"Mr. President, the American people don't support this lawsuit of yours," Popular cable news talk show host Chris Morton grilled President Sellner, who was appearing on his show via satellite from the Mural Room to defend the lawsuit. "A new Gallup poll out today shows 88% of Americans think you should drop it, including 64% of Democrats. Why are you putting the nation through this? Don't the people have the right to elect their own President?"

"It's about the Constitution, Chris," President Sellner argued. "The Electoral College and the United States Congress acted unconstitutionally when they elected Leo McGarry as Vice President. The Presidential Succession Act clearly states that the person in my position serves out the presidential term unless it is a result of the failure of both the President-Elect and the Vice President-Elect to qualify. In this election, we never had a Vice President-Elect, qualified or otherwise."

"Mr. President, your argument strikes me as ridiculous. If Leo McGarry was elected even though he wasn't qualified by virtue of being dead – pardon my bluntness there – wouldn't that make him an unqualified Vice President-Elect?"

"What you're suggesting there, Chris, is that Congress should be rewarded for acting unconstitutionally. They should be able to exert control over who the president will be by ignoring the rule of law. There was no deception here. They were fully aware that Leo couldn't become Vice President, and they elected him anyway. They had precedent to guide them; in 1872, Congress declined to count three electoral votes cast for losing presidential candidate Horace Greeley, because he died between the election and the meeting of the Electoral College. This Congress sadly failed to uphold the Constitution when they elected McGarry. We as a nation have to have the power to undo their action."

"So if I understand correctly, your lawsuit rests on the wording of the Presidential Succession Act, not the twentieth amendment."

"Yes."

"But the Presidential Succession Act isn't in the Constitution. It's a law, passed by Congress. If Congress passed it, can't Congress make changes to it?"

"They haven't done that. They haven't amended the Presidential Succession Act."

"But they could. Mr. President, in the unlikely event that your lawsuit is successful, couldn't Congress just go back and slightly re-word the Presidential Succession Act?"

"Well…"

"And if they could do that, aren't you just wasting the nation's time and embarrassing your party with this lawsuit?"

"I…" The President hesitated, and then changed the subject. "Look, furthermore, even if you accept the premise that my presidency should be temporary, Congress has ignored a perfectly viable constitutional means of filling this office, namely allowing me to do my duty under the 25th amendment and name a Vice President, who would then ascend to the presidency. Instead, they've decided to meddle with election law to provide for a special election for President of the United States – something that's never been done before, ever."

"You believe you should be able to do that. You, Mark Sellner, should be able to personally choose the next President of the United States."

"Subject to congressional confirmation, yes."

"And Congress has said they don't want to confirm any of your nominees. Isn't that their right?"

"I think it's the height of irresponsibility for them to-" His voice broke off momentarily when he saw CJ enter the room. She was holding a piece of paper with the words "Wrap it up" scrawled on it. He nodded slightly in her direction. The interview would be over in a few minutes. He turned his attention back to Chris Morton and continued his answer. "What they're doing is wrong. They're not refusing to confirm a specific nominee, based on his or her qualifications. They're issuing a blanket pledge not to confirm any nominee."

"Don't they have that right?"

"No, I don't think they do."

"Where in the Constitution does it place any limits on the right of Congress refuse to confirm nominees?"

"Well…"

"Where? Point me to the section of the Constitution that says they can't do what they're doing."

He noticed that CJ had turned the paper over, and had written the word "Now!" on the other side. He ignored her. Chris Morton was a tough interviewer. Numerous politicians had gotten tripped up by him and seen their careers damaged, if not ended. There was no way he was going to end the interview until he was sure he had successfully gotten his point across.

"Mr. President?"

"Well, it doesn't explicitly…"

"So you're admitting there's no constitutional reason they can't categorically refuse to confirm anyone you nominate?"

He sighed. "Sure, I guess they can, but if they go that route, they should be stuck me until the next presidential election. This special election was not something ever envisioned by the framers of the Constitution or the authors of the Presidential Succession Act."

"Do either of those documents explicitly prohibit a special election for President? And if so, where? Quote me chapter and verse."

