*****************
To: nalyman@soconn.net
From: Joshua.Lyman@whitehouse.gov
Date: 27MAY2001
Time: 22:50
Subject: We're back
Mom,
I know I said I would call when I got back from the coast, but somehow the 14 hours since I got off the plane disappeared. We returned to a beautiful morning, which promptly took a nose-dive into hell. I can't say much right now, but trust me when I say, in the next three days half of your friends are going to have heart attacks and proclaim they have become strict vegetarians. However, I can also assure you that two days after that, they are going to feel like damn fools. Enjoy the upcoming show; I've done my best to make it lively.
Suffice to say, because of what I just mentioned, I only now found a moment to sit down. Now that I have, I see that the phone is way across my desk where it would take more energy than I have to stretch for it. So, since I'm sitting at the computer already...
What can I say, it's been one of those weeks.
You'd be proud of me, though. While traveling with the President, I managed to shut my mouth for almost 50 percent of the extra-
"I'd say it was more like less-than 20 percent and that was only because you were on the phone with Leo most of the time," Donna said, leaning over his shoulder and interrupting his writing.
Sunday evening had fallen in the capital yet the office still hummed. The White House was not a place that rested often. What was supposed to be just a few short hours in the office in the morning had bled into an all day affair as the senior staff tried to slap political Band-Aids on the issues that had gone awry since they left the previous week. Having pulled most of the loose and fraying threads back together so that the scheduled chaos of Monday would be unhindered, many of the staff had left. Sam and CJ had signaled their departure half an hour earlier. Toby had left just moments after they did. The President was in the residence, allegedly having it out with First Lady about appropriate foods, and Leo was skulking somewhere in the building, scowling for reasons Josh refused to fathom.
"Excuse me?" Josh asked turning to stare at her. "What do you think you're doing?"
"You shouldn't give your mother a false impression of how you behaved," Donna said, reading over his shoulder. "First, because you shouldn't do that to your mother. Second, because your mother knows you, Josh. I know she thinks the world of you, but she's under no delusions about who and what you are. She'll never believe that you pretended to be well-mannered half of the time. Your mother's not stupid."
"I'm aware of that," he snapped. "I'm also aware this is a private letter that you were not invited to read."
"Fine, but I'm just saying..."
"Donna!"
"Why is it N.A. Lyman?" she asked, pointing to the screen.
"Why is what?" he asked. "Her address? Noah and Anna Lyman. N.A. Lyman."
"Really?"
"I don't know!" he said. "I didn't pick it! It's just the address my father sent to me five years ago when they got it. I didn't ask."
"So you just assumed," she remarked.
"Go home, Donna," he said.
"How long are you staying?"
"I'm just gonna finish this and check in with Leo," he said.
"You should get some sleep," she said. "And I don't mean at your desk."
"I'll sleep in my car as I drive home, how 'bout that?" he remarked as he returned to his letter.
"See, it's because of stuff like that that your mother would never believe you were good boy on the field trip," she remarked.
"Goodnight, Donna," he called.
-circular activities we were "encouraged" to attend with him. For the sake of balanced reporting, I should tell you that Donna takes a different view of my patience level during the unending itinerary of museums and obtuse historical spots we visited. But I have come to expect no more nor any less from her.
"Hey, Josh?"
"This isn't home, Donna," he responded. "I know I keep you here for long hours, but I'm pretty sure you know where you live still."
"I know," she said. "I just wanted to tell you to tell your mother I said Hi!"
"Yeah, I'll make sure I get that in here."
"Will you?"
"She's my mother," he said.
"Yeah, but I like her," Donna replied.
"Then send her your own e-mail."
"I will."
"Don't write to my mother," Josh said. "You've got your own mother."
"But my mother doesn't have e-mail," Donna replied. "Tell her I said Hi! See you tomorrow."
"Hey, don't forget I need you here by 7 a.m.!" he yelled as she closed his door. "And I'm not telling her anything about you!"
He shook his head and returned to the computer.
By the way, Donna sends her regards.
