JOSH LYMAN

'Joshua "Josh" Lyman' is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama ''The West Wing''. For the majority of the series, he is Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration.
Josh's character has one of the sharpest minds on the President's staff; he is a witty, somewhat cocky, boyishly charming know-it-all. He is described by Will Bailey as "(After Leo) the finest political mind in the party" ("Opposition Research").

Contents

Character biography

Early life and family

Professional history

Josh and Donna's relationship

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Character biography

Early life and family

Born in October at some point in the early-to-mid 1960s Josh is a native of Westport, Connecticut, and roots for the New York Mets. He graduated ''cum laude'' from Harvard University (where he worked at the ''Harvard Crimson''), and Yale Law School. He was also a Fulbright Scholar. Josh is a non-practicing Jew; his grandfather was held in the Nazi concentration camp Birkenau during World War II. As a 4-year-old, Josh wanted to be a ballerina, although it is unclear if he knew what a ballerina was (he liked the word).
Josh had a sister, Joanie, who died during his childhood. She had been babysitting him when a fire broke out in their home. Josh ran out of the house to safety, but his sister got trapped inside and died. This event caused Josh anguish throughout his later life, as he felt guilty for having saved himself and not having rescued his sister. His father died the night of the Illinois primary and his mother splits her time between Westport and West Palm Beach, Florida, although she sells the Connecticut house in the third season.

Professional history

Prior to working for President Jed Bartlet, Josh was the Chief of Staff for Congressman Earl Brennan, floor manager for the Minority Whip, and Democratic legislative director in the House of Representatives and Democratic floor director in the Senate for two years each. Josh later became a staffer for then-Senator John Hoynes, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in 1998. Hoynes's tendency to, against Josh's advice, prioritize politics over Hoynes's own ideas and convictions led to job frustration for Josh. Early in the campaign, Josh received a visit from Leo McGarry, an old friend of his father's. At Leo's request, Josh went to New Hampshire to see Josiah Bartlet speak, and was so impressed by Bartlet's prioritizing conviction and honesty over popularity, that he immediately left Hoynes' campaign to work for Bartlet; he also recruited his old friend Sam Seaborn to the campaign. Josh's defection to the Bartlet campaign would later result in an odd working relationship with Hoynes when Bartlet appointed Josh as his deputy chief of staff and Hoynes as his Vice President; while tension clearly exists between them, Josh is frequently the first in the Bartlet administration to come to Hoynes' defense, while Hoynes' affection and respect for Josh is illustrated by Hoynes' autobiography, which devotes many of its pages to praising Josh. Also, Hoynes tries to recruit Josh to run his campaign when he wants to get back into politics. One notable example of the complex relationship between the two was a moment when Hoynes asked Josh if he thinks Hoynes would be President had he listened to him back when Josh was still a part of Hoynes' team; Josh replies that he doesn't ''think'' Hoynes would be President, but rather, "I know it for sure."
Shortly after Josh joined the Bartlet campaign, he hired recent college dropout Donnatella Moss as his assistant despite her apparent lack of qualification. Except for a brief period during the 2006 Presidential primaries, Donna has been Josh's assistant ever since. A largely unspoken friendship, and romantic tension, exist between the two throughout the series.
On the night that Bartlet won the Illinois primary, Josh's father, respected New York litigator Noah Lyman, died of a pulmonary embolism. Josh rushed to the airport to fly home as soon as possible, and in a powerful scene, Bartlet delayed giving his victory speech in order to follow Josh to the airport and make sure he was okay.
In the first season finale, Josh is seriously wounded by white supremacists trying to assassinate presidential aide Charlie Young, who is African-American and is then dating the President's daughter. Josh underwent fourteen hours of surgery and was subsequently put through intensive psychotherapy after displaying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Josh's position in the Bartlet administration was temporarily compromised after he leaked information to the press about an anonymous hold on military promotions placed by Idaho Senator Chris Carrick. Carrick had been trying to secure a promise from the White House that a missile defense system would be built in his home state, but Josh's competitive nature would not allow him to make a compromise. After the leak, Senator Carrick released the hold but resigned from the Democratic Party, informing Josh that he would seek re-election as a Republican and citing Josh as a key reason for his defection. The embarrassment to the administration and to the party led Leo to leave Josh out of key budget negotiations, negotiations which eventually resulted in a complete shutdown of the federal government. Josh returned from isolation after the First Lady asked Bartlet "Where's Josh?" Josh was the only senior staffer to support the President's firm stand against Speaker Jeff Haffley.
Josh left his position at the White House to run the dark horse Presidential campaign of Representative Matt Santos of Texas; he was succeeded by Clifford Calley as Deputy White House Chief of Staff. The Santos campaign initially lost the Iowa caucus, came in third in the New Hampshire primary at 19% and went on to win a come from behind victory in the California primary. Santos won the Texas primary and the final New Jersey primary by a slim margin. Going into the Democratic National Convention no candidate had enough delegates to win the nomination, with delegates split between front runner Vice President Bob Russell, Rep. Santos and former Vice President John Hoynes. At the convention Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker attempted an upstart campaign from the convention floor that further fractured the delegates. Ultimately Santos won the nomination after a stirring convention speech that was expected to be his concession, and behind the scenes maneuvering by President Bartlet. Josh was influential in recruiting Leo McGarry as the vice Presidential nominee, and rose to become campaign manager for the Santos/McGarry Campaign. (The Santos nomination is similar to the struggles then Governor Bartlet had in his dark horse victory over Senator Hoynes during the 1998 campaign.)
After Matt Santos was elected President of the United States in a narrow victory over Republican Senator Arnold Vinick, Josh became the White House Chief of Staff of the incoming Santos Administration. In his last appearance in the series, he is meeting privately with President Santos in the Oval Office.