"Again, not explicitly..."

"That's what I thought." Chris cut him off. He then moved to the next topic. "Mr. President, Arnold Vinick is expected to formally announce his candidacy for President tomorrow. Assuming your lawsuit is unsuccessful and the election goes forward, do you think there's anyone in the Democratic Party who can beat him?"

"Of course there is, Chris. I mean, look, I'm sure Arnold Vinick thinks he's struck gold with all this-"

"Struck gold with all this?" Chris repeated his words in disbelief. "By 'all this' you mean the assassination? You're going on national television and saying you think Arnold Vinick is happy that the President-Elect of the United States was assassinated?"

He noticed that CJ had sat down and was burying her head in her hands.

"Now don't put words in my mouth, Chris. I'm not saying he's happy about it, necessarily, but you have to admit-"

"Mr. President, I'm sorry, we're going to have to cut this short," Chris interrupted him, clearly hearing something in his earpiece. "We have some very significant breaking news. Thank you for your time." With that, the satellite feed went black.

He walked over to CJ. "What's going on?"

She looked stricken. "Mr. President, when I said wrap it up, I wasn't just doing it for my health. There was a reason." Her voice was shaking slightly.

"CJ, what happened?"

She took a deep breath. "Arnold Vinick was shot outside his home tonight. A car drove by and…"

The President's face paled. "How…bad is he hurt?"

She closed her eyes. "He was gone by the time the paramedics got there."

"Oh my God." He began to feel sick as he remembered what he'd just said to Chris Morton. "And in that interview I-"

"We can talk about that later. Kate and Ron are in the Oval, and we're getting Agent Brent from the FBI on the line. Come on."

He nodded and followed her down the hall toward the Oval Office.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I've tried his office, his cell, he's not picking up," Donna tried to keep from sounding too frantic. "They wouldn't have taken him to, I don't know, a secure location, would they? I mean, he's not the Vice President anymore."

"I don't know. I doubt it, but it's not impossible," Josh mumbled. He was slumped on the couch, his eyes still glued to the TV set.

"Do you think I should put out a statement on his behalf?" she asked. "I mean, I know I haven't formally accepted the position, so technically I don't work for him yet, but…"

"I'd check with him first." Josh glanced at her briefly.

"I'm going down there," she decided. "We had a meeting scheduled. Maybe he's in his office but just not-" her voice broke off when her phone rang. "Oh good, that's him." She took the call and walked into the hallway.

When she emerged a few minutes later, her head was spinning. "He says he has some things to think about," she told Josh.

"Huh?" his eyes narrowed. "What things?"

"I don't know. He said he'd just sent a statement to the press, and that he was glad I was willing to run his campaign, but that he…has some things to think about. That's all he would say." She sighed. "I should have known. This happening has made him realize that I'm not experienced enough to…"

"Don't jump to conclusions," Josh cut her off. "He's probably just in shock. He's trying to process this just like the rest of us."

"I guess." She paused and studied Josh for a moment, noticing for the first time how stricken he looked. His face was pale. He was resting his forehead against his hand as he stared at the flickering television screen. She sat down next to him and put an arm around him. "Josh?"

He was quiet for a long moment. "So this is what it's come to," he finally said, his voice choked. "Crazy people, white supremacists, whoever the hell it was this time, get to decide our elections. Anyone they don't want in the White House, they just shoot. Hell, why should any of us even bother to vote?"

She sighed and leaned against him, rubbing his back reassuringly. They sat in silence for awhile, watching the news coverage. The anchor droned on for what seemed like hours, offering up speculation after speculation since no one had much in the way of concrete facts to report. Then the camera turned to a familiar middle-aged, brown-haired man who appeared ready to make a statement.

"Ray Sullivan?" Josh blinked in confusion. "What's he doing there?"

As if in answer to his question, the anchor spoke. "West Virginia Governor and former vice presidential candidate Ray Sullivan was at Senator Vinick's home, along with several staff members, when the shooting took place. We're going to go live to his statement now."

