History Recap / TheWestWingS02E15Ellie

* OldMediaPlayingCatchUp: Briefly discussed: when discussing the Surgeon General's web-chat, Toby and C.J lay into Josh for not calling them and / or doing anything to stop the Surgeon General before she made her remarks about marijuana. Josh points out that she was communicating live and online in a web forum away from the White House, not doing a traditional-style interview as a one-on-one with a reporter, and there was no way any of them could have stopped her in time.

-->'''President Bartlet:''' I've got to hand it to you guys; you've pulled off a political first. You've managed to win me the support of the Christian Right and the Creator/CheechAndChong Fan Club in the same day.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Sam doesn't like the fact President Bartlet's being congratulated by the Family Values Leadership Council, particularly since it's for denouncing a movie Bartlet's never even heard of.

During an online chat, Dr. Millicent Griffith (Mary Kay Place), the Surgeon General, is asked whether she favors the decriminalization of marijuana, and while she doesn't come right out and says yes, she does criticize the law categorizing its possession as a jailable offense. While C.J. says the administration supports her publicly, Josh and Leo both tell Dr. Griffith to resign or President Bartlet will fire her. However, things get complicated when Ellie (Nina Siemaszko), Bartlet's estranged middle daughter, calls the media and says President Bartlet would never fire the Surgeon General. Bartlet gets angry at his daughter for talking to the media behind his back, and for seeming to disagree with him in public, but he ends up not accepting Dr. Griffith's resignation, and he and Ellie end up reaching some sort of understanding.

-->'''Dr. Griffith:''' [[SureLetsGoWithThat Let me tell you something, I'm not 100% sure we've ruled that out.]]

* ShoutOut: The Surgeon General coming under fire and risking her job for expressing a medically accurate but politically inconvenient opinion reflects former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's frequent clashes with the Reagan administration over issues such as abortion and the AIDS pandemic. Although a conservative pro-life Christian, Everett refused to draft politically skewed and inaccurate reports stating that having an abortion posed a health risk to the woman, and earned great controversy for his efforts to educate the public about the causes of HIV/AIDS[[note]]From both sides: conservatives were outraged by his outlining of how acts such as anal penetration could spread the disease, while liberals and LGBTQ+ groups were infuriated by his heavy focus on homosexual sex as a key contributing factor to the spread of disease in lieu of other possible methods of transmission.[[/note]]

* ShoutOut: The Surgeon General coming under fire and risking her job for expressing a medically accurate but politically inconvenient opinion reflects former Surgeon General C. Everett Coop's frequent clashes with the Reagan administration over issues such as abortion and the AIDS pandemic. Although a conservative pro-life Christian, Everett refused to draft politically skewed and inaccurate reports stating that having an abortion posed a health risk to the woman, and earned great controversy for his efforts to educate the public about the causes of HIV/AIDS[[note]]From both sides: conservatives were outraged by his outlining of how acts such as anal penetration could spread the disease, while liberals and LGBTQ+ groups were infuriated by his heavy focus on homosexual sex as a key contributing factor to the spread of disease in lieu of other possible methods of transmission.[[/note]]