History Characters / TheWestWing

* PutOnABus: Due to Rob Lowe leaving the series. [[spoiler:He's written out via a failed congressional bid.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: "Your staff likes to decorate their desks with ''hand lotion?"''
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Kenny, her interpreter. They've been working together for over a decade, and when his trustworthiness is called into question (by the ''President,'' no less!), Joey comes to his defense without hesitation, saying in no uncertain terms that trusting her means trusting Kenny, too.
* HideYourPregnancy: Averted. When Josh is enthusiastic about restarting their {{UST}} in a late-season episode, she walks into the room visibly pregnant.

* {{UST}}: With Josh, who tries to flirt with her in his [[{{Tsundere}} usual ineffective way]]. Donna is a ShipperOnDeck, but Joey doesn't pursue it because she can see Donna is in love with Josh.

* BerserkButton: People who claim to be knowledgeable but aren't really annoy him.

* {{Jerkass}}: Downplayed; while he's not without his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]], among the main characters he's the one who is most often hardest for others to like. His idealism, self-righteousness and perfectionism mean that he has high, exacting standards that he unapologetically expects others to meet no matter how impossible or impractical, his abrasiveness and lack of personal skills mean that he can be quite blunt and forthright when others fail to meet his standards, his sarcastic demeanor mean that his responses to their failures can be quite cutting and mean at times, and his disappointment with others failing to reach the potential he thinks they have mean that he otherwise spends most of his life in a dour mood.

* {{Jerkass}}: Downplayed; while he's not without his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]], among the main characters he's the one who is most often hardest for others to like. His idealism and perfectionism mean that he has high, exacting standards that he unapologetically expects others to meet no matter how impossible or impractical, his abrasiveness and lack of personal skills mean that he can be quite blunt and forthright when others fail to meet his standards, his sarcastic demeanor mean that his responses to their failures can be quite cutting and mean at times, and his disappointment with others failing to reach the potential he thinks they have mean that he otherwise spends most of his life in a dour mood.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Near the end of the series, he [[spoiler:leaks the existence of a military shuttle--a serious federal offense-- because he thinks Bartlet is dithering on using it to rescue astronauts from the crippled space station. He later admits that he also wanted to start a conversation about the militarization of space, which he personally opposes]][[note]]This was not received well. Many people claimed that it was completely out of character for Toby; Richard Schiff was extremely upset with this development, as well as the fanbase and even Aaron Sorkin, who wrote a letter to the actor expressing his sympathy for what happened to his character. Schiff later stated that he believes the writers intentionally kept the plot development from him right up until filming because they knew he would fight it, and that the only way he could reconcile it was coming up with his own backstory for the character's reasons for doing what he did: that [[spoiler: Toby was covering for someone else]].[[/note]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Downplayed; while he's not without his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]], among the main characters he's the one who is most often hardest for others to like. His idealism and perfectionism mean that he has high, exacting standards that he unapologetically expects others to meet no matter how impossible or impractical, his abrasiveness and lack of personal skills mean that he can be quite blunt and forthright when others fail to meet his standards, and his sarcastic demeanor mean that his responses to their failures can be quite cutting and mean at times.

* {{Jerkass}}: Downplayed; while he's not without his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]], among the main characters he's the one who is most often hardest for others to like. His idealism and perfectionism mean that he has high, exacting standards that he unapologetically expects others to meet no matter how impossible, his abrasiveness and lack of personal skills mean that he can be quite blunt and forthright when others fail to meet his standards, and his sarcastic demeanor mean that his responses to their failures can be quite cutting and mean at times.

* {{Jerkass}}: Downplayed; while he's not without his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]], among the main characters he's the one who is most often hardest for others to like. His idealism and perfectionism mean that he has high, exacting standards that he unapologetically expects others to meet, his abrasiveness and lack of personal skills mean that he can be quite blunt and forthright when others fail to meet his standards, and his sarcastic demeanor mean that his responses to their failures can be quite cutting and mean at times.

* NoSocialSkills: Downplayed. One does not get to be White House Communications Director without ''some'' social skills, but while he excels at oratory and communication which is intended to inspire and spread lofty ideals, he's often awkward, blunm, undiplomatic and kind of dickish when it comes to interpersonal communication.

* TookALevelInJerkass: He becomes downright spiteful towards Will and Josh at times in Seasons 5 to 7 when they leave the White House to run the campaigns of other Democratic politicians seeking to replace Bartlet, to the point where at times he seems to go out of his way to try and sabotage things for them. Part of it is due to his high standards viewing their candidates as unworthy successors to Bartlet, but another part of it is clearly bitterness and resentment at what he views as them leaving him behind. He loses some of the spite towards Josh later on in Season 7 and ends up advising him secretly: [[spoiler: this is presumably because being exposed as TheMole who leaked the existence of the military space shuttle, fired from the White House and facing prosecution and a lengthy prison sentence ended up being somewhat humbling.]]

