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Episode 203
THE MIDTERMS
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Personal
In a recent assassination attempt, President Bartlet was shot but his wounds weren't serious. The serious repercussions of the President's injury came when Abbey, the First Lady, was compelled to tell the President's anesthesiologist about Bartlet's Multiple Sclerosis, knowing that the doctor would have no reason other than honor not to tell the press.
Bartlet's gunshot wasn't serious but the shooters hit another senior staffer, Josh Lyman, with far graver results. Josh's lung was punctured and it took twelve hours of perilous surgery to pull him through. While the staff waited desperately for Josh to come out of surgery, they recalled the early days of Bartlet's campaign, and how they all came to work for the President.
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Political
Secret Service Agent Ron Butterfield told Presidential Aide Charlie Young that the President wasn't the shooters' target — Charlie was. The Secret Service had long been suspicious that White Supremacy groups were targeting Charlie and Presidential daughter Zoey; in particular, they suspected that neo-Nazis were calling on their "Lone Wolves," teenage skinheads, to take matters into their own hands.
The Secret Service has been working with the Southern Poverty Law Center in pursuit of hate groups — together they learned that the would-be assassins were likely young members of West Virginia White Pride.
The press, led by Danny Concanon, had lots of questions regarding the period during which the President was under anesthesia, because Bartlet failed to sign a letter before he went under giving power to the Vice President, leaving the country officially leaderless for three hours. During those three hours, the VP, Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, and National Security Advisor Nancy McNally dealt with an Iraqi military threat.
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As one of the President's (Martin Sheen) staff recovers from bullet wounds, the rest of the team pushes on to the "mid-term" congressional elections in November -- but as C.J. (Allison Janney) deflects press requests on how the assassination attempt has affected the mood in the White House, she knows that nearly everyone bears psychological scars in its aftermath. In particular, Charlie (Dule Hill) is affected when he learns more about the shooting and reacts coldly both to Bartlet (Sheen) and Zoey (guest star Elizabeth Moss). For his part, Toby (Richard Schiff) surveys the President's newfound popularity in the polls and proposes that the administration pursue a course that would turn up the heat on extremist groups while Sam (Rob Lowe) convinces a friend (guest star Jamie Denton) to run for Congress after the death of a current congressman. Elsewhere, Bartlet is obsessed with an obscure school board election in New Hampshire for purely personal reasons. Bradley Whitford, John Spencer and Janel Moloney also star.
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