The West Wing

Tonight's episode was pretty entertaining but in some ways annoying. The triangle of CJ having to decide between spending $10 billion doing good, spending two years working with the new Santos adminsitration or spending her time with Danny made for some interesting TV.

What bothered me was how the $.50 gas tax that just got thrown in. The show made it seem like CJ has the power to just throw new taxes into the budget when she feels the urge. Sure later on she explains that Bartlett was just trying to do something so outrageous that it would make it easier for Santos to pass his budget. However, when pressed by Santos - CJ admitted that the gas tax was her idea and that she spent less than 20 minutes convincing the President to go for it.

Talk about capricious. It took 20 minutes to decide on something that could wreck the economy faster than you can say "Jimmy Carter". I've said it before - the show was at its peak when it focused on dialog and character interaction. This episode tried to get back to its roots but then throwing in issues like a gas tax (torn from today's headlines is Law & Order's thing) just drags the show down.