The governor began speaking. "This is a very dark day for our country. I still can't believe it. All I know is he went out to his car to get something, and all of a sudden, we heard gunshots." He paused, as if trying to compose himself. When he spoke again, his voice was angry. "This is an outrage, an affront to our democracy. I call on President Sellner to immediately pledge to hunt down and kill the terrorists who planned, carried out, or in any way supported this atrocity."

"Terrorists?" A reporter asked. "Are you suggesting you think the shooting was…"

"The assassination of a former senator and candidate for President of the United States is an act of terrorism."

"Governor, what were you meeting with Senator Vinick in regards to?"

"Senator Vinick, the staff, and I were making preparations to fly out to California tomorrow for the senator's announcement of his candidacy for President."

"Can we infer from your presence that you were going to be unveiled at that announcement as Vinick's choice for Vice President?"

"Yes," he responded simply. "I suppose the cat's out of the bag. That was the plan."

"Guess we have a new Republican front-runner," Donna commented. She felt somewhat uneasy bringing up the political implications of the tragedy, but she knew they probably weren't far from anyone's mind.

"President Ray Sullivan," Josh remarked in agreement, a note of disgust in his voice at the idea.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"How did this happen?" President Sellner demanded, standing in the Oval Office with Ron, CJ, and Kate. "Didn't he have Secret Service?"

"His protection was scheduled to start tomorrow when he formally announced his candidacy for President," Ron explained.

"Agent Brent, any leads so far?" CJ asked the FBI agent, who was on the speakerphone.

"So far, we don't have much to go on. One of Vinick's neighbors heard the gunshots and looked out her window and thought she saw a dark-colored sedan driving away, but that was as much of a description as she could give."

"Had he been getting any threats?" CJ asked Ron. She knew the Secret Service would have been monitoring that, even if Vinick hadn't yet received his detail.

"All presidential candidates get threats," he responded. "But no, there hadn't been any unusual threats, nothing that seemed to suggest something like this was imminent."

"I've always been of the opinion that someone who's planning an assassination isn't likely to send out an advance warning," President Sellner responded sharply. "But this ends right here. Starting now, I'm ordering that every candidate for President, every likely candidate for President, gets Secret Service protection – the same level of protection I get. The same level as the President. Unless they publicly say they're out, they get a detail. We're not going to let this happen again."

Ron didn't respond right away, and CJ turned to him. "Ron, does the Secret Service have the resources for that?"

He hesitated. "We'll find a way to make it work."

There was a knock at the door, and Will Bailey stepped into the Oval Office.

"Ray Sullivan was live on CNN just now," he told them. "He just called this an act of terrorism. He called on the President to pledge to hunt down and kill the terrorists who did this."

"Damnit," CJ sighed in frustration.

"Am I missing something?" The President looked confused. "It is terrorism, isn't it?"

"When the general public hears that word, they think Islamic terrorism," CJ explained. "We don't need to be creating a panic. We don't need mosques being burned or Muslims being the targets of hate crimes."

"'Hunt down and kill' implies military action," Will added grimly. "He's just planted the idea in people's minds that we may be going to war over this."

"This guy Grimm, the Santos shooter, he railed against Arabs and Muslims in several of the internet postings that were traced to him," Kate pointed out. "He doesn't have a passport. As far as we can tell, he's never been outside the United States. He identifies himself as Christian. There's absolutely nothing to suggest any affiliation with Islamic terrorist groups. Granted, we can't say for sure yet that these two shootings are connected…"

CJ turned her attention back to Jill Brent on the speakerphone. "Gut instinct: was this the same people responsible for the Santos assassination?"

"Two assassinations in as many weeks: it's hard to imagine it's a coincidence," she replied. "But we don't know anything for sure."

"Arnold Vinick didn't have Secret Service protection," the President interjected. "It could have been anyone. For all we know, it could have been some kook who considered it retaliation for the Santos shooting."

"We can't rule anything in or out yet," Jill emphasized.

President Sellner shook his head. "Does it really make sense that it would be the same people who shot Santos? Why would white supremacists want to kill an old white guy who wasn't even in an interracial marriage?"

CJ shrugged. "I suspect because they didn't want him to be President."