Josh and Donna's relationship

There is a continuing love story between Josh and Donna, from late season one throughout the series. The relationship between the two early on can best be described as a brother-sister one. They argue, they fight, they put each other down… but when it comes down to it, there's nothing they wouldn't do for each other. It has been said that Josh and Donna were the only two who didn't see their relationship for what it was. For several seasons, the relationship remained in stasis, neither daring to make any real romantic move on the other, despite numerous indications:

★ Donna encouraged Josh to date pollster Joey Lucas in the second season. This led to two revelations: Firstly, Josh admits he intentionally sabotages Donna's dating life. Secondly, Joey guessed that Donna was encouraging Josh to pursue her as a misdirection ploy, to keep him from discovering that she liked him herself. This is the first overt mention of a possible romance.

★ Donna had a brief relationship with Republican House attorney Clifford Calley, while he was involved in the investigation of misconduct relating to the concealment of President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis. Calley, due to his personal relationship with Moss, discovered that she lied under oath about keeping a diary. Josh cut a secret deal with Calley to fix the problem.

★ When first meeting Josh, Amy Gardner asks if he is dating Donna, implying that Amy thinks there may be something between Josh and Donna

★ Donna recruited Josh to help her land a date with Jack Reese, but Josh's talks with Jack on the matter made Jack wonder if he was "getting in between anything."

★ Later, when Josh has to pull her away from her date with Jack for work, Josh says "it's not what it looks like", meaning to say that he wasn't deliberately interrupting her and Jack's plans. Donna asks him about what he meant by the commment and why she would think that he was doing that anyway.

★ During a heart-to-heart talk in "Commencement," Amy Gardner asked Donna straight out: "Are you in love with Josh?" The viewers never got to hear the answer, if she gave one; Donna hesitated, then the camera moved away.

★ In the 5th season, on the advice of C.J. Cregg, Donna tried to broaden her horizons past Josh and pursue her own social life outside of the White House. This prompted Donna to sleep with photographer Colin Ayres while she was on a Congressional delegation to the Gaza Strip. Shortly after, Donna was badly injured in a terrorist attack which killed two congressmen and Admiral Fitzwallace. Josh – distraught – rushed to her bedside at a military hospital in Germany. There he would also meet Colin, who found it strange that her boss flew across an ocean to be with her. Josh unconvincingly claimed that he was just Donna's friend.

★ At the end of the fifth season finale "Memorial Day," Josh was bringing a dozen red roses, a traditional sign of love, to Donna in her hospital room, only to find that she'd been rushed into surgery for a pulmonary embolism, the same thing that had killed his father.

★ In the 6th season premiere "NSF Thurmont," Colin called Josh out on his feelings for Donna while she was still in surgery, guessing it was "tragically unconsummated love, kept at arm's length by puritanical American work place ethics." In a moving scene at the end of the episode, Donna woke up to find Josh at her bedside, still waiting.

★ In the 6th season episode "Impact Winter," Donna finally broke loose and quit her job as assistant to Josh, seeing no chance of career advancement. She joined the Russell campaign, which would later put her in direct confrontation with her former boss.

