"Previously on Political Animals..." "You gave T.J. money for that nightclub, didn't you?" "I thought that if he had something that he was proud of that... he could stay clean this time." "We had a deal." "We had a deal, and you can't even go..." "Stop." "What's the point, huh?" "...one day without getting high." "I am considering running for president again." "It's crucial nothing leaks out before we're ready." "Nobody takes me seriously." "You want to be taken seriously?" "Take yourself seriously." "This is how it works, Douglas." "You help me by giving me everything I need to know about your mother's plan." "I owe you now." "Those of us in the Republican Caucus are united, and we'll camp out in the House Chambers over Christmas if we have to, but we're not gonna make the American people pay for a huge new entitlement" "they don't want." "What a putz." "I think he's very attractive." "Yeah, he is." "And he's smart, too." "Graduated summa cum laude from Stanford." "How do you know that?" "He had that spread in Vanity Fair." ""Best abs on the Hill," or something like that." "If only his political opinions were as toned as his six pack." "Eight pack." " Is that even possible?" " Yep." "Oh, yeah, sweetheart." "You know, it doesn't take a summa from Stanford to see that child poverty in this country is a tragedy." "That douche bag Reeves is the worst." "I'm not Garcetti's biggest fan, but it shows how truly screwed up this country is when a first-termer like Sean Reeves can just stick his finger in the eye of the President." "As far as I'm concerned, he can put it wherever he wants." "T.J., look at this." "Do you remember?" "You made this in, uh," "Ms. Bea's third grade art class." "I've got to get going." "But we just got started." "I have the N.A. meeting." "Okay." "I am so proud of what you're doing." "I love you, Mama." "I love you, too." "I love it when you play." "God, I can't stay." "We reconvene in an hour." "Still deliberating?" "What are you holding on for?" "The bill goes way too far." "It gives municipalities carte blanche to take kids away from their parents without enough judicial review-- that's child endangerment, not child protection." "Either you just made me want to switch parties, or have sex again." "Well, there'll be plenty of time for that." "We could be here through Christmas..." "My wife." "She's pretty." "Bet you and her were king and queen of the prom." "Oh, God, no." "We were nerds." "Couple of corn-fed, football loving Methodists." "Was it love at first sight?" "I didn't know what love at first sight was... till you." "Flirting with me at a grocery store." "You were shameless..." "I had a wedding ring on." "Extra point." "Besides..." "I knew you were checking me out." "Don't you have to leave?" "Uh-uh." "They can start without me." "Last December... that's the last time I was really happy." "Six months clean." "Longest period of time I'd gone without using since I was a kid in the White House." "The fishbowl, you know?" "As they call it..." "The bubble around the President's family." "All the eyes, the judgments, the expectations... made me feel very alone." "My twin brother could handle it, but me, not so much." "So... booze, weed, pills... made me feel a lot better." "And then I found coke." "And then everything fell by the wayside." "So my life's... been pretty much a blur." "Highs... and lows." "Mostly lows." "I know there's no cure for this thing, but there's recovery." "Good share, man." "I didn't know you had kids." "It's my sister's place." "I just locked her in her bedroom." "Figuratively." "She's infatuated with you." "Remember when you were on the cover of People?" "She had that taped to her mirror for way too long." "You live with your sister?" "It's temporary." "Don't ask, okay?" "So... the run for the White House." "Right." "You do all the asking." "Catch me up on the campaign." "Fundraising, your father's potential involvement" "What campaign?" "In the last three weeks we've flown over 25,000 miles, crossed every time zone." "My mother's schedule has included almost everything except campaigning for the Presidency." "Well, that was exciting." "Can we go home now?" "Is Garcetti finished keeping me on ice?" "Our primary strategy... three days after we touch down, we will be up and running." "I'll start rounding up high-level donors, give us the leverage to jump into the primaries on our own schedule." "Wow." "Let's go home." "I'll need that list of donors." "And about your father, was it your decision to hire him a publicist?" "Mindy