon in Washington. We're still on makeup and deli trays. LOU There's going to be debates. JOSH Vinick doesn't want to incur the wrath of the New York Times anymore than we do. LOU We have to stop being so eager. We have to change our body language. Let them chase us for a change. JOSH I've had nine meetings with Bruno on this. He knows what I want, how I think. LOU He doesn't know me. CUT TO: INT. OUTER OVAL OFFICE DAY We see the ad running on a TV in the office. C.J. comes out of the Oval to speak to Will who is watching the ad. WILL Have you seen this abortion ad? It's all over cable news. They're predicting a negative ad blitz by Friday. C.J. I'm amazed it took them this long to get started. Someone gave the President this Eskimo adage: "The best place to store surplus food is in someone else's stomach." Use it in this afternoon's briefing. They begin walking. C.J. [cont.] We're announcing 50 major private employers have joined the new markets initiative. 'Cause which would you rather have when you're hungry: rotten food or a friend... WILL I get it. It's just: a second briefing? C.J. Hmm. WILL You saw the wires. They counted the number of questions I was asked this morning because I didn't answer one of them. C.J. You thought we were going to get good coverage this week? They have walked into C.J.'s office. WILL 47, by the way; a career high. C.J. You have to let the press punch themselves out. WILL You're talking to the punching bag. My job is to look like I'm not completely ignorant. Counsel won't even brief me on the details of Toby's firing. C.J. I asked them not to. WILL Don't you want me to have a shred of credibility in the briefing room? C.J. Your ignorance is your credibility. That's why I put you in this job. And your constituents aren't in that room, they're in distressed urban areas. You brief at 4:00. WILL 0 for 47. I'm the Jamaican Bobsledding Team. She walks into the Roosevelt Room and shuts the door, leaving Will outside. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM DAY Josh is on the phone with Otto but he is speaking to a worker who is at his desk. JOSH Securing America's future. Securing, not strengthening. He's not a personal trainer. [into phone] Is that statement all set? OTTO [VO] All set. JOSH Got a woman to read the thing? CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS Otto walks into a meeting room where several people are gathered to watch the spokeswoman on TV. OTTO Right out of central casting. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS JOSH No nose rings, brow piercings? OTTO Trust me, this girl's a cold glass of milk. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS OTTO [cont.] She was working for the Midwest Corridor Campaign. Lou asked for the binders on Vinick's Senate flip-flops. JOSH [VO] Yeah. OTTO Are we about to run our very first...? CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS JOSH They're starting. I'll call you back. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS Otto hangs up and they begin watching the spokeswoman. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS Josh walks into a room where a TV is and hands a piece of paper to a worker. JOSH Uh, no. Tell him we're not doing the Al Smith dinner, not in the middle of all this. From the TV, we hear a familiar voice. DONNA [on TV] Good afternoon. It is wrong and misleading to imply, through edited footage, that Congressman Santos is for abortion without limits. Josh dials his phone. OTTO [VO] This is Otto. JOSH That's Donna. OTTO [VO] Who? JOSH The Dairy Queen, Donna Moss. What happened to our forty-something soccer mom? CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS OTTO Lou hired her last week to do Midwest press. Looks too young, huh? CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS OTTO [cont.][VO] Uh, the Women's Alliance for Choice just called. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ CONTINUOUS OTTO [cont.] They want an urgent meeting with the Congressman. JOSH [VO] Yeah. We're talking about an endorsement event. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM CONTINUOUS JOSH [cont.] Have Leo do it. I don't want Santos meeting with the pro-choice lobby till this abortion stuff cools down. Josh hangs up. DONNA [on TV] And the American public needs to know which is the real Arnold Vinick. The one who supports a woman's right to choose and votes accordingly... CUT TO: INT. VINICK HQ CONTINUOUS Vinick, Sheila, and a dozen other workers are watching Donna on TV. Sheila is on the phone. DONNA [on TV] ...or the one who's party has a pro-life platform... SHEILA Yes, they're ready to go. VINICK She's hitting me from the left and from the right. SHEILA We have to wait until we see what's... VINICK She's telling the right I'm pro-abortion, telling