West Wing

[Peter McGuire]

I enjoyed a 7AM episode of West Wing on Bravo this morning. My wife accused me of watching Soap Operas early in the morning, but she has accused me of much worse.

It was actually an interesting episode with some meat to it. A suspected spy of the McCarthy era's granddaughter was seeking a Presidential Pardon through Rob Lowe and he found out through NSA that the guy was actually a spy. He did not reveal that to the granddaughter but in his quest , a FBI agent stated we get the heat for our mistakes but for security purposes , when we are right, that has to be kept secret. In that conversation the man playing the FBI agent said in defense of the Bureau; “we did not order the canvas down at Roswell" or close to that.

Were these writers’ apologists for Kennedy’s death, in effect saying "we did not order the bubble top removed in Dallas"?

It went by too fast and I did not usually watch this show, but this one was not bad.

Anyone seen this episode or know these writers?

Actually, it is a relevant question with the 24 writer going south on "The Kennedys" The final episode was great but if this guy is an apologist, or a Kennedy thrasher (they may be the same) , he ( and 24) or out of my life.

Edited June 18, 2010 by Peter McGuire

[Evan Burton]

It's a tremendous series - I have them on DVD. A friend put me onto the series and I got hooked.

The phrase was "canopy down at Rosslyn", which refers to a previous episode "What kind of day has it been". It was where some white supremacists attempt to assassinate one of the characters (Charlie).

[Evan Burton]

You know, after reviewing that episode I decided to keep on going. It reminded me of something:

Damn but it is a great series.

[Greg Burnham]

Peter,

First, the comment: "We didn't order the canopy down at Rosslyn..." is NOT a reference to an assssination attempt made by White Supremacists on the President. The POTUS was not the target even though he was hit. The target was "Charlie" -- the (Black, African American) Special Aid to the President who was dating the President's daughter.

Second, the FBI Agent was basically threatening to "go public" with information that would be politically embarassing to the White House. The reason the Secret Service decided to remove the outdoor canopy at Rosslyn was because the White House Director of Communications, Toby Zeigler, requested they do so. The Secret Service didn't make that call, Toby did. The FBI Agent knew that detail, so he wasn't so much exonnerating the Bureau as he was saying, "I know it was Toby's fault...and I just might leak it to the press if you don't drop the issue" (about the Presidential pardon of a spy).

Now, having said that, it is still the responsibility of the Secret Service to protect the president, no matter what. Even if a request is made by his staff, which results in "less than optimal circumstances" the SS are quite capable of adjusting elsewhere within their protocol in order to compensate for exposure. In the event that such compensatory protocol is deemed inadequate to accomplish their mission, then the request must be denied.