Meyers." "Word is she was brought in to help rehabilitate his image as a reckless womanizer." "Let's be honest, there's only one..." "Elaine Barrish." "And she was and she still is the love of my life." "Next question." "If half my clients stuck to the script like that," "I would be one happy publicist." "You got so choked up, misty-eyed." "Who knew you had it in you?" "Mark my words, Mr. President, there will be a tear bump." "A "tear bump?" Christ sakes." "I'm the man who looked the Russians in the eye, and convinced them to get rid of 5,000 nuclear warheads." "About your son's club opening this weekend..." "you're not going." "I have to be there for him." "And one picture of some drunk coed with her arm draped around you, and everything we've worked for goes to shit." "Now it is your job to be a good, little boy, Mr. President." "And it's my job to show the world what a good boy you can be." "So is your father going?" "To your brother's club opening?" "Of course." "Whole family's going." "You don't think that's bad press waiting to happen?" "T.J.'s under supervision." "I got him a 24-hour chaperone to keep him on the level." "Who's keeping you on the level through all this?" "Anne." "My fiancée." "She's, uh, a real trooper." "She must be." "She agreed to sit down with Georgia Gibbons to do a puff piece on her company." "Georgia is the journalist..." "I know who she is." "Look, I will hold my nose, and slip you a few political details, but stop prying into my family life." "That wasn't part of our deal." "Yeah..." ""Somebody has to put our family first, we can't take another run."" ""Full access" means full access." "Unless you want me to tell your mother how you betrayed her by coming to me in the first place." "You need the full story or else you already would have run the scoop." "Why you want it so badly, Ms. Berg," "I don't know, and I don't care." "Now what I do know is whatever deal we have, whatever this is... you need me as much as I need you." "♪ After all God can keep my soul ♪" "♪ But don't ever give me up ♪" "♪ I could never get back up ♪" "♪ When the future ♪" "♪ Starts so slow... ♪" "At 10:16this morning, Zulu time," "Naval Station Coronado intercepted an emergency distress call from the Chinese nuclear submarine" "Gui-Lin." "The signal faded quickly, and 38 seconds later, the station's hydrophones heard this..." "She bottomed out." "Hard. 13 nautical miles off San Diego." "Not surprising really." "The Chinese are spying on us every way they can." "How many men aboard?" "About 100, sir." "So 100 men are trapped in a sub at the bottom of the ocean, getting slowly cooked by nuclear radiation?" "So good to have you back, Elaine." "The whole country just about fell apart while you were overseas." "Forget the crew." "It's San Diego we should be worried about." "How fast can the Chinese dispatch a rescue?" "In all likelihood, they won't." "The distress call was sent from depth." "It makes the signal weak." "Such that we can hear it 13 miles away, but the Chinese can't." "And even if they did..." "Chinese can't send surface ships that close to our shores without giving themselves away." " We have to tell them." " Tell them?" "In hell." "We wait." "Getting our hands on that sub will be a major victory for counter-espionage." "We are talking about 100 of their men dying slowly from radiation poisoning, and you think letting that happen is the proper course of action here?" " Elaine..." " Ethics aside, the Chinese are the world's second superpower." "Our relationship with them is the key global partnership of this century." "Now their boys are in trouble and we know about it." "I'm sure they'd appreciate a heads up." "Thank you, sir." "Elaine, you run back channel on this, but be cautious." "You'll be telling them we know they were spying." "Who are you?" "I'm, uh, Gunner Cox." "T.J.'s sober partner." "Oh." "Keeping him on the straight and narrow." "Hmm." "In my day we'd call you a party pooper." "This place is amazing." "It's like it's right out of a magazine or something." "That's because it's right out of a magazine." "Oh, this is..." "Gunner." "Please to meet you." "It's very reassuring to us that you're here." "Ooh." "I'm all right." "Sorry, my phone's been on fire with the opening night." "Okay, so here's the plan." "We're all gonna convene here and shuttle over to the club together." "We'll do the whole red carpet thing, and then we'll have dinner around 10:00." "First of all, Mother and I don't eat at 10:00." "There's not enough Maalox in the whole world." "Which