the left I'm a captive of the religious nuts. SHEILA The RNC upped their ad buy by another 750 points. Every battleground market. VINICK That since I don't have a functioning uterus like Tippy Hedron here, of course I'm not qualified to talk about it. She has hung up. SHEILA All the networks are running pieces of the Santos abortion ad tonight. VINICK I ought to go out there and call it a piece of trash and a lie. SHEILA I don't like it either, but Hodder's not wrong. There is nothing in that ad that's inaccurate. VINICK Santos couldn't have written a better ad himself. They're whacking me for playing both sides. SHEILA The 527s raised a quarter of a million off last night's airings alone. After tonight it's going to be 20 times that much. This is energizing the very people we were afraid were going to stay home in November. VINICK You think I should stand by it? SHEILA No. I think you should scrub your Michigan swing, go to the Al Smith dinner, talk about your opposition to partial-birth abortion; and the minute the Santos campaign runs its first negative ad we run a hundred of ours. VINICK Years, I've been looking forward to this campaign. I never imagined it would look like this. SHEILA It'll look better after you win. He walks away. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY WHITE HOUSE DAY Will is walking to the press room. He walks in and to the podium. Immediately, the reporters start clamoring for his attention. WILL Good afternoon. We're handing out lists of private sector commitments to the President's new markets initiative. It shows the business community is deeply engaged in job creation for poor communities. As the Eskimo said, "If you store your food in someone else's stomach... um, well, you'd better hope it doesn't need refrigeration." REPORTER #2 Has the President been asked to testify in the criminal investigation? WILL That's a matter for Counsel. REPORTER #1 Will he assert privilege if he has to testify? WILL I'll refer you to this morning's briefing. REPORTER #1 When you said you'd get back to us on that? WILL See, now you're cheating. You didn't need to be referred. REPORTER #2 Does the President consider Mr. Babish's conversations with Mr. Ziegler to be privileged? WILL I'm not getting into that. STEVE Isn't Mr. Babish also a witness? WILL I'd have to check with him. REPORTER #1 Will, you've been in this job four days. When are you going to sit down with Counsel and get us some answers? WILL I'm not. The reporters go crazy trying to get Will to call on them. CUT TO: INT. MEETING ROOM VINICK HQ DAY Bruno is seated at a table. He is reading over some things and some commenting on the ad is taking place on a nearby TV. Lou walks in and sits at the opposite end of the table as Bruno. BRUNO Who are you? LOU Louise Thornton. Josh couldn't make it. BRUNO Stuck in Michigan? LOU Santos benched him. He sent me. She has several magazines with her, one of which she is looking through. BRUNO We have some magazines outside if you get bored with those. LOU Any good ones? BRUNO Are we going to, how shall I say, negotiate? LOU Nah. BRUNO This may look like your dentist's waiting room. It's a negotiating session for Presidential debates. LOU You want as few debates as possible but you don't want to tick off the debate commission or the opinion elites, right? BRUNO Hmm. LOU And I think that Vinick could kick Santos' abortion-loving ass all over the stage. Game over, check please. BRUNO And...? LOU And I'm your best buddy on this. No debates, you can blame me. Would you like a magazine? Because I figure about a half an hour of this and I can tell the Congressman it didn't work out. CUT TO: INT. SANTOS HQ DAY Leo and Becca, from the Women's Alliance for Choice, are walking to the meeting room to discuss the WAC's endorsement. LEO You understand why I'm taking this meeting instead of Santos? BECCA He didn't want to be seen with the Woman's Alliance for Choice, not while he's trying to limit abortion. LEO He's not trying to limit abortion. BECCA That's not what his spokeswoman said. LEO It's a rhetorical position. President Bartlet did it too. BECCA President Bartlet never ran against a pro-choice Republican. We haven't endorsed a Presidential candidate yet. LEO I know. We're going to have to push that back a bit. See, we need moderate votes to chip into Vinick's lead. We don't want to make Santos the baby-killing candidate, if you'll excuse... BECCA We're thinking of endorsing Vinick. LEO Becca, you're not talking to some punk Congressional staffer. BECCA Vinick's pro-choice and he's probably going to win. LEO You can't honestly believe that... BECCA How do you close a nine-point gap? You'll be lucky if you get one debate. The way Santos has been begging for it, Vinick's expectations are so low he'll just have