At one time, TWW was "must-see" TV for me, discussion boards and all. And then there was this one episode where CJ tells off this diplomatic attache from some African country and Leo backs her up (instead of firing her ass) and I was like, "Whaaa?" You're a press secretary - you don't get to disrespect representatives of other countries! They always had staffers dealing with issues of policy; like, why is the Presidential speechwriter negotiating funding for ... oh, I give up. In many ways, it was such a smart show, but the shortcuts it took undermined its intelligence.That's one of the areas where The West Wing fails at realism. It tends to give to the President's White House staff questions that would actually be decided by Cabinet members.