Remember that show, The West Wing, which was a show about terrible libtards talking very fast while they raced through underground tunnels? Ugh. (Maybe we are just bitter because Aaron Sorkin’s next venture, Matthew Perry’s Variety Hour For Humorless Liberals, was so awful it poisoned everything associated with him. ) ANYHOW, Jimmy Smits was apparently on this show in its waning year(s?), playing a simulacrum of hopeful ethnic Democratic nominee Barack Obama, while Alan Alda got stuck with the McCain role. MORE »

It says something about NBC’s fortunes that our first reaction to a friend’s IM: “do you still keep up with the west wing?” was, “hey, i write about the white house every day!” But it turns out that show about the alternate Clinton reality is still on. And still trying very hard to “rip from headlines.” Case in point, continued our correspondent, was last night’s episode, in which the Jimmy Smits character — according to Television without Pity — went to console the family of a black child shot by a Latino cop, during which he “throws out his planned speech and just says what is in his heart.” A character on the West Wing did that? No fucking way. Anyhow, our LA operative* points out that

the writers seem to have no concept of the actual boundaries of god’s country…lapd and the mayor of the los angeles would not be responsible for a family living in inglewood, california which NOT AT ALL REMOTELY IN LOS ANGELES. It’s like Bloomberg going to settle race riots in Newark. So annoying.

Oh, people in Washington know a little about having people you didn’t elect condescend them. It is annoying. Also: A TV show getting a factual detail wrong? No fucking way. MORE »

• Washington Whispers: Dee Dee Myers‘ new book is titled “Why Women Should Rule the World”. . . Union Pacific designs a special locomotive for George H.W. Bush. . . Women represent 14% of Sunday talk guests. . . Ex-CIA operative turned author threatens to sue agency for holding up his tell-all book. [USN&WR]
• Inside the Beltway: Tomorrow night lawmakers will be treated to a special screening of “Good Night, and Good Luck” in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building. [WT]
• Cindy Adams: Bush has reportedly been watching reruns of “The West Wing.” [NYP]
• Page Six: Buchanan’s American Conservative magazine puts New Orleans drag queen on its cover. [NYP]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: U2’s The Edge pays $11,000 for a Bill Clinton lunchbox. [NYDN]

Bush as in the president and not — oh, nevermind! If there’s one thing the new ABC series Commander in Chief has got covered it’s spotlighting the executive ovaries, even if they are meant to be made of steel. (Angela Merkel may ask what Bavarian hometown an underling’s from, but there’s absolutely no fruit baskets or pleasantries about the kids until unemployment is history.) MORE »