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The central theme of this week's The West Wing was the effort by the President's senior staff to convince the President to call a special session of Congress to vote on a nuclear test band treaty. The staff apparently believed the special session was necessary, because the Congress had ended its session and the election year had changed the political dynamic in the new Congress; therefore, the new Congress probably would not have enough votes to pass the treaty. However, the staff believes that the President could win the vote in the special session with the votes of members who had lost re-election, and a successful vote hinges on the support of one particular Senator who had lost his re-election bid. As it turns out, that Senator did favor the President's position, but he would not vote in favor of a the test ban during a special session congress because ethically the Senator believed it was not good politics to do so, especially as he had already been voted out of office.

While the principal drama surrounding the effort to call a special session of Congress was playing out, the mini dramas included the fall-out of an editorial criticizing the internal management of the White House staff, an effort by Donna to make the White House focus on the issue of carpal tunnel syndrome and its effect on America's work force, and the antics of a visiting Ukrainian official that shows up at the White House drunk.

The editorial criticizing the management of the President's staff was right on point. With the real White House staff, access to the President is not as free as what is portrayed in the television show. In the show, we saw Leo, the Chief of Staff, informing the senior staff of a new internal policy that requires the staff, before any meeting with the President, to send memorandums that outline any topics for discussion to Leo for review. In the real White House, there is a senior staff position called the Staff Secretary who performs this task. The Staff Secretary is a senior aide and has offices in the West Wing. The principal job of the Staff Secretary is to organize all the paper work that goes to the President, including memorandum, correspondence, speeches, and legislation.

For example, when the President is scheduled to make a speech, a speechwriter in the Office of Communications writes the speech. An advance draft of the speech is given to the Staff Secretary's staff for review, to make sure the President's experts have time to comment on any issues addressed in the speech. Therefore, if the speech talks about the environment, the speech is sent to the President's aides that handle environmental issues for review and substantive comment. The Staff Secretary also works closely with the Executive Clerk's office at the White House to ensure that all legislation is signed, not signed, or vetoed in the time allocated by the Constitution.

Donna's campaign to highlight the issue of carpal tunnel syndrome was nagging at first, but ended up demonstrating another unique aspect of working in the White House. Donna attempted to make the argument that the White House was not in compliance with the Office of Safety and Heath Administration's rules on workplace safety. The Chief of Staff informed Donna that those rules do not apply to the White House and Congress. This is true; the White House and Congress are generally exempt from all workplace environment laws.

Finally, America can rest assured that the real West Wing staff does not waste taxpayer dollars dealing with drunken foreign officials. The drama regarding the drunk Ukrainian official simply would never occur. First, visiting foreign officials do not just show up at the White House. They are invited and escorted by the State Department. If the official is drunk, it is highly unlikely that the State Department would admit the official to the White House. Moreover, the official could never park their limo in front of the White House and refuse to move until meeting the President. The State Department and the Secret Service controls the movement of all vehicles transporting visiting officials.

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