I think between the two of us, we are going to set a record for sleeplessness in a reelection campaign. It feels like a competition all its own sometimes. If anyone would have told me three years ago that the seemingly-flighty blond who hired herself without my permission would one day be one of the few people on staff who could keep up with me, I'd have never believed it.
Now, I know since I mentioned the marathon sleep deprivation of the trip you will feel compelled to send me a list of roughly 10,001 reasons why I should take better care of myself. So let's just avoid that discourse with this: You know it won't do any good. At most, this job is an eight year stint. For now, all that matters to me is keeping this administration in this office for one more term, and there's nothing on the planet that's going to dissuade me.
When we're done here, I'll have time for inconsequential things like sleep and regular meals.
The pager beside the keyboard chirped. He read the display screen and sighed.
I have to go now. Leo needs me. I'll try to call you some evening this week when I have a few spare moments (as Dad always said, there's no such thing as free time).
Love,
Joshua
*****************
White House Chief of Staff's Office
11 p.m.
May 27, 2001
Leo McGarry (White House Chief of Staff):
It's an awful business, sacrificing the happiness of the few for the good of the many.
I know it sounds holier-than-thou to put it that way, but I speak from experience. That's how I've lived my life. And, for better or worse, the way those around me are forced to live theirs.
I understand why this needs to be done, and if it were anyone else I really wouldn't lose any sleep. Okay, so I probably won't lose any sleep anyway, but it's gonna bother me.
I've been thinking lately that I'm getting old. It must be true. I look in the mirror and there is all the proof I need. That's not news, but when things like this start to bother me in a way that has me sitting at my desk late at night wondering about obtuse consequences, I worry. This business is not for the soft or faint of heart. As soon as you get sentimental, it's time to pack it in because that's when you make foolish mistakes.
Foolish mistakes are different from stupid mistakes. Those we make all the time--every day it seems (and those are the things I should be worrying about rather than this). The difference between foolish mistakes and stupid mistakes is simple; it's a matter of concentration. Stupid mistakes happen when you are concentrating on too many things at once; your mind or your mouth is hitting on 16 cylinders so it's controlled chaos if you're lucky. Foolish mistakes are just about the opposite. Those happen when you are fixated on just one thing and you put blinders on to everything else.
I don't make foolish mistakes.
Okay, so maybe I'm not too old yet.
The kid... Kid? Josh hasn't been a kid for a long time. Yeah, but he's Noah Lyman's kid. Despite everything else he has become, that's how I knew him first and how part of me will always think of him: as my old friend's son. And that's one big reason why it really bugs me to do this. Noah wanted what all fathers want for their children: for them to be happy. He knew that would never come easy for Josh, not starting out the way he did.
I know Josh loves his job. You'd be hard pressed to find 10 people in this city who love politics the way Josh Lyman does. Doing this work half-killed him in a couple of ways, but he's his father's son. There's something in those Lyman genes that refuses to quit.
That's one reason I need to do this. When Josh gets a notion, there's nothing on the planet that can dissuade him.
So the trick here is to decide what notion he gets. I've just made that decision for him.
The notion will be returning Jed Bartlet to this office for a second term.
That's where the other reason for doing this to him comes in. Josh is probably one of the best political directors any campaign ever had. You give him the right support and some space to maneuver and it's a guaranteed race every time. I knew that four years ago when all the numbers were against us; that's why I took him away from Hoyne's campaign.
Well, our numbers aren't so great now and taking him away from this thing won't be as easy. Hoynes didn't care if Josh stayed in his camp--not until it was too late. Josh didn't mind leaving either; he wanted to win and he didn't believe in his candidate. I offered him something better, and he was in our camp by sunset.
But this is different.
This isn't a political candidate I'm facing. In fact, this might be a feistier opponent than Hoynes or any Republican. I think it was Twain who said there's nothing more dangerous than a fool with a cause. Well, I think he might have been wrong. There's one thing more dangerous: a woman in love.
It's not that I don't trust Donna.
I trust her. I like her, too. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that she is the best thing that ever happened to Josh. Unfortunately, that's also why she's a problem. What's best for Josh might not be what's best for the campaign.
