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June 10, 2003
West Wing's speaker not the real deal
Beacon News Online
Who would have thought it?
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, a Republican from right here in Illinois, is now president.
It's true! I saw it happen on TV. Maybe you saw it, too. The president invoked the 25th Amendment, and ceded power to the speaker of the house.
Now, before all you friends and acquaintances of Yorkville's own Denny Hastert deluge the White House with e-mails and phone calls, note that I did NOT say it was Hastert who became President. I said an Illinois Republican who is speaker of the house.
While that sounds tantalizing close to real life, it is actually in the fictional world created by The West Wing, NBC's acclaimed drama about life inside the Beltway. The season-ending episode recently had the speaker taking over as leader of the free world after President Josiah Bartlet's daughter is kidnapped. President Bartlet invoked Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows the president to step down and temporarily hand over the duties of the presidency to the next in line; usually the vice president.
But in West Wing world, the VP just resigned in scandal, and the speaker is next.
As the season ended, people saw dramatic low angle camera shots from the waist down of the Secret Service leading the speaker to the White House. In the final scene, the camera moves upward to reveal the speaker is played by — John Goodman! He accepts the president's transfer order, and ends the scene by telling the president, "You are dismissed."
It was at that point when the show aired a few weeks ago that Brad Hahn, press secretary for the REAL speaker of the house, yelped at the TV.
"Denny would never handle it like that," Hahn said.
Still, Hahn admitted he has gotten many questions from people about the episode, about what Hastert thinks, about whether the television speaker is supposed to be the real life speaker.
Like any drama based on real-life, characters on The West Wing have similarities to real-life characters. Presidential press secretary C.J. Craig obviously has elements of Dee Dee Myers, Bill Clinton's first press secretary, who has served as a consultant for the show.
The entire show, in fact, is built around the way the West Wing worked when Clinton was president. Consequently, the show holds much more favor, it seems, with Democrats than Republicans.
Hahn chuckled when he admitted that as a regular watcher of the show, he probably is a rarity among Republicans. And that includes Denny.
"I doubt he watches it," Hahn said.
Which means Hahn has never heard a word from Hastert about whether he not he likes the way the Hollywood speaker is portrayed.
The West Wing Web site at NBC.com even links with Hastert's Web site, as a reference for people to get more information about the speaker of the house. And with John Goodman now portraying the speaker, they share another similarity besides being Illinois Republicans: their, um, physique. In fact, Hahn said he thinks that reason alone is why some people say the West Wing speaker was designed to mirror the real thing.
"But there was nothing about that character that in any way resembles Denny Hastert," Hahn said. "Denny has made a reputation as a person who gets along with people. That character made people uncomfortable."
Well, Brad, don't feel bad. According to Internet fan sites of The West Wing, fans of the show don't like John Goodman as the speaker, either.
Listen to this comment from one fan: "John Goodman? Get serious. This was a great episode until that happened. If they needed a big arrogant Republican type guy, there are much better choices! Somebody like Brian Dennehy, maybe?"
As Denny already knows from his line of work, everybody's a critic.
06/02/03
Posted by Jo at June 10, 2003 08:32 PM