to avoid tripping over the podium to win. LEO We're the pro-choice party. BECCA You don't sound like it. LEO Vinick's the one who won't criticize his party on this; partial-birth, parental notification. He's bowing for the far-right fringes. BECCA But if he wins, they really will be the fringes, won't they? And then both parties will be where the party is: pro-choice down the line. LEO Becca, if you help a Republican get elected President... BECCA How many more Republicans will have the courage to stand up for a woman's right to choose? FADE OUT. END ACT TWO. * * * ACT THREE FADE IN: INT. STEEL FACTORY CAMPAIGN DAY PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA Vinick is speaking with some of the workers while he is looking at the equipment. VINICK Thank you. The Virginia steel sector's a model for the country. You should be proud. He walks away and Bruno joins him. BRUNO The debate negotiations seem to be off. VINICK Seem to be? BRUNO The Santos campaign blew them up. It's a ploy. VINICK Better be. BRUNO They need debates ten times more than us. We can wait it out. That's the bad news. VINICK Yeah. Let's have the good news. BRUNO The Women's Alliance for Choice wants an endorsement meeting. VINICK You're kidding. BRUNO The heart of the Democratic base wants to support you. Santos would be doomed. We'd win 53 states, a few desert islands. VINICK How do we know this isn't a setup? BRUNO We meet with them and we find out. VINICK I don't know. You know, a pro-choice group gets within 53 feet of me, the whole Republican Party would go crazy. BRUNO You're a pro-choice candidate. They're a pro-choice lobby. This isn't a typical election. VINICK I can't see how they can endorse a Republican who's against partial-birth abortion, who's for parental notification. This could be Santos screwing me. BRUNO I know these people. I can keep this meeting quiet. VINICK No. BRUNO The RNC has five negative ads ready that would blow Santos out of the water but it's going to harden his support on the left. It's going to make us more dependent on the right. Yeah we still win, but we win dirty. Wouldn't you rather outflank him on the left? VINICK If this becomes a press story, that I'm courting not just the center but the organized left, I'd be kissing off a quarter of the Republican base. I can't win without my own party. We're going to New York tomorrow. I'm speaking at the Al Smith dinner. Tell Sheila I need speech language on partial-birth abortion. Something that'll mollify the right. He walks away. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM DAY Josh is watching an ad that they have prepared to run. ANNOUNCER [on TV] Arnold Vinick promises he'll cut taxes. Then why do economists say that will break his pledge to balance the budget? He says he's pro-choice. They why do news reports say he told the far-right he'd pick anti-choice judges. Arnold Vinick: if he's on both sides, how can he be on your side? Lou walks in and he stops the tape. LOU Hey. JOSH You hired Donna Moss? LOU No, I picked her off the street and put her on national television. JOSH She was the absolute wrong person for that hit on Vinick. Didn't we say forty-something with kids? LOU We said a woman, and she was great. JOSH She worked for Russell in the primary. LOU So did half the available Democratic talent. JOSH She worked for me before that. They walk out of the room and into the main room where people are working. LOU Well, that is a strike against her. I can see why you're concerned. Debate negotiations are off. JOSH They're off? LOU We walked away. I gave it to the Times and the Journal. JOSH You better hope this works. Vinick can live without debates. If we don't get them we're toast. LOU That's exactly what we need to even expectations: prove we're willing to walk away. If we're lucky, the Times is going to call us a roadblock. JOSH Donna Moss gave dozens of bad quotes about Santos during the primary. You may run Communications but I'm campaign manager. I sign off on any new spokesperson. [pause] The Women's Alliance for Choice is thinking of endorsing Vinick. LOU Okay, very bad news. JOSH Oh, yeah. LOU Is it public? JOSH Not yet. LOU Maybe it'll hurt Vinick with his own right wing. JOSH Great. Vinick loses the right, keeps the middle and left, and the only way for us to get votes is to plaster the Ten Commandments all over our campaign bus. He walks away. