Manchester II
Bartlet: Look, I'm sorry. I can't get into our thing tonight.
Abbey: Two days ago you said you had a lot to say.
Bartlet: I do, that's why I can't get into it.
Josh: I know I could stop this thing. One phone call. The President's not even involved. “Could you do us a favor? Could you hold off two weeks? We love your drug but we don't want it folded into our news cycle.” I could have picked up the phone. I could have…
Donna: Josh…
Josh: God!
Donna: What's this about?
Josh: I blew the tobacco thing. That could have helped us, and I was… This is going to be a very close election.
Ways and Means
Leo: This estate repeal out of committee is gonna be a thing.
Bruno: I've got another thing.
On the Day Before
Josh: I got away with this thing, but you should really learn how to tie a bow tie.
Donna: Or you could.
The Butterball Hotline
Toby: Four million people became poor on the President's watch?
Sam: They didn't become poor, they were poor already. And now we're…calling them poor.
Toby: What was wrong with the old formula?
Sam: I don't know.
Toby: Find out.
Sam: It's possible that this is a statistical reality and not a political finding.
Toby: Well, get with someone at OMB and find out what was wrong with the statistical reality of the old formula. Do it today.
Sam: Yeah.
Toby: It's like when they did the thing with the SAT scores and I got dumber 20 years after I went to college.
Toby: Before anything else, I was hoping I could impose on you for as much information as you can spare about making a turkey.
Bartlet: This is some pre-emptive psychological thing?
Toby: Yeah.
The Women of Qumar
Josh: The UN treaty…Vienna…if we have to make a to-do about it being “forced prostitution”, isn't there a chance it can be spun that we're condoning prostitution?
CJ: Yeah.
Josh: How much of a chance?
CJ: It'll happen.
Josh: Cause Amy'll make it happen.
CJ: Yeah.
Josh: Well, this is a whole new thing then.
Sam: Anticipating this might become a thing, I wanted to float the idea of a national seatbelt law.
Amy: Josh. Why did you come here?
Josh: To tell you about the thing.
Bartlet for America
Leo: All right, listen. I gotta be here; I'm stuck with this thing. Will you stay with Josh today?
Mike Casper: Yeah.
Margaret [holding out a cell phone]: Josh.
Leo: And can you do me a favor and get me a secure phone hookup so I can monitor this thing? All I got is the cell.
Cliff Calley: This is bush league. This is why good people hate us. This, right here, this thing. This isn't what these hearings are about. He cannot possibly have been properly prepared by counsel for these questions, nor should he ever have to answer them publicly. And if you proceed with this line of questioning, I will resign this committee and wait in the tall grass for you, Congressman, because you are killing the party.
Congressman Gibson [turning to Committee Chairman]: Who the hell is this?
H. Con 172
Sam: Listen, how's it going with the thing?
Toby: My chapters?
Sam: Yeah.
Toby: I'm done.
Sam: And?
Toby: I'm fine with it.
Sam: What do you mean?
Toby: I'm fine with it.
Sam: So you're saying it's all true?
Toby: No, hardly any of it's true.
Sam: Then it's not true.
Toby: Well, my name is Toby Ziegler and I'm the Communications Director, although there's a typo in “communications” at one point. Perhaps…perhaps…perhaps I mumble from time to time. But prickly? I do not think so. Nonetheless, I'm fine with it.
100,000 Airplanes
Josh: Totally your fault.
Toby: I'm just, you know…I'm just the guy who does the thing.
Josh: What?
CJ: Lisa mentioned that it wasn't going that well tonight. You've still got a couple of weeks with her.
Sam: Yeah, I wish we hadn't started tonight.
CJ: Why? It was a shining moment.
Sam: It got the job done. But it's ironic that a thing, a sort of thing between us is - I'm supposed to know the difference between flash and substance.
The Two Bartlets
Government Guy: Look, when you get back on the phone with them, we'd like you to stand a little tougher.
Josh: Excuse me?
Govt Guy: I said we'd like you to stand…
Josh: Then you get on the phone with them.
Govt Guy: Look, we…
Josh: This isn't a hostage situation, it's a legitimate protest.
Govt Guy: One where…
Josh: You're free…excuse me sir…you're free to arrest them or shoot them, but we won't because it's bad politics. Let's just remember what the thing is here.
Night Five
Ainsley: There's a thing in this we need to be careful of.
Sam: What?
Ainsley: They say they'll approve a new scale of peacekeeping assessments if there's a cost-sharing mechanism, but it isn't fully addressed here. You're going to want me to rewrite some of this language before the President goes to the UN.
Ainsley: The point is that sexual revolution tends to get in the way of actual revolution. Nonsense issues distract attention from real ones: pay equity, child care, honest-to-God sexual harassment, and in this case, a speech in front of the UN General Assembly. [to Sam] So, you…25% of the assessments for Category A. [to Charlie] You, I don't know what your thing is. [to Celia] And you, stop trying to take the fun out of my day.
Andy: Toby…you guys are on a thing right now, and I'm behind you. You know I'm behind you. A lot of House Democrats are…
Toby: Not enough.
Andy: …and plenty of Republicans. But this one moment in time, you have to get off your horse and just…simply put, be nice to the Arab world.
Dead Irish Writers
Lord Marbury: Brendan McGann cannot visit the White House.
Bartlet: Look, obviously you knew this was going to be a thing, but it doesn't have to be tonight, right?
Lord Marbury: No, absolutely not. I shall take it up with Gerald.
Chuck Kane: Listen, uh, you've still got my number, right? About the thing?
Josh: Yeah.
Chuck [to Amy]: Nice meeting you.
Josh: Good seeing you, Chuck.
Amy: “About the thing”? You guys pulling a heist?
The U.S. Poet Laureate
Tabatha Fortis: I was thinking - if I could get a few minutes alone with the President so that I could tell him what I saw in Banja Luka…then it wouldn't have to be a thing, you know, at the dinner….
Stirred
Josh: They're zeroing out the Technology Challenge Fund.
Sam: That's the Vice President's thing.
The Black Vera Wang
Sam: I'm sorry about the thing.
Kevin Kahn: What thing?
Sam: The open mike.
Kahn: I'm not talking about that.
Sam: I think you are.