| MATT DRUDGE // DRUDGE REPORT 2002� 
 
  
 
 
 
 XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN FEB 24, 2002 11:37:09 ET XXXXX
 
 LEFT WING SORKIN BLASTS BUSH: WE'RE  'PRETENDING' HE HAS EXHIBITED UNSPEAKABLE COURAGE
 
 The force behind NBC's WEST WING is blasting off against the real West Wing in upcoming pages of the NEW YORKER, which  names Aaron  Sorkin "the country's loyal opposition."
 
 NY'ER reporter Tad Friend has penned a high-impact Talk of the Town set for release in March 4 editions.
 
 Sorkin, the creatorproducerwriter  of  WEST WING,  tells Friend:  "It's  absolutely  right  that  at  this time we're all laying off the [Bush] bubblehead  jokes.  But  that's  a  far  cry from what the Times and CNN and  others  on whom we rely for unvarnished objectivity are telling us, which is that 'My God! On September 12th he woke up as Teddy Roosevelt! He became the Rough  Rider!'"
 
 Of NBC's own look at a day in the life of the Presidency, 'The  Bush  White  House:  Inside  the  Real  West Wing,' which aired as the lead-in  to  a  WEST WING repeat a few weeks ago, Sorkin charges:  "The White House  pumped  up the President's schedule to show him being much busier and more  engaged  than  he  is,  and  Tom  Brokaw  let it happen?"
 
 Sorkin continues:  "The show was a   valentine  to  Bush.  That  illusion  may be what we need right now, but the truth  is we're simply pretending to believe that Bush exhibited unspeakable courage  at  the  World  Series  by  throwing  out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium,  or  that he, by God, showed those terrorists by going to Salt Lake City  and jumbling the first line of the Olympic opening ceremony.
 
 "The media is  waving  pom-poms,  and  the  entire  country  is  being  polite," Sorkin declares.
 
 "I just began reading Frank Bruni's campaign book AMBLING INTO HISTORY:  THE UNLIKELY ODYSSEY OF GEORGE W. BUSH which  begins  with  Candidate  Bush  at a service in Texas for seven people who were killed in a  church  by  a  crazy  gunman. Bruni describes Bush making goofy faces at the  press, and it reminds you of a junior high schooler on a museum field trip."
 
 Sorkin tells the mag that he is planning to revisit the BUSH-GORE Florida showdown in an upcoming episode.
 
 President Josiah Bartlet [played by actor Martin Sheen, who has called Bush a white knuckled drunk] is up for re-election this November.  "Bartlet  is going to be running against Governor Robert Ritchie, of Florida, who's not the sharpest tool in the box but who's raised a lot of money  and  is very popular with the Republican Party,? Sorkin says.
 
 "It was frustrating watching Gore try so hard not to appear smart in the debates.  Why not just say"  'Here's my fucking r�sum�, what do you got?'   We're a completely  fictional,  nonpolitical show, but one of our motors is doing our version of
    the  old  Mad  magazine 'Scenes We'd Like to See.' And so to an extent we're
    going to rerun the last election and try a few different plays than the Gore
    campaign did."
 
 Developing...
 
 
 
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