In This White House

"In This White House"

"In this White House" is the 4th episode of the second season of The West Wing.

Plot

Sam appears on political talk show Capital Beat with a "blonde leggy Republican" named Ainsley Hayes. She clearly wins the debate (to the amusement of Toby, who asks his assistant Ginger to "get the popcorn," and a back-on-the-job Josh) and impresses President Bartlet sufficiently for him to tell Leo to hire her. As per the President's instructions, Leo makes the offer, appealing to Ainsley's sense of duty. Ainsley is stunned by the irony that her first opportunity to work at the White House would be for a Democratic administration with which she agrees on very few issues.

Meanwhile, CJ spends several days fretting after she inadvertently confirms to a new reporter that there is a on-going grand jury investigation regarding a sanctions violation. After Ainsley returns to the White House with the intention of turning down Leo's offer, the reporter happens to mention CJ's admission to her. Ainsley subsequently points out to CJ that her admission didn't break any laws, and that consulting with the counsel's office would have been more fruitful than "hoping no one would notice."

As she waits to meet with Leo, Ainsley has a heated discussion with Sam about their different political viewpoints. Their debate is interrupted when an international incident occurs. Ainsley witnesses the President and his staff responding to a coup in the fictional Equatorial Kundu while its president is at the White House for a summit with pharmaceutical companies about the AIDS crisis in Africa. Josh and Toby had crafted a strategy that would enable the Kundunese President to get desperately needed AIDS medications to his people, but the plan is torpedoed when the coup occurs and the President's family is either murdered or forced to flee the country. President Bartlet offers his Kundunese counterpart asylum in the U.S., but the offer is refused and he returns to face a horrible fate.

Ainsley, impressed by the administration's handling of the Kundu situation, changes her mind and accepts the job. When her Republican friends call the Democratic staffers "worthless," Hayes responds with a passionate rebuke, saying that while she may disagree with their Democratic policies, the staffers are "righteous" and "patriots."

Trivia

The Cleveland Courier reporter says his predecessor was named Tom Johnson, a reference to Progressive Era Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson.

External links

• The West Wing Episode Guide