Now, the trick is how to keep her working with him but keep them apart. I agree with Sam--and that bothers me as much as this whole scheme we're working on. But I can't argue; those two are on an inevitable collision course. If it had happened sooner, maybe the kinks could have been worked out so there would be no concern. But they didn't and there isn't time for it to happen now. A relationship developing out of the office now would be a liability. I'm not talking about image concerns or allegations of impropriety. Please! We're Democrats; we hear that kind of thing all the time.
Still, it makes us vulnerable. Nothing between these two could hurt us with the public, but behind the scenes it opens up fissures. I don't want the likes of Ann Stark finding ways to screw with the head of one of my rainmakers--and let's face it, Josh's mind isn't something that can handle a lot more tinkering right now. What he needs is the basic chaos of something he understands: politics. That's why he has to be focused on the campaign. I truly believe for his own good and the good of the campaign, Donna can't be a factor in his mind--at all.
So it's up to us, his friends and colleagues, to reroute, stall, hinder, obsfucate and do damn near everything we can to stop this thing.
And this I have to do on top of the ten thousand other (and decidedly more pressing) issues on my plate.
How will I do it? Well, playing chaperon is not what I have in mind.
*****************
"Take a seat," Leo said as Josh entered his office.
"We're set," Josh said. "There won't be any problem with Milquetoast."
"Congressman Tredwell," Leo corrected him.
"Yeah, that freak," Josh replied. "He's getting a case of laryngitis this week. A nasty case."
"Thank you," Leo said. "But that's not what I needed to talk to you about."
"Okay," Josh said skeptically. "What then?"
"How are you doing?" Leo asked. "Everything going Okay?"
"Sure," Josh said cautiously. "What do you want to know specifically? Did Donna talk to you?"
Leo held his face in a stony expression. It was the one he used when his daughter had tried to snow him through her high school years. It was the one he used with the Vice President when he was threatening to throw the administration to the wolves.
"There's nothing wrong, Leo," Josh said confidently. "Donna just gets twitchy after long trips. She's on a harangue about sleep."
"She does tend to spend a lot of time around you," Leo said.
"I think that's what the whole assistant thing is about."
"I just meant that maybe you're pushing too much," Leo said. "Maybe she's on your case about sleeping or whatever because she doesn't get any either. Don't get me wrong, you two work well together. I'd just hate to see you ruin that; she may be your assistant, but she's a member of this administration. She does things for everyone. We never would have ended Stackhouse's filibuster without her."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I think you should lay off a bit," Leo replied.
"What did she say?" Josh asked with too much concern in his voice for Leo's liking.
"She didn't say anything," Leo said. "She didn't complain. I don't think she would even if I took out thumb screws, but Josh there's a limit."
"I don't understand," he said.
"You haven't noticed?" Leo remarked. "Josh, you're running her ragged. We've got a campaign coming up. You really want to be breaking in a new assistant during the primaries?"
"New assistant?" he repeated. "I don't need a new assistant. Donna's not going anywhere."
"She's gonna end up in the loony bin if you don't curtail her schedule," Leo said. "None of the other assistants put in 20 hour days as often as she does. Now Sam tells me she could barely hold her head up on the plane while you two were working on the drug legislation briefing."
"Why does Sam..."
"'Cause Sam's a sensitive guy," Leo said. "You and I don't notice those kind of things, but Sam was worried about Donna."
Leo paused, knowing that statement rang true. He watched Josh add up what had been said. Leo knew Josh was combing through the previous week, looking for anything that might augment or deflect what was being said. In the end, he merely looked down, a guilty cast in his eyes.
"We all know how quickly burn out can happen in this place," Leo said. "I just don't like it to happen unnecessarily. Cut her some slack; give her some space. That's all I'm saying."
Josh nodded, looking effectively scolded. Leo knew he had said much more to Josh than just the few words he had spoken. If Josh's feelings were what they appeared to be, he would make a concerted effort to restrict Donna's necessity to be with him in the office. It wouldn't mean a lot in cutting back her hours as working for Josh would be a time consuming job for any assistant, but having Josh step back, even in such a minuscule way, would be something Donna would pick up on, Leo knew.
He hoped she would take the hint.