The West Wing (season 3)

Leo defiantly rejects the Congressional committee's offer of a public censure of President Bartlet that would end the investigation into his concealment of his illness and spare Leo any possible personal repercussions, while the President continues to weigh his options. In other stories, Josh puts his foot in his mouth over his courtship of Amy, Sam is angry over a White House tell-all book, and Charlie's heartfelt purchase of an old Middle East map for the President leads to some political problems.

While the White House staff works intensely on the President's State of the Union speech, President Bartlet and the First Lady have dinner with a group of her scientist friends who speculate that sphingosine kinase could lead to a cure for cancer. As a result, the President demands that a passage ambitiously promising a crusade to cure cancer within ten years be included in the speech. Sam is the point man for the speech, which is billed as the most important of the President's career and one whose failure will end his hopes for re-election. As Sam is very reluctantly interviewed for a Vanity Fair profile by Lisa Sherborne, who was once his fiancée, he lays out the process by which a State of the Union address comes about. Sam knows that the pledge to cure cancer is noble and the kind of over-reaching government should do, but also that for political reasons it cannot be included in the final speech and removes it, taking out most of his frustrations on Lisa, who finally tells Sam she is taking herself off the story, and then reminds him that it was he and not her who ended their engagement. Attracted to Amy Gardner, a prominent women's rights leader, Josh tries to persuade her that her burgeoning romance with a Congressman is solely a result of political machinations.

President Bartlet consults a psychiatrist, Dr. Stanley Keyworth, for a troubling sleep disorder and receives a sobering personal assessment. C.J. lobbies vigorously to help secure the release of a White House reporter who has been taken hostage while on assignment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Toby clashes again with his ex-wife over a speech for the United Nations that takes radical Islam to task. Sam is accused of sexism by a young intern but Ainsley comes to his defense.

President Bartlet engages both Sam and Toby in intricate chess matches that mirror the wily game of brinkmanship that Bartlet is playing with the Chinese, who are conducting war games in the Taiwan Strait. The small New England town of Hartsfield's Landing kicks off voting in the New Hampshire primary, and Josh is lobbying for every vote he can get. A prank war between C.J. and Charlie turns somewhat destructive.

When a truck carrying uranium fuel rods crashes in a remote Idaho tunnel, President Bartlet's staff prepares for a potential environmental or terrorist crisis. Donna seeks a presidential proclamation honoring the retirement of her favorite teacher. The staff considers removing Vice President John Hoynes from the ticket but for different reasons; Sam and the President are not going to let that happen.

As Sam is finalizing the details of President Bartlet's upcoming summit with the Russian president, satellite photographs reveal an Iranian nuclear bomb facility being built using Russian technology. During a press briefing, C.J. voices her personal indignation that a group of schoolgirls in Saudi Arabia were prevented from escaping a burning building by religious police because they were not dressed properly according to Sharia law. After receiving death threats, C.J. is assigned Secret Service Special Agent Simon Donovan (Mark Harmon) for personal protection, and he tells her that the individual who is targeting her has no connection to jihadists. Toby tries to help a Russian journalist he thinks is being suppressed by her government, and Charlie unravels a mystery involving a long-lost letter to Franklin Roosevelt.

While C.J. gets used to being tailed by Special Agent Donovan, the President must deal with a terrorist threat on a military installation that gets closer and closer to home and leads to a frightening revelation. Meanwhile, Toby plays hardball with network TV executives who want to cut national convention coverage, and Sam's plan to keep dirty tricks out of the presidential campaign blows up in his face.

President Bartlet agonizes over whether to disregard the principle of diplomatic immunity for a Middle Eastern official who is known to be plotting terrorist acts. The President is advised not to attend a fundraiser for a politically sensitive cause because