Synopsis of Celestial Navigation
Written by Kerry
Josh is attending the Marjorie Dupont lecture series where he is the guest
speaker. He receives a call from Sam that Judge Roberto Mendoza (Edward
James Olmos), the President's nominee for the US Supreme Court, has been
arrested for drunk driving in the small town of Wesley, Connecticut. Leo
dispatches Tobey and Sam to Connecticut to get Mendoza out of jail.
Meanwhile, Josh commences his address to the audience about how the
schedule of an ordinary day at the White House can usually be thrown out
by 9:30am. He demonstrates his point by using as an example a recent day
which started out trumpeting the President's vision for education reform
and ended up as the news cycle that wouldn't end.
Josh's flashbacks to those events are interspersed with scenes in the
present of Tobey and Sam driving around Connecticut trying to find the
town of Wesley. Josh is interrupted in his address on his cell phone by
calls from them. The day Josh refers to is one which was supposed to have
focused on the President's announcement that he had signed a bill which
would put an extra $700 million into the education system for new
teachers. Instead, the day starts to get out of hand when the Cabinet
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Deborah O'Leary (CC Pounder)
infers that a Republican congressman, who has long been baiting her, is a
racist.
With no press secretary in the room at the President's press conference
to announce the new education spending, no-one ends it in time before
President Bartlett answers a question by stating that he believed it would
be appropriate for O'Leary to apologize. Leo calls O'Leary into his
office and convinces her to apologize to the Congressman. Which should
have been the end of the matter.
It isn't, however, when Judge Mendoza, in another in a long line of
inappropriate comments, tells The Chicago Tribune that he disagrees with
the President's handling of the issue. This is much to Tobey's chagrin,
as he is responsible for Mendoza and his confirmation to the US Supreme
Court.
CJ is unable to fulfill her 2:00pm press briefing due to a dental
emergency and Josh jumps in to take her place. Josh ends up creating a
public relations frenzy, when he goads and is goaded in return, by the
White House press corps. He ends up, among other goofs, saying that the
President has a (non-existent) "secret plan to fight inflation".
The next day, Charlie has the dubious task of getting President Bartlett,
who has only had three hours sleep, out of bed and ready for a 7:00 a.m.
meeting with his senior staff. At the meeting, the President is informed
of Josh's press briefing debacle and Mendoza's comments. He is informed
that Mendoza is on his way, but won't be in Washington for another couple
of days because he is driving down from Nova Scotia with his family and
doing some antiquing in Connecticut along the way.
In the present time, Tobey and Sam have found Wesley and Judge Mendoza.
Sam informs the police that Mendoza could not have been drinking, because
he suffers from a form of hepatitis and the amount of alcohol needed to
register in a breathlyser test would have killed him. Mendoza is
initially reluctant to leave with Tobey, because he was humiliated in
front of his wife and young son. He says he wishes to avail himself of
the criminal justice system for which he has worked all his life. Tobey
convinces him that nothing can be better unless Mendoza is a Supreme Court
Justice.
Tobey extracts an apology and an escort for Mendoza from the bemused
police sgt who arrested him. Towards the end of his address, Josh
receives his final call to confirm that the Mendoza problem is over. He
tells the audience there were parts of the story he could not tell them
and suggests that they invite him back after Mendoza's confirmation. The
episode also provides insight into Sam's "freakish" interest in North
American highway infrastructure.
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