is why I spoke to Martin." "So he's gonna set up a buffet here for everybody." "Oh, Jesus." "Sorry, I got to get this." "Things fall apart when I'm not there!" "Hello." "That is a whole lot of pep." "What's going on?" "Fred said he needed me." "We might have had a breakthrough on the House vote." "The Child Protection Bill." "I thought that was dead." "Uh, could you folks, uh, give me and the secretary a moment?" "Yes, Mr. Vice President." "Elaine, have a seat, please." "Uh, look, uh, we're gonna get the votes, uh, just not the way we wanted." "We're gonna turn Sean Reeves, who turns a dozen other Republicans our way." "How?" "Well, uh, it would seem that the congressman from Ohio is a... homosexual, and neither his constituents nor his wife would react very well to that news." "Fred, your tactics disgust me." "When the president hears about this..." "Please." "You think he doesn't know?" "Look, it just dropped in our lap, and you know they'd do the same to us if they had us by the short hairs." "We're supposed to be better than they are." "Our party has been trying to pass a bill like this for two decades!" "You have a lot of your own blood, sweat and tears in it." "And I'm keeping my distance now." "You're already involved." "Congressman Reeves is having an affair with your son," "Thomas." "I know your son has had some problems in the past." "Hate for him to get caught in some kind of scandal, not that it has to come to that." "I just, uh..." "Thought you should know." "Li Bao." "Madam Secretary." "So good to see you." "Forgive me for putting you out of a job for just a few minutes, but my old friend and I speak several languages, and it's fun to practice them." "Yes, it is." "And then you say, uh, "It sounds better in English."" "You must let sleeping dogs lie." "Always so good to see you, Madam Secretary." "Your trip was very much appreciated." "This is the first time I've seen you nervous." "Who are you trying to impress?" "You, Gunner." "I've been hot and bothered all day thinking about your balls tickling my thigh." "So, listen, can you just park it out in the car for a few?" "Calm down." "It's not..." "I'm gonna do blow in the lobby of the Wrigley." "Jesus." "How long has it been going on?" "Six months." "He's married, T.J." "I know that, Mom." "So, what were you thinking?" "I wasn't thinking anything." "It just kind of happened." "You're gonna let them do this?" "Come after us like some kind of witch hunt?" "I think what they're doing is the lowest form of politics, but the congressman created this situation for himself." "It's-it's not a situation." "Whatever it is, you have to stop it." "No." "Yes." "Because if you think coming out in the White House was tough..." "Oh, don't." "...wait till the press gets a hold of this." "They will string you up for every right-wing weirdo in the country." "Right." "That's the last thing you need right now." "This is 'cause Sean's a Republican." "How about that?" "Oh, come on!" "If he was a hot young Democrat congressman they were after..." "That's ridiculous." "...you would have destroyed them." "You are having an affair with a closeted married man." "That is what concerns me." "You don't know him." "He's trapped in his marriage, in his life." "He's gonna leave her." "He's a politician." "If he was going to leave her, he would have done it." "This is my territory." "I was married to your father, remember?" "I'm in love with him, Mom." "I never thought this was gonna happen to me." "I feel like a different person when we're together." "And I haven't been high in six months." "Not even an aspirin." "You are tying your sobriety to this asshole." "You are in so much trouble." "Then help us." "You can't let them threaten him like this." "You got to stop them." "Oh, come on." "I'm..." "I'm sorry." "I can't, and I won't." "You're the most important woman in the world, and you can't help me?" "!" "I'm trying to help you." "That is what I'm doing." "You just can't see it!" "T.J!" "T.J.?" "Sean." "Hi." "Wow." "Oh." "Uh, you..." "You look... great." "Thank you." "Yeah." "Hey, I, um..." "I heard some things." "I was a little concerned." "Total rumors." "Well, mostly." "Yeah, well, I-I wish we could talk more, but..." "No." "I'm slammed, too." "I'm opening a nightclub." "Oh, you know, I, um..." "I read about that." "You should come." "Yeah, I'd-I'd like that." "I'll..." "I'll have my secretary call for details." "I always knew you'd be running this town one of these days." "Listen, thanks for trying, Elaine." "We've done everything we