F.E.C. Nominees Announced — Senator Declares War
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet's televised announcement of nominating finance reformers to the F.E.C. shocks the Senator, contradicting earlier assurances.
Onorato reveals the names of the nominees, confirming Bartlet's move on campaign finance reform, sparking the Senator's fury.
Senator vows retaliation, demanding an immediate confrontation with Josh Lyman, signaling an escalation in political warfare.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Absent physically; implied to be central to the administration's reform impulse and therefore a focal point for opposition ire.
Patricia Calhoun is announced as an F.E.C. nominee on live television; she is not present, but her naming functions narratively to provoke the Senate's anger and mark the administration's agenda as confrontational.
- • To be confirmed to the F.E.C. (implied).
- • To implement stricter campaign‑finance oversight (implied).
- • Regulatory appointments are the avenue to meaningful campaign‑finance reform.
- • Public naming signals commitment and makes reversal difficult.
Not physically present; represented as a policy actor whose mere naming is destabilizing—implicitly hopeful or embattled given the reaction it provokes.
Named on television as a Presidential nominee to the F.E.C.; Bacon himself does not appear but his naming functions as a catalyst for the room's political panic and the Majority Leader's threatened retaliation.
- • To be confirmed to the F.E.C. (implied).
- • To advance campaign‑finance reform through institutional change (implied).
- • Institutional change at the F.E.C. is necessary to affect election supervision.
- • Nominations can be used to shift regulatory balance even amid partisan resistance.
Measured, slightly vindicated but nervous — he confesses being wrong while relishing the disruptive impact of the news.
Positioned at the TV, Onorato watches the President's live feed and bluntly announces what the room is seeing; he admits his error and effectively shatters the room's complacency by naming the two nominees aloud.
- • To inform the Majority Leader and staff immediately about the live announcement.
- • To control the narrative in the room by being the first to state the facts and thereby shape reaction.
- • Information, delivered quickly, dictates the shape of political response.
- • The White House will act independently and can upend negotiated expectations.
The Majority Leader moves from light banter to incensed fury when the TV names the nominees; he accuses Onorato, demands …
Josh Lyman is invoked as the immediate target of the Majority Leader's fury—requested on the phone and threatened—even though he …
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Referenced as the immediate instrument to execute the Senator's demanded retribution: 'Get him on the phone.' Although the handset itself is not shown in the room, the telephone is invoked as the conduit for confrontation and impending political violence, compressing distance between the West Wing and Capitol Hill.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Invoked in a petty opening exchange about a gifted bottle to mark provenance and status. The Cognac region functions as a cultural touchstone that contrasts the room's coarse political anger with a moment of bourgeois pedantry, revealing character and social posture.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's announcement of F.E.C. nominations directly causes the Senator's shocked and furious reaction."
"Onorato's revelation of the nominees' names leads to the Senator's vow of retaliation and the subsequent call to Josh."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET ([on T.V.]) "I am proud to nominate John Branford Bacon and Patricia Calhoun to the Federal Election Commission.""
"ONORATO "He's going to name two finance reformers to the F.E.C.""
"SENATOR "Get him on the phone. I'm going to reach down his throat and take out his lungs with an ice-cream scoop.""