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY WHITE HOUSE DAY C.J. and Margaret are walking. C.J. 1.5 million for naturally chilled water transportation? What's next, a Congressional earmark for olives? Will walks up to them. WILL So, back into the breach. C.J. Down the hall, turn left at the crucible. WILL If you want to offer any tips... C.J. Just follow your instincts. WILL My instincts say to curl up in a ball in my office. C.J. Then just follow your job description. WILL Down the hall, to your left at the... He walks away. MARGARET So I should tell Legislative Affairs...? C.J. The President's not signing the bill, not when it looks like Happy Hour at the Algonquin. See if they can get some of these earmarks out of it. CUT TO: INT. BRIEFING ROOM DAY Will is standing at the podium and he is reading a statement. WILL Today, I am pleased to announce that as part of our upcoming new markets tour, the President will visit the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala-Sue nation to talk about the importance of investing in Native American communities. I'll dodge your questions now. The press seems amazingly subdued compared to the way they have been at the last few briefings. Steve raises his hand. STEVE When was the last time a sitting President visited an Indian reservation? Will looks through his notes. WILL That would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936. Next question. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL DAY Lou walks into the hallway where Josh is looking at a folder with some data in it. JOSH Hey, did you talk to Joey Lucas? She's got another version of our flip-flop spot without the monster-chiller theater music. She grabs him and leads him back into the room. LOU Yeah, come with me. JOSH Where are we going? LOU Bedroom/office/staffroom. JOSH Okay, I don't want to seem ungracious. We've all been under a lot of pressure. It's just that... She leads him into the bedroom and he sees that Donna is sitting on the edge of the bed. JOSH Hi. DONNA Hi. LOU I don't know what the problem is between you two, but she's great on television and I don't care if she worked for Francisco Franco in the primary, right now it's all hands on deck. So work it out. She hands him a folder. He takes it and she leaves. JOSH What kind of on-the-record experience do you have? DONNA Is this a job interview? JOSH I'm campaign manager, I hire the staff. It generally involves an interview. On-the-record experience? DONNA Six hours ago, nationally televised press conference, Santos-McGarry campaign. JOSH References if we want to pursue this? DONNA Josh Lyman, campaign manager, try the main switchboard. JOSH Did he tell you campaigns require loyalty; you don't go working for the other guy? DONNA Who happened to be the Party's front-runner. JOSH You knew I wasn't supporting him; me, your mentor in professional politics. DONNA The guy who taught me to answer the phone, who kept me in grunt-level servitude because I knew he liked his hamburgers burnt like hockey pucks? JOSH You ditched me when I gave you a career. DONNA As a short-order cook, I'm still waiting for the spatula to... Lou comes back in. LOU I hope you two are getting along like peas in a pod. It just broke over the wires: Women's Alliance wants to meet with Vinick. I need you to spin it bad for, him fine for us. Josh walk out. DONNA How is that even possible? LOU Bad for us, worse for him; whatever sticks to the wall. JOSH How's the Congressman? BRAM He's been better. LOU The Women's Alliance? BRAM And two more things. Vinick changed his schedule. He's flying to New York, speaking at the Al Smith dinner. We've got 50 reporters out there wondering if we're doing the same. JOSH Why the hell would Vinick do the Smith dinner? LOU Because if he gives an in-your-face, pro-choice speech, he could seal the endorsement. JOSH What was the second thing? BRAM The bishop from Camden, New Jersey, issued a statement: 'if Santos comes to mass in Camden, he'll deny him communion. His views of abortion have placed him in a state of great sin.' How does that play with values voters? CUT TO: INT. LIMO NIGHT NEW YORK, NEW YORK Leo is being driven to the Al Smith Dinner. He is on the phone with Santos. LEO Don't be spooked by the Times. The staff was right to blow off the debate negotiations. A bad editorial never killed anyone; not that I won't hear about it at this DCCC dinner. SANTOS [VO] You heard about the diocese of Camden? LEO So you don't go to mass in Camden. CUT TO: INT. BUILDING CONTINUOUS Santos is walking to the stairs while he talks to Leo. SANTOS Lou and Joey are almost done with our first negative ad. LEO I know you wanted a more... CUT TO: EXT. BUILDING CONTINUOUS LEO [cont.] ...substantive campaign. CUT TO: INT. STAIRWELL CONTINUOUS SANTOS Well, that's not what bothers me about it. CUT TO: EXT. BUILDING CONTINUOUS LEO What, then? SANTOS [VO] Negative ads work. CUT TO: INT. STAIRWELL CONTINUOUS SANTOS And the more we run them, the more people believe the worst about us. And so we pummel each other to the ground and whoever crawls across the finish line wins. CUT TO: EXT. BUILDING CONTINUOUS LEO Yeah. CUT TO: INT. STAIRWELL CONTINUOUS SANTOS