can." "We can rescue them ourselves..." "The president's decided to respect the wishes..." "We can't just give up on a hundred lives." "Spare us the morality talk when you're plotting a coup d'état." "A what?" "Come on." "You're planning to unseat us." "It's been obvious since you forced the president's hand on Iran just to rehabilitate your philandering husband." "My ex-husband, Fred, and I don't have to stand here and listen to this crap." "You think we don't know about his little trip to Jubal Jacobs?" "Now he's on TV blubbering like a baby?" "Come on, Elaine." "We're not idiots." "Well..." "I thought you might have the decency to resign first, but no." "You want to attack us from inside the gates." "It's sedition." "What Fred is responding to is the idle chatter around town, so I'll chalk up his accusation to loyalty to you." "It's out of the same loyalty that I am here reminding you of how strongly you feel about saving these men." "Well, I'm glad that's settled." "Your loyalty." "Listen, Elaine, it's done." "Those boys are now a Chinese problem." "And if they're dropping it," "I think we should, too." "All my experience was in Southern California..." "Mm-hmm." "...so it... it took me a while to adjust to Washington's more traditional aesthetic." "Right." "Well, D.C. is certainly discovering you." "You were just hired by RG3, the Redskins' rookie quarterback." "8,600 square feet to be completed by the fall and the start of the NFL season." "How would that conflict with your fiancé's schedule?" "Oh, he already works all the time." "Yeah." "His hours as his mother's chief of staff must be pretty grim, huh?" "Yeah." "The campaign's only gonna make it worse, right?" "Times ten." "So, will your wedding take place before or after the formal announcement?" "What announcement?" "Elaine's campaign for president?" "Which you just said will make Douglas even busier." "Would you like to see my designs for Robert's home theater?" "No, I want to talk about how your future mother-in-law plans to run for president in the Democratic primary." "I shouldn't have said..." "whatever I said." "Uh, I would like to make that off the record." "That's not how it works." "You have to call "off-the-record"" "before you say something." "But don't worry." "No one will find out." "I won't use your name... if you just nod "yes" or "no" when I ask a simple question." "Okay." "Has Elaine Barrish discussed with her family her intentions to run for president in the upcoming primary?" "She got it on record?" "Look, she tricked me, Douglas." "I didn't even know what I was saying until I'd already said it." "But it's on record?" "Look, I..." "I tried to take it back, okay?" "I should have never talked to her." "Your mom's gonna hate me even more than she already does." "My mother does not hate, you, okay, and this is not your fault, Annie." "It's that bottom feeder's." "Listen, hey." "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey." "I know how to fix it." "You do?" "Mm-hmm." "Now, go get ready for T.J.'s opening, and please put on that sexy, green dress that makes me want to tear it off you." "Where are you?" "My apartment." "Nice elephants." "Thanks." "Listen..." "Sure you don't want to give me the full Skype tour?" "Georgia got Anne to spill the beans about my mother's run for the White House." "Jesus, Douglas!" "I warned you." "Georgia ambushed her, okay?" "It was a very sophisticated line of questioning." "Georgia doesn't even know how to spell sophisticated." "Well, it's done, okay?" "And now you need to stop it, or else, we're both screwed." "Make yourself at home, Bud." "I'm here for T.J.'s dinner." "Whoa." "Admiral Taft was right." "You look fantastic for a woman who's just been around the world, not to mention getting called into the sit room your first day back." "Yeah, I just assumed." "No, why else would you be rubbing elbows with the commander of the Pacific fleet?" "You know the rules, Bud." "Heard you paid a visit to the Chinese embassy, too." "I saw the DCM." "Oh, a back-channel meeting between the Chinese DCM and the American secretary of state." "Whatever is going on must be as delicate as an ass pimple." "Please tell me we didn't sink one of their ships." "We didn't sink one of their ships." "But one of their ships went down." "So, the only reason a downed Chinese vessel would matter-- if it was close to our waters." "Chinese got a downed sub near our shore." "Holy son of a bitch." "You are something." "God forbid one of their sons was stuck down there." "Crew's still alive?" "Not