* InformedAbility: Supposedly an expert on warfare. When he discusses the Battle of Agincourt in episode 3.22 he gets pretty much everything wrong. He claims that heralds observed the battle to determined who won. A ridiculous claim. The winner was determined by the fact that the French ran from the battlefield. He claims that a soldier who lay down his weapons was treated humanely. That only applied if he was a rich nobleman who could pay a ransom. Common soldiers were slaughtered like sheep. Finally, he claims that Medieval warriors would never target a single individual, when in fact a large press of French soldiers tried to get at Henry V to gain the honour of killing him. The latter phenomenon was quite common and had already been observed in witness accounts of the Battle of Hastings, four centuries earlier. It led to kings dressing up knights in copies of the royal armour to act as decoys.
** In fact, the the Battle of Agincourt became notorious because of what happened to the prisoners. The medieval chronicle 'Gesta Henrici Quinti' (The Deeds of Henry V) records how the English ended up killing many of the French prisoners that they did manage to capture. The French noble Ghillebert de Lannoy, lord of Willerval, who was himself taken prisoner by the English, describes how his captors set fire to the barn where all the prisoners were being held. Only a few, including Ghillebert himself, managed to escape. The fact that Fitzwallace, a supposed military expert, would use Agincourt as an example of "humane treatment of prisoners" is all the more egregious.
** In Fitz's defence, this is likely a case of ArtisticLicenseHistory or DidNotDoTheResearch on part of his writer more than anything else; his status as an expert on ''modern'' warfare so far remains unchallenged.

"Fitz," as Bartlet and Leo call him, is a veteran of the Sit Room and international crises. He's a steady and solid adviser who helps Bartlet make some of the really tough calls and deal with the aftermath.

* TookALevelInJerkass: He becomes downright spiteful towards Will and Josh at times in Seasons 5 to 7 when they leave the White House to run the campaigns of other Democratic politicians seeking to replace Bartlet, to the point where at times he seems to go out of his way to try and sabotage things for them. Part of it is due to his high standards viewing their candidates as unworthy successors to Bartlet, but another part of it is clearly bitterness and resentment at what he views as them leaving him behind.

Bartlet's second Veep. A back-bencher congressman from Colorado, Russell is widely known as bland and mediocre; he was picked mainly by the Republican House because they figured he wouldn't be a threatening candidate in four years. Russell is aware of this and actively cultivates political reputation and capital as much as he can. He's the frontrunner in the primaries until Matt Santos overtakes him.

* DrunkWithPower: To a degree; his more {{Jerkass}} tendencies get increasingly pronounced the more he gets used to being both the Vice President and the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for President.

* FriendlyEnemy: To varying degrees with the President's senior staff, particularly with Leo and Josh. With Leo, although the two lock horns frequently they nevertheless have a more cordial relationship than Hoynes and Bartlet due to their shared experience with alcoholism. Josh, meanwhile, was Hoynes's Chief of Staff and briefly his campaign manager while Hoynes was a senator running for President, and despite Josh moving to Bartlet's campaign there's still residual respect on both sides. To a lesser extent, while they interact less often he also seems to get along quite well with Sam on the few occasions they do interact, while C.J and Toby openly dislike him and usually approach him with only the bare minimum respect and politeness that his position demands.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Several of the physical jokes in the series involve CJ pratfalling like an idiot. Case in point, her literal introductory scene, where she trips while on a treadmill because she was checking her beeper.

* NonIdleRich: Although not exactly rich, Will comes from a very privileged background. His dad General Thomas Bailey was NATO Supreme Allied Commander, and he's lived all over Europe: at one point he says "I will take my hazing like the Eton valedictorian I am," implying that he went to England's most famous public school, although Eton [[CriticalResearchFailure doesn't actually have valedictorians]]. When he intends to go on holiday after the Wilde election, he plans to stay in a castle that his family happens to have access to.

* PoliticiansKissBabies: His personal charm and genuine enthusiasm for the job is a large part of why the Democrats are so worried about him running. He injures his hand after taking too many {{Firm Handshake|s}} during his campaign and has made his own jokes about having to kiss people's babies.

-->'''Donna:''' ''[To Josh [[https://youtu.be/e5jIo38mbVA after seeing his speech declaring that he is going to run for President, while at the same time refusing to throw some recently discovered dirt at the Bartlet Administration, and explaining in detail why that would be deeply morally and ethicly wrong]] \\

-->'''Leo:''' Ever see Arnie Vinick campaign, up close? He'll go into those high school gymnasiums in Iowa and New Hampshire and blow them all away. Shake every hand in the joint, [[PoliticiansKissBabies kiss every baby]], hug every widow on social security, and sound smarter and more honest than any Republican they've ever seen -- [[NotHyperbole because he is]].

* PapaWolf: It's generally accepted that if you mess with anyone in his family or with any he considers friends, he will bring down the wrath of the President of the United States to utterly toast your sorry ass, and you better pray to whatever god you believe in that one of his staff is there to rein him in before he decides to get ''real'' nasty. This also extends to Americans in general. At the beginning of the series he argues that they ought to resurrect the idea of "Civvus Romanus", that an American should be able to walk anywhere in the world, free of fear, protected only by the knowledge that their nation would [[KillEmAll blow the living hell out of anyone]] [[DisproportionateRetribution who decided to harm them]].

** Earlier, he's given the job of leading a tour of a third grade around the West Wing containing Leo's daughter, wherein he shows himself to be massively unqualified (for instance, he doesn't realize the Roosevelt Room is named after Teddy Roosevelt, despite there being a gigantic portrait of TR in the room). When the teacher of the class calls him out on it, he snaps at her, revealing several embarrassing things about himself, including the whole "slept with a callgirl" thing, then exasperated, asks her to point out Leo's daughter so that he can at least try to impress her. [[spoiler: The teacher then reveals that SHE's Leo's daughter Mallory, and that she's not impressed]]