"Contemptuous Words" is an episode of JAG that first aired on November 23, 1999. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc. Written by Ed Zuckerman.
This episode begins with an op-ed hot off the press. We then cut to Lt. Commander Rabb on a driving range with Congresswoman Bobbi Latham (Anne Marie Johnson) who informs him that he is on the promotion list for commander (O-5).
Upon returning to JAG headquarters, Admiral Chegwidden calls a meeting and announces that a serving naval officer allegedly wrote an editorial piece in a local paper, that is highly critical of Bill Clinton, the President of the United States. Since the author was anonymous, JAG may have to find the individual first, before they can be prosecuted.
According to Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a military officer cannot make political statements in public, criticizing the government, as that is detrimental to civilian control of the military.
Rabb initially suggests tracking the author's electronic trail, as the article was sent by email. Much to his surprise, the electronic trail leads back to his own computer at JAG headquarters. Rabb is temporarily relieved of duty, allowing him to prepare his defense, and also find out who framed him.
After suspecting and then ruling out Lt. Commander Brumby (Trevor Goddard), then seeing this as a scheme by his old nemesis, Clark Palmer (Peter Murnik), Rabb appears to be resigned to his fate. But then, in comes Congresswoman Latham, setting Rabb up with a conservative former colleague, who is now running a think tank.
The think tank offer to represent him, and when it looks like Rabb is being offered a deal to resign his commission in return for no charges filed, they even advise him to take it — and then be sponsored for his own run for Congress! The think tank's spokeswoman, Suzanne Moore (Michelle Stafford) seems especially insistent.
But just as it looks like Rabb may have another career change, someone's odd behavior gives him a new lead on who set him up.
Meanwhile, Lt. Colonel MacKenzie is drawn into a situation at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where a recently deceased Marine's fiancé wants his sperm frozen so she can be artificially inseminated with it and have his child. However, the Marine's soon to be ex-wife shows up and refuses to have him "cut up". Mac must decide what to do, but events just may progress and force an outcome.
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: At the end of the episode, Clark Palmer sends the newspaper a statement from Rabb's Swiss bank account, which has a lot more money than a lieutenant commander could believably save up. Presumably the reporter followed up and either found the statement was false or was unable to pursue the story for lack of leads. But this is never again mentioned on this show nor its spin-offs.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When the person who wrote the op-ed points out that she is permitted to say whatever she wishes because she's not in the military, Rabb retorts that while that is true she isn't permitted to commit wire fraud, telecommunications fraud and impersonate an officer in the United States Navy.
- Clear My Name: What Rabb sets out to do.
- Enemy Mine: What Rabb thinks Congresswoman Latham did, when she introduced him to a conservative think tank, as Bobbi Latham is very liberal. She counters that while she and the think tank are on opposite sides politically, she doesn't consider them enemies.
- First-Name Basis: Moore asks Rabb to call her Suzanne.
- Frame-Up: Rabb knows he's being framed, but not by whom.
- Rank Up: Rabb makes Commander. The Secretary of the Navy (Paul Collins) snarks that Rabb never does anything the easy way.
- Red Herring: Both Mic and Clark Palmer are dangled as potential suspects.
- Shout-Out to Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President Bill Clinton: Early on in the episode there is despair that the author of the op-ed might not be discovered until President Chelsea Clinton's second term.
- Suddenly Significant Rule: Discussed in-universe that Article 88, Contemptuous Words, is so rarely invoked that there's very little case law on the subject.
- Verbal Tic: More like a grammatical tic. A PR associate at the conservative think tank that is courting Rabb, tends to enhance her adjectives with adverbs. The "contemptuous letter" contains similarly modified adjectives. This alerts Rabb that she was the one who wrote the article and set him up.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Suzanne Moore, the PR exec at the conservative think tank wanted to co-opt Rabb, a decorated war hero to run for Congress as a conservative alternative to the draft dodging, pot inhaling womanizer occupying the Oval Office at that time. So, she impersonated Rabb, sent a letter to an editor that military officers are forbidden by law from sending and covered her tracks. With this episode, the writers get to have things both ways: bash President Clinton several times with no push back, while keeping Rabb, the hero of the show, morally pure, and above Moore's underhanded tactics.