for long." "Baking in nuclear radiation." "And Garcetti won't lift a greasy finger." "This is perfect." "To get your campaign out of the barn, you need a reason to leave that administration." "All right, now, with Elaine Barrish in charge," "America is a country that saves lives, even if they are Chinese." "Now, that could be the narrative of your exit." "No, it can't." "The situation is classified, Bud." "Yeah, well, these things have a way of leaking out." "No one can know about this," "Bud, I mean it, and you've done enough leaking for this week." "Oh, you saw that, huh?" "Honestly, I can't remember the last time I saw you cry." "Who is she-- this flack you must have hired?" "No man alive could get you to cry on national television." "Has to be a woman, obviously someone you're sleeping with." "Mindy Meyers." "Ah, she swears I'll get a bump out of it." "Bud, first rule of D.C.-- never hire anyone from L.A." "Is this because Jubal said you can't be involved in my campaign?" "No, it doesn't matter what the polls say." "We're still divorced." "We always had our ups and downs." "Are you that desperate to get back in the White House?" "I told you" "I wasn't giving up on you, and I will follow you wherever you go, Sugar." "T.J. will be home soon." "Congratulations." "Anne Ogami." "It's an angle no one else thought to take." "Good work." "How do you know about that?" "I'm deep inside the Hammond camp." "Have been for weeks." "What I hear you have is too thin to run." "I have enough, Susan." "See, that's the problem." "It's my story, not yours." "I have a prior claim." "I'm, I'm light-years ahead of you." "Now, if that were true, you'd have published already." "Journalism is about quality, not speed." "People come to this paper, they read at length about something important to American political life." "Takes 'em all of breakfast to get through it, and when they're done, they are better informed citizens of a democracy." "300,000 people read this paper." "When I post, I'll get ten million direct views." "Elaine Barrish is running, and I broke it." "And you'll be a blogger who broke a headline, not a journalist who reported a story." "You'll get views, of course, but neither you nor this paper will get an ounce of prestige from it." "A story takes effort, time." "It takes reporting." "Look, I can include the Anne stuff in my piece." "You'll have contributed." "I'll have contributed to your glory maybe." "That's not good enough." "There is nothing to stop me from running this story right now." "I'll get Alex to give you an additional reporting credit." "No." "You'll bring me in on it completely." "No way." "You teach me the longer game, and when we publish, we split the credit 50-50." "I get half the byline." "That's not going to happen." "So you'd rather" "I just upload that tonight, then?" "Tell you what." "Saturday's dead for traffic." "I'm much better off posting this first thing Monday morning." "Anne, be careful getting out of the limo 'cause those photographers love to get a beaver shot." "Thanks, Margaret." "You know," "I'd like to argue, but in fact she's probably right." "I am." "Would you make me another martini, please?" "Sure." "Mother." "Well, he's on payroll." "As a sober partner." "Happy to." "Just don't sen me for oxycodone." "That was my beast." "Oh, charming." "Chill it till my teeth hurt, huh?" "Guys, I just, um..." "I just want to tell you guys how much tonight means to me." "I know you all had doubts, but..." "I really feel like this is the beginning of a whole new, good chapter of my life, so..." "About tonight, son, I'm afraid I can't go." "Mindy Meyer got you crying on Letterman tonight?" "Well, this has nothing do with her." "I wouldn't anymore attend this thing than I'd watch someone toss a baby seal into the jaws of an orca." "Bud." "That's about as much chance as T.J. has, keeping straight in a nightclub." "Tell me, when did you decide to write me off?" "You have a serious problem, son, and you just keep adding fuel to the fire." "Oh, well, maybe if I was a pussy-hound like you, then I'd get a little compassion." "You never believed in me." "Ever since I came out, ever since..." "Oh, w-what?" "You think I care who you sleep with?" "T.J. you could have married your childhood sweetheart and done it missionary style for 50 years." "You'd still be an addict." "Okay, Bud, you've made your point." "You are not going." "Now, if you'd just stuck with the piano..." "With this club, I finally have something that's mine." "Yours?" "You couldn't squeeze the money