★ When the two met on the campaign trail, Josh told her she was on the wrong campaign, and that "you should be with me." Donna countered with a professional answer, and delivered one of Josh's old political truisms – revealing a conflict between their personal relationship and their professional one.

★ After Santos beat Russel for the Democratic nomination, the highly qualified Donna wanted to return as Josh's deputy in season 7 premiere "The Ticket," but he found himself forced to reject her as she was on record trashing his candidate while she was still working for the other team. During their conversation he revealed that he misses her "every day."

★ Despite Josh's disapproval, his campaign Communications Director Louise Thornton (the only one with guts enough to disagree with him) later hired Donna anyway, saying she was good on television, and that it was now "all hands on deck." After a brief argument they both start to focus on the latest campaign developments.

★ In the 7th season episode "The Cold," Josh and Donna kissed passionately as she brought him the good news that Congressman Santos had caught Vinick and that they were tied in the national tracking polls. Josh apologizes, saying the kiss was "inappropriate", but Donna says "it was bound to happen sometime." Donna talks to Will, who says persuing a relationship with Josh wouldn't be inappropriate, and to C.J. about the matter. Later in the episode, Donna discreetly leaves the key to her hotel room on the table for Josh, but Edith Ortega notices the key before Josh can retrieve it and returns the key to Donna.

★ In the 7th season episode "Election Day," Josh and Donna consummated their relationship, sleeping together twice, both times on her initiative.

★ In the 7th season episode "Transition," Donna gave Josh four weeks to figure out "what they want from each other." She insisted that if this could not happen within four weeks, their relationship would remain in a constant state of ambiguity, which was not what Donna wanted. After talking to Lou as well as his deputy-of-choice Sam Seaborn, Josh realized that he desperately needed to take a break from work. At the end of the episode, Josh and Donna went on vacation together.

★ In the 7th season finale (and series finale) "Tomorrow," Josh and Donna woke up in bed together on the morning of Inauguration Day – ten weeks after Donna set the four week deadline.

Trivia

★ The name "Josh Lyman" was first used in connection with the White House in the Garry Trudeau cartoon strip ''Doonesbury'' in 1993. The character was a White House media liaison officer working for President Bill Clinton, encountered by ''Doonesbury'' regular Joanie Caucus. Apart from the name and setting, there appears to be no other similarity with the West Wing character, although a framed copy of the strip hangs in Josh's office.

★ Josh often makes jokes about Donna being from Wisconsin. Bradley Whitford is actually from Wisconsin.

★ Lyman is based, at least in part, on former House Democratic Caucus chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, formerly a Senior Staffer in the Clinton White House.^[1][2][3][4]

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★ Josh Lyman sent a congressman a dead fish ("Constituency of One"). Rahm Emanuel sent a pollster a dead fish.

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★ Josh Lyman wanted to be a ballerina when young ("Ways and Means"). Rahm Emanuel used to be a ballet dancer.

★ When Josh complained about the nomination process in a conversation with Leo McGarry, lamenting the fact that senior party members no longer picked candidates in smoke-filled rooms, Leo suggested that he and Toby were the modern-day equivalent. In a later episode, Leo chastised Toby Ziegler for tacitly supporting underdog presidential candidate Senator Ricky Rafferty, claiming "You and Josh, barking like terriers at the heels of the party – you ''are'' the party!".

★ In a February 13, 2006 speech at American University in Washington, D.C., Bradley Whitford spoke about the episode in which Josh and Donna finally made love. Among his remarks: "My mother asked how my day was after filming [the scene], I said 'Well, I spent the whole day naked in bed with a beautiful woman'."

★ Josh (along with CJ Cregg) appeared in more episodes than any other character in the series – 151 out of a total of 156. He does not appear in "365 Days," "The Wake Up Call," "The Debate," "The Last Hurrah" and "Institutional Memory."

References

1. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8091986/the_enforcer/
2. The House that Rahm Built. The Chicago Tribune. 12 November 2006. http://www.ChicagoTribune.com
3. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14871152/site/newsweek/
4. The Democratic Entourage: Can Rahm Emanuel deliver the House? His hotshot Hollywood brother is trying to help close the deal.

See also

★ ''The West Wing''

★ List of characters on ''The West Wing''

★ List of politicians on ''The West Wing''

★ List of episodes of ''The West Wing''

External links

★ Fansites

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★ Josh & Donna Discussion

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★ Josh & Donna fan site

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★ Josh & Donna official fanlisting

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★ Political-Affairs.net Complete transcripts of every Josh & Donna scene throughout the entire series