West Wing finale..."President" Sheen invokes 25th. Hastert look-alike John Goodman takes over.

[ken5050]

In case you all missed it, the West Wing ended its season last night, and obviously Aaron Sorkin has been smoking 'shrooms again. Sorkin has also left the show, as writer and creative force, but he's leaving his peculiarly distorted vision of political reality for the next group of writers to untangle. If you're interested, let me summarize events for you...

[justlurking]

However, the VP taking over was a bit farfetched, unless it shows in the final hour that the plot had been going on for a long time before.

I think that's pretty obvious. Some of the "evidence" against Palmer was edited to make him look bad. His ex-wife was willingly participating in a conspiracy she knew included people in the government.

The guy that took over CTU called the Vice-President when it appeared that Bauer had been successful in securing the evidence of the fabricated audio tape. I think it will turn out that he is part of the conspiracy as well -- if for no other reason than to exonerate Tony and Michelle.

[ntnychik]

And to think I missed Martin Ramon Estevez Sheen exit stage left. I haven't watched West Wing since fake Pres. Bartlett replaced our beloved real President at the 2001 national Fourth of July celebration. Since the show is a glorified soap, what do you want to bet he had too much spicy food and the whole thing is a nightmare, from which he awakes with horror in September, only to renew with a vengeance his liberal-commie policies and cultural warfare.

If he's really GONE, maybe so-called newsfolk will stop interviewing him as though he were really elected to anything.

[truenospinzone]

He played the attorney who deduces that the VP is having an affair, and who takes that information to the White House staff. He did a great job, actually, although I'm not exactly a fan of his work as a general rule.

[CaptainK]

I couldn't summon the energy to finish reading the synopsis, never mind watching the show.

[Helms]

This is why the Democrats need to be not only beaten but humiliated

[TomGuy]

On 24, I did hate to see Mrs. Palmer get stabbed. Honest I did. lol... Although I'd have paid to see Jack Bauer cram his fist in her face. No wonder she has been dubbed by some critics/commentators as the Lady Macbeth of 24.

[ntnychik]

Tripp should have been in the Time Magazine Person of the Year edition honoring whistleblowers. Have you checked out the FR link to her site?

[smith288]

Yea, I totally admire what she has done. I just thought the skits were funny when I was naive and eating pizza with friends. I mean it was a funny character nevermind it was Tripp.

[Howlin]

Thanks for the synopsis, ken!

[KarlInOhio]

No, they have no such ties to Ohio. I've checked.

Check again. Martin was born in Dayton in 1940, went to Chaminade High School (now Chaminade-Julienne after the merger of the boys' and girls' Catholic high schools) and flunked the University of Dayton entrance exam so that he could go into acting.

It's been quite a while since he lived here, but he is from Dayton. I don't want him back as a senator, but on the other hand I'm not happy about the RINOs we have now.

[hardhead]

Am I missing something? What is 'television'?

[KarlInOhio]

Am I missing something? What is 'television'?

It's a big glowing box that looks similar to a computer screen. It doesn't have FR on it so it isn't very interesting. Just think of it as an internet browser which has Fox News and a lot of DU on every other site. :-)

[E Rocc]

Seems Bernie Kosar laughed at the Democrats when they asked him, and called George Voinivich to tell him. They are friends.

Bernie's long since been known as a Republican. He actively campaigned for Bush in 1988, when he was still starting for the Browns and a minor deity in this area. Our joke was that the Dukakis campaign was so inept they were going to counter by doing appearances with Boomer Esiason....up here. Kosar's also a Florida resident.

The Dims haven't been able to get anyone to run against him because he's absolutely unbeatable...a Republican who can carry Cuyahoga County. Hence their flirtations with celebrity expatriates like Springer...who actually ran for governor in 1982 and got slammed in the primary.

Lots of people on here don't like Voinovich. I think he's more or less okay, a lot better than Dewiner, right more often than he's wrong, and way better than any conceivable Dim.

-Eric

[Fraulein]

John Goodman was EXCELLENT in The Big Lebowski. Too bad Walter Sobchak isn't president.

[smith288]

I dont see many Ohioans voting for this boob.

[LiteKeeper]

read later - the show you love to hate. It's like looking behind the scenes of the Clinton White House.

[mvpel]

From what I saw, he came across as serious and grave, which is not surprising considering the crisis situation he's facing. It's not often in this history of this country that the Speaker of the House assumes the presidency, if you know what I mean.

The staff was yammering on about "who's in charge," and he made it very clear to them, with a single sentence and a glance, "I am in charge." He's a businessman, and he means business, unlike Bartlett the college professor.

He did come off as a bit cold and formal, which some might interpret as "evil," but it'll be interesting to see how the relationship between the principals and Goodman's character develops.

[montag813]

he's playing Hastert..has that kind of dark look about him...

Huh? Denny Hastert has nothing but a sweet, puppy-dog appearance.

[LibertarianInExile]

People have said the objective is to make Republicans look bad. Not in the way they think.

The objective is to blame 'Republicans' for the ratings death of WW, so that the f$%#wads running the networks don't have to tolerate a regular Republican character on tv (UNLESS it's a caricature that will be bitchslapped down by the left or give up being Republican to 'do the right thing' every episode--think Alex P. Keaton). Their idea is now to point to Goodman's character and say "see, they hated HIM even MORE. Musta been the right that turned them off."