[thechat] West Wing was: hot actresses

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Wed Jan 22 17:53:01 CST 2003


On Thu, 23 Jan 2003, Paul Cowan wrote:

> Lauri wrote:
> > Actually, it seems awfully lot like he's (de facto) a part of the
> > communication office... he, Sam, Toby and CJ all seem to do the same
> > thing with, except they handle different sides of the task.
>
> Yeah, kind of. Having just watched the whole of the two WW Season 1
> boxed sets (22 episodes... mmm...), well, I've spent a bit of time
> trying to work out the hierarchy. Problem is, there isn't REALLY
> a hierarchy as such.

Aye there is.

In terms of employees (which the President isn't):

Leo's the boss - note the staff meetings he chairs.

His direct reports are Toby & CJ, who each have a department, plus Josh -
the no-job guy - and Charlie who doesn't have a department as such (note
that it was Josh who interviewed him).

Note that there's also Mandy who's a party employee and a political PR
adviser, who's outwith the staff hierarchy, despite Josh's attempts to
have her report to him.

Toby's job is to define the message overall, plus do the core of the
scriptwriting: main tone & message.

Sam's his assistant, but who does the finesse of the scriptwriting. By
chance, he's also recognised as the smartest lawyer in the place, so he's
the lawyer the lawyers go to for advice.

CJ is in a department of one, and her job is very much day-to-day
communication with the media, and a *lot* of firefighting.

Of course, they *all* serve at the pleasure of the president. If that
means being up until 2am being bored by the president's fascination with
National Parks, then so be it.

> > Doesn't it seem to you that he is doing a bit of everything? (besides
> > mocking people, partially taking care of the public face, he also
> > advises the president on political matters etc etc)
>
> Well, I don't know much about the real white house: but it seems to
> me that the whole "Chief of Staff's Office" does very little staffing.

*cough*management*cough*. But also a lot of position paper writing. Um
ISTR there was an episode where Bartlett read Toby's daily schedule to
Mallory to get her to give him a break.

> Leo and Josh really seem to be "policy men" more than anything else:

Yeah, I'll buy that.

Cheers
Martin
--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie




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