The Great West Wing Rewatch: 6.16 "Drought Conditions"

Joel: Toby makes a really good point here. What wasn’t he ever consulted on looking for an alternative to Bob Russell? Toby has been the loudest voice against Russell being the next democratic contender for President since the beginning. He’s the one who’s gotten in the most arguments with Will Bailey about the VP and who it comes time to seriously consider looking for someone else, he’s never even in the discussion. I know that the actual coming to blows segment has just as much to do with Toby’s brother as it does with what they’re actually arguing about, but seriously, Toby brought up something here that’s been bugging me for a while. Why was Josh the one to leave and champion a candidate? I know that the entire White House staff can’t abandon the President with a year left, but they talk about the backroom where the next President is decided, and Toby was never even invited to those backroom style discussions. It was just Leo and Josh. Did Toby’s involvement never cross Leo’s mind? In this episode Leo tells Toby “You and Josh, you still think you're terriers, barking at the heels of the party. You are the party.” But despite that, Toby doesn’t get a say. And when he does seem to back a candidate, even indirectly, he gets shouted down (and physically attacked) for doing so. And it bothers me that as good a point as Toby is making here, nobody ever acknowledges this.

Chris: This episode was a showcase of incredible acting mostly on the part of Richard Schiff. Obviously the scene towards the end when Toby finally gets emotional over his brother in the conversation with CJ stands out but also in the breakdown between he and Josh. It's a huge turning point in their relationship as well as Josh's relationship with the Bartlet administration. The scuffle reveals Toby's true anger over Josh leaving and sure, it was probably a little bit about Toby seeing it as Josh abandoning the administration but a lot of it was being left out from the process altogether. But I do like what Leo says when he proclaims that they ARE the Democratic party now and clearly, Toby believes in Rafferty even if she's a fringe candidate with little chance but it's like Leo is trying to help her while also continuing the work for Bartlet. It's like everyone around him took the plunge into something else but Toby is still trying to do both at the same time.
Another standout in this episode is the camera work during the Gala as it is both beautiful and dizzying at the same time, a vast departure from what we're used to in West Wing. Seriously, for a scene that involves a few people standing still at a party, I've never seen a camera swing so quickly. However, it's a great way to express the uneasiness of the situation, the president having to be careful about who he can and can't talk to, Cliff Calley being thrown into a face-to-face meeting the president for the first time and finally, Will and Kate interacting and seemingly becoming attracted to each other at the same time.

A good president avoids the right people at parties.