i just got off the phone with a.j. macinerney.
the president's pissed as hell, susan. that letter was a stupid move.
this isn't the guy who needed us four years ago, susan. he's incredibly popular. he's gonna win re-election in a walk, and he could give a shit what we stand by! if the president passes the most important piece of environmental legislation in history, and does it despite our negative endorsement, our political weight in the future will rank somewhere below the save the spotted owl society. i'm bringing in some help.
not an environmental expert, a professional political strategist. we're playing hardball with andrew shepherd, and we need a heavy bat.
sydney ellen wade.
she's a closer, susan. she gets the job done.
so there i was, thinking maybe i should give sydney a call. she's new in town, doesn't know many people.
then i picked up the times--
what's going on?
did you sleep with him?
did you sleep--
yeah, it is, sydney.
because when it's the president, it's not personal. sydney, i hired your reputation. i hired a pit bull, not a prom queen.
it's incredibly unfair. but you've spent a lot of time over the year telling me the trouble with the environmental lobby is that we don't understand the fundamental truth that politics is perception. this is a bad time to develop ignorance.
am i? this is your time, sydney. you're sitting at the grown-ups' table. you have a chance to get everything you want -- run a national campaign, be a major player inside the party. but this relationship had better go all the way, because with the leader of the free world there is no halfway. politics is perception, and if thing don't work out, the amount of time it'll take you to go from being a hired gun to a cocktail party joke can be clocked with an egg timer.
the white house has sent me something perishable?
here we go.
of course it's from him.
what is it. what is it?
a ham?
there's never an egg timer around when you need one.