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| "Abu el Banat" |
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"Abu el Banat" is episode 97 of The West Wing.
Plot
The entire first family of US President Josiah Bartlet gathers for the White House Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. Though Ellie is late as usual, Zoey has arrived, as has Elizabeth; her husband, Doug Westin; and their two children, Annie and Gus. President Bartlet has chosen Gus to flip the switch and light the tree, but when he ignores Elizabeth's advice to spend time rehearsing the simple task with the child, Gus has stage fright at the last minute and is replaced in the task by Zoey. Christian aid workers are arrested in Sudan for proselytizing and the government in Khartoum's actions generate negative press attention in the US. Leo McGarry, the White House Chief of Staff, first bashes the Sudanese government for falsely harassing Christians, then finds out that two of the twelve missionaries possessed multiple Bibles and religious videos and aimed to convert others. Leo arranges a payoff to local officials to get them safely out of the country.
Meanwhile, the DEA has suspended the license of a doctor who assisted with the suicide of a terminally ill patient in Oregon, a state whose laws permit the practice. The Administration seeks the help of the Attorney General (Dylan Baker), but he supports the DEA's recent action. Bartlet's son-in-law, Doug, has decided to run for US Congress in New Hampshire without consulting the DNC, the DCCC or the county chair. He is a lightweight and White House cannot back him. When Doug lists the early campaign networking he's done, the President realizes that Elizabeth has done a lot of leg work. He confronts her with his conviction that she has more political talent than Doug, but she replies that she has decided to put her family above any political aspirations of her own because she believes that her own mother's medical career impaired her parenting. She points out that even the President has been blind to his grandchild Gus' desire to spend time with him privately by insisting on his participation in the tree-lighting.
On the DEA matter, Bartlet notices that Attorney General Fisk is cracking down on doctors in his home state of Mississippi and threatens to fire him. White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler raises the question of assisted suicide to the President, pointing out that 1 in 5 of those requesting euthanasia have Multiple Sclerosis (MS), as does the President. Toby also pushes Will Bailey, Chief of Staff to the Vice President to get the new Vice President (VP) Bob Russell to speak out about assisted suicide, and punishes Will by moving his office out of the West Wing when the VP declines. C.J. Cregg, White House Press Secretary, has personal end-of-life concerns regarding her own father whose early-onset Alzheimer's is deteriorating. The President later broaches the issue of his MS and euthanasia with the First Lady Abbey Bartlet, and comes down against any medical intervention, saying "It'll get ugly and that's that." He then asks the First Lady if she'll be there with him as it happens, alluding to their recent estrangement over his decision to violate a promise to her and run for re-election despite how physically taxing it would be for him. There is a pause before Abbey then nods and says, "Yeah."
The title refers to a visit the President paid to Egypt with his family, where the tour guide constantly introduced him to everyone they met as "Abu El Banat." When asked, the guide told him it meant "father of daughters." The people to whom he was introduced then paid for the future President's tea out of sympathy for the special difficulties faced by a man with no sons.