Leo McGarry: Why did you tell me that?

[Catch22Dem]

Gen. Alan Adamle: Because you could be tried for war crimes.
Leo McGarry: WHY DID YOU TELL ME THAT?
Gen. Alan Adamle: Because all war is a crime.

That was a great episode. It's also the one where Cliff catches Donna in a lie about her diary.

[tjwmason]

1. Her response to Cliff

(not quite verbatim as I'm working from memory)

'What would you say, "sorry your honour I think I saw a diary whilst I was looking for my boxer shorts"?'

Unfortunately I doubt that the calm and reasonable solution brokered would be even contemplated with certain folk in power.

[Not_Giving_Up]

2. Cliff was the one who adjourned the hearing so that it wouldn't come out

that Leo had slipped and gotten shitfaced during the campaign. A repug who didn't think that the guy's personal life was relevant???

[BlueIris]

3. But that was the beauty of Cliff:

"And if you pursue with this line of questioning I will resign this committee and wait in the tall grass for you, Congressman, because you are killing the party."

[baldguy]

6. Cliff was a honorable Republican.

So, you know it was fiction.

[bluestateguy]

4. I supported Bartlett when he offed the Qumari ambassador

The man was a docuamented terrorist. Now would I support an invasion of Qumar and an American occupation? No.

[BlueIris]

5. I understand, unlike some critics, why that made sense STORYwise.

I hate what Bartlet did there, but I can see what its purpose was. All throughout that season, Bartlet had been struggling with various forms of intellectual, emotional and political impotence. His MS was fucking up his reelection chances and he couldn't fix that; he still had MS and that wasn't going anywhere; his Communications Director encouraged him to look at how his abusive father stymied his leadership skills and he got insomnia over not being able to change that part of himself; his Press Secretary started getting stalked and all he could do about that was give her a bodygaurd--who got killed, leaving Bartlet with about nine-thousand kinds of frustrations. Then, finally, despite his own objections, he gave in to the goading of the head of his military, his Chief of Staff and his best friend and ordered the assassination of a "documented terrorist"--I think, not so much because was the right thing to do (it wasn't, and Bartlet knew that) but because it's something he can do. An objective he can successfully accomplish. And yeah, there's a way for him to rationalize the choice as an action that made America safer. So, that makes sense in terms of the structure of the plot for The West Wing's third season, such as it was. Kind of made me wonder how much of what Leo and Fitzwallace (who actually told Bartlet that the Qumar ambassador was simply "an enemy could kill") did before the assassination was about killing a dangerous terrorist, as it was helping Bartlet feel presidential.