from me or your mama, so you went running to Dougie." "So much for our little secret?" "I did not say anything, I swear to you." "Could I just say something?" "Oh, Jesus." "Bad idea, sweetie." "Now, these past three weeks," "T.J. has been really committed to his sobriety and he's doing an excellent job with the club." "I think you guys would be really impressed to see the guest list that are coming tonight, and it's all because of your son." "Well, and who, pray tell?" "Henry Kissinger, Desmond Tutu?" "Bud." "Um, what's-his-name" " from The Voice, uh, the congressman from Ohio." " No, oh, Gunn-- oh, no." "Sean Reeves?" "Yeah, that-that's him." "Really?" "That's what all this is about?" "That's why you're buzzing 100 million miles an hour?" "Are you two together?" "Of course not." "Just let me explain." "I..." "No, I think this once I agree with your father." "Going tonight is a really terrible idea." "Wow, you, you always manage to abandon me when I need you the most." "When did this become my fault?" "He's the one who cheated on his wife behind her back." "He's the one who said he loved you and then disappeared when it got tough." "I'm the one who found you barely alive." "I hope you're not expecting me to thank you for that." "Because I never will." "All right, well, I think it's time that we all head out." "No, no, no, no, stay, all of you." "No one really gives a shit." "Come on." "Every time" "I have stood by and lifted you up and made excuses for you, and it hasn't worked, not once." "I'm done, sweetheart." "I am spent." "I hope tonight is a huge success." "Holy shit." "Just stay out of any TV shot, okay?" "Okay." "How could they do this-- your mother's cronies?" "This is my life, my career, anything I've ever cared anything about." "I mean, God, they're destroying everything." "Sean, I know it sucks, but this is an opportunity for you to finally b-be free." "There's no more sneaking around, no more being hidden." "Hey," "I know, I know this is a scary thing." "I went through the same thing." "Oh, come on." "You came out as a kid." "You weren't blackmailed into it." "You had your, your mother, your father, the whole country rallying around your courage." "You think this country is gonna applaud me for breaking my wife's heart, huh, for lying to everyone?" "You can do this, Sean, I promise." "We can do this together." "Come here." "Don't touch me!" "Yeah, we had sex, T.J." "Big deal." "I was lonely, and, yeah, it felt good, especially if I kept my eyes closed and it was fine while it was happening, but I always left here feeling disgusted with myself." "No, y-y-you don't mean that." "I'm not like you, all right?" "I've got a life, a career." "I'm not some pathetic American punch line." "This life of yours-- or whatever you want to call it-- may be okay for you, but I want more." "If it ain't the man of the hour." "Good-looking on the VIP pass." "Please, you're my guest of honor." "All right." "But you been out of the game." "Might want to take it slow." "Georgia Gibbons won't back off the story." "She's determined to break your mother's run for the presidency." "Isn't she your second source?" "Not for the kind of reporting she does." "I'll have to run my story first-- not the piece" "I wanted, but at least it will appear in an actual newspaper." "What do I tell my mother?" "Tell her to draft her letter of resignation." "Otherwise, Garcetti's gonna read about it in the Globe." "That girl is smarter than she lets on." "She actually tried to bully me into sharing a byline." "And you said no?" "Uh, yeah." "Are you kidding me?" "You... you'd rather kill my mother's campaign than share a credit?" "You would be derailing a woman's first real shot at the presidency." "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself here?" "My mother can win." "Okay?" "I've seen how her numbers stack up against Garcetti's." "If you can just keep a lid on this long enough for us to build an organization." "Why would I do that?" "Because... you want her to win." "You want her to win!" "You could've killed her campaign weeks ago." "Because after all those years of tearing her down, she has finally become the politician that you want her to be." "Jesus, Douglas, I'm gonna blush." "You don't just want her to win for noble reasons." "You live with your sister." "Look at all you sacrifice for your career." "And for what?" "So that you could have some ancient Pulitzer collecting dust in the lobby of the Globe?" "Tell me you don't want a shiny new one to place right next to it." "You want it as