How do I get back the Women's Alliance for Choice? LEO [VO] Come to New York tomorrow and meet with them. CUT TO: EXT. BUILDING CONTINUOUS LEO [cont.] Tell them you're taking the stage at the Al Smith dinner right next to Vinick and defending a woman's right to choose. And be ready for me to be the only guy clapping. CUT TO: INT. PARKING GARAGE CONTINUOUS SANTOS So I'm the abortion-without-limits guy, huh? LEO [VO] We're the pro-choice party. CUT TO: INT. BUILDING CONTINUOUS LEO You've got to dance with the one who brung you. CUT TO: INT. PARKING GARAGE CONTINUOUS Santos hangs up the phone and gets into the car. FADE OUT. END ACT THREE. * * * ACT FOUR FADE IN: INT. SUBURBAN DAY DAY THREE Josh, Bram, Lou, and Donna are riding to the campaign stop. JOSH Vinick just landed in New York, too. Still no intelligence on what he's saying at the Smith dinner. BRAM What kind of hit did we take in last night's tracking poll? JOSH Four points on "Shares our values" but Vinick took a bigger hit. 59% think he should denounce the ad more swing voters think he's a typical Republican. LOU They won't when he's endorsed by the leading pro-choice group in America. JOSH We need a way to spin it if they do endorse Vinick. It'd be a political earthquake. BRAM From a group that's supposedly on our side. DONNA They're not on our side. They're on their own side. They're an interest group jockeying for influence. You think they're supporters of a Republican no matter what they're leadership says? Pull back. I bet 85% of them are dyed-in-the-sackcloth Santos supporters. JOSH Phone Joey with that question for tomorrow's poll. LOU I'm on it. CUT TO: INT. C.J.'S OFFICE NIGHT C.J. is at her desk. Will comes in. C.J. I need you to talk to Treasury about that debt relief report. The President's interested in doing an event on it. WILL Sure. C.J. And he thinks the agency response to new markets has been a bit thin. You should crack a few sub-cabinet heads. WILL Did you see today's briefing? C.J. Yeah. We need a better answer on the energy bill. It's not your fault. DOE's been dickering around. WILL Right. He walks out. CUT TO: INT. WILL'S OFFICE NIGHT We see walk into his office from the Communications office. WILL Set up a call with McGinn at Treasury and I need a fresh list of those agency commitments. When he walks in, he sees a rubber ball, identical to the one Toby used, sitting on top of his desk with a red ribbon tied around it. He picks it up and bounces it a few times. He sits down in his chair as the phone rings. He answers it. WILL Will Bailey. ... Seagle, the pressure's all mine. ... On the record, I'd say it's something either administration would have to love. He begins bouncing the ball. WILL It's pro-business, it's anti-poverty. ... The investigation's ongoing. I really can't comment. He throws the ball against the wall and it flies over his head. He reaches up to try to grab it and he and the chair topple over backwards. He tries to stand and speaks to the person he is talking to. WILL Seagle? ... No, keep talking. I'm not going anywhere. CUT TO: EXT. HOTEL NIGHT WALDORF-ASTORIA HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY Lou, Josh, Bram and Santos are walking into the building for the Al Smith dinner. They meet with Leo, who is waiting. SANTOS That ad's pretty tough. LOU The debate's still in the air. We can't afford to take our foot off the gas. SANTOS Vinick will hit back. He's probably already bought the air time. JOSH He has. SANTOS Leo. BRAM We'll do the meeting with the Women's Alliance for Choice in the hall up there. You and Mr. McGarry don't have to be onstage for a half an hour. SANTOS All right. We'll talk about our ad buy after the dinner. JOSH We'll see you in there, Congressman. Santos and Leo head inside. Josh, Bram, and Lou head a different way. CUT TO: EXT. HOTEL NIGHT Vinick and Hodder are walking into the same hotel. HODDER I hope you're going to give a tough speech on partial-birth abortion tonight. These folks need to hear it. This story about the Women's Alliance won't even endorse you. It's a disaster. VINICK Because I'd get more votes for a position I happen to hold? CUT TO: INT. BUILDING NIGHT Leo and Santos are walking to their meeting. LEO You can't let this communion thing bother you. Most Catholics are pro-choice. How do bishops expect politicians to do what they can't do in their own church? And the Bible's silent on the issue; not one word that says it's the destruction of a human life. SANTOS It is. LEO You're pro-life? SANTOS I believe life begins at conception. LEO Well ain't that a kick in the pulpit. CUT TO: INT. BUILDING NIGHT Vinick and Hodder are walking and talking. VINICK Politics is about practicality. HODDER Not if you think abortion is murder. VINICK Whether you do or not, Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for decades. Most of the country is not ready to change that. Neither am I. HODDER Well, that's not the party's position. VINICK I joined this party because the liberals were the ones who always wanted something from the government. We just wanted government to leave us alone. Especially when there's no consensus otherwise. I'm trying to lead the majority who agrees on that, not the minority who wants to enact their version of Leviticus into law. HODDER We're a big tent, Arnie; room enough for all. VINICK You're going to denounce that ad tonight. HODDER I'm not responsible for making you more palatable with the abortion lobby. VINICK Denounce that ad or I'll do it in my speech in front of two dozen bishops and a tent full of Catholic charities. Vinick walks away. CUT TO: INT. STORE AREA NIGHT Santos and Leo are speaking with Becca. Bram is also there. BECCA Leo tells me that you might defend the right to choose tonight. Proudly, aggressively; this would be a gutsy place to do it. LEO We are the pro-choice ticket, Becca. BECCA I still believe that the Women's Alliance needs to encourage pro-choice Republicans and the Democratic Party needs to as well. SANTOS What we need to make clear is that we're not hostile to people who are anti-abortion. BECCA Pro-choice means anyone can do what they want. SANTOS Yeah, but it shouldn't mean that we're proud of whatever they choose. Maybe all this chest-beating is the reason the right can get away with that ad; the reason why a leader of my church can exile me for not trying to impose my religion on the rest of the country, and we're surprised that there are people out there who think we're for unlimited abortion. That there are actually voters, who are pro-choice, that think that we're too extreme. BECCA Political posturing aside, precisely what limits are you for? SANTOS Do you support abortion to support the sex of the baby? BECCA Of course not. SANTOS How about after an IQ test? BECCA No. SANTOS Well, then you support limits on abortion yourself. Isn't it all a matter of degrees after that? Who are you, who are any of us, to say where someone should draw the line for themselves? BECCA I'd like to know what you're saying tonight. SANTOS That abortion is a tragedy. That it should be legal, it should be safe; it should be a lot rarer than it is now. If you have a problem with that, then endorse whoever you want. He and Bram leave. Leo follows them. We follow them out and up the stairs as they walk toward the waiting point. CUT TO: INT. KITCHEN NIGHT We see Vinick being led to the door through which he will enter the auditorium. CUT TO: INT. KITCHEN NIGHT We see Santos being led to the door thorough which he will enter the auditorium. CUT TO: INT. KITCHEN NIGHT Vinick comes to some double doors and stops. We see Santos come to an identical door at the other end of the wall. Bram leaves him. BRAM [whispering] You'll go in after the intro. Santos looks down to the other end of the room and sees Vinick. He turns his head back. Vinick turns his head and sees Santos. He turns back. They each look at the other again. SANTOS Next time you decide to smear me maybe you'll have the guts to do it yourself. VINICK I had nothing to do with that ad. You blew off the debates. It's clear what kind of campaign you want. SANTOS Oh, I forgot how eager you were for debates. Vinick comes down the walkway and Santos approaches him from his own end. VINICK And next time you send left-wing lobbyists to my office don't forget the gift card. SANTOS You want an ugly campaign you're going to get one. VINICK I didn't start this. SANTOS Nah, you henchmen did it for you. There is a moment of awkward silence. SANTOS You're hitting me on partial-birth tonight, aren't you? He shakes his head and chuckles. VINICK Here we are, a Presidential campaign, grand national debate, pounding each other on one of the few things we basically agree on. They turn to walk away but Santos turns back. SANTOS Then let's negotiate now. VINICK Excuse me. SANTOS No backroom tactics. You and me, a real debate. VINICK Oh, please. SANTOS A real debate, really. VINICK No negative ads. No attacks in our speeches out there. SANTOS If we can have a real debate on the issues, just you and me. VINICK How's Sunday night? Santos holds out his hand. Vinick shakes it. VINICK It's a hell of a way to end your campaign. SANTOS Oh, I'm just getting started. We hear applause from the other room. ANNOUNCER [VO] We're delighted to welcome to the Al Smith dinner, Senator Arnold Vinick of California and Congressman Matthew Santos of Texas. They both enter the room amid a torrent of applause. DISSOLVE TO: END TITLES. FADE TO BLACK. THE END. * * * The West Wing episode 7.06 "The Al Smith Dinner", original air date 30 October, 2005.