bad as I want to be White House Chief of Staff, and like it or not, in order for our dreams to come true, my mother's have to come true first." "It's a rocket ship." "Come here, buddy." "It's way past your bedtime." "Do me a solid, okay?" "Okay." "Get your mommy to tuck you in?" "Okay." "Kiss?" "All right." "I love you." "Good night, Trevor." "Good night." "You want to talk to me?" "Come on in." "It's been obvious for some time that I am out of step with this administration." "And what happened today made that even more clear." "I am running against you." "I've reached out to a few donors and done some polling, and I will resign in 48 hours, after... we have saved those men together." "Elaine..." "The president who leaves those sailors on the ocean floor deserves to be dethroned, and you know that better than anybody." "The people chose you to lead this country, not Collier, not me." "You." "I ought to fire you right on the spot, you know that?" "You won't." "Knowing you're gonna run against me, that gives me a hell of an advantage, Elaine." "And don't for one minute think I won't use it." "Good." "I want you at your fighting weight when I thrash you." "Get Samson and her team up here, the Joint Chiefs and Admiral Taft." "Wake them up if you have to." "Don't you look dashing." "My boy's new club." "Tonight's the big red-carpet shindig." "I told you that was a bad idea." "Yeah, well... you also said there was gonna be a "tear bump," Mindy, and, uh, I saw those new favorability numbers that your office sent over, and they look a lot like my old numbers." "Bud, I can't help you if you're not gonna follow my advice." "Yeah, well..." "I wasn't planning on it anymore, so..." "I think we should call it quits, professionally..." "and personally." "Now, look, you're a doll, and I'm sure you're very good at what you do, but in my experience, the American people have a pretty good nose for sniffing out the truth, and... if I'm going to, uh... rehabilitate myself and lose my image as a womanizer," "it's best I stop being one first." "Sorry, hon." "That means you're off the menu." "Been looking all over for you." "Jesus, T.J." "Three weeks under your belt." "Ah..." "T.J." "T.J., come on," "I'm getting you out of here." "Oh, is that really what you want to do, Gunnie?" "Gunnie the druggie from Appalach-ey who stole his grandma's oxy to dull the trailer-park tedium?" "That's the last thing in the world that you want to do right now is leave." "That's just the drugs talking." "Is it?" "!" "I bet there's a hundred girls down there you'd give your left arm to sleep with, huh?" "This ain't no fairy tale, brother." "This is the real thing." "You don't have to turn back into some backwoods hick." "And I'm gonna need a right-hand man when this club takes off, but my guy can't be a boonie, he's got to be an A-lister." "So who do you want to be for the rest of your life," "Gunner?" "You want to be the guy who babysat T.J. Hammond until he got sober?" "Or do you want more?" "Congressman Reeves, how do you explain voting for a bill you and your party swore you'd block?" "Well, politics is all about compromise." "And thanks to compromise, 25 million impoverished children just got the Christmas gift they deserve." "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are two children in Akron who just asked Santa to bring their daddy home." "♪ Have yourself" "♪ A merry little Christmas" "♪ Let your heart" "♪ Be light" "♪ From now on" "♪ Our troubles" "♪ Will be out of sight" "♪ Here we are" "♪ As in olden days" "♪ Happy golden" "♪ Days of yore" "♪ Faithful friends" "♪ Who are dear to us" "♪ Gather near to us" "♪ Once more with Charles Lazlo sponsored by Fidelity Investments." "We witnessed some switching from the equity sector to the safe haven of the government bond market." "The Commerce Department's final reading on fourth-quarter GDP was..." "Because I love this newspaper and I will do everything in my power to postpone its demise," "I'll give in to your blackmail, as despicable as it is." "And I might have even done the same thing at your age." "I consider that a compliment." "I would've been wrong, too." "So... partners?" "If you want to share a byline with me, you better be ready to earn it." "Every word you type will be true." "Okay." "Show me your notes." "Hey, Gunner, where's my son?" "Where is my son!" "Sam!" "Find him!" "Oh, my God." "Oh, God." "Somebody help me!" "T.J...." "T.J..." "Sam!" "Sam, call an ambulance!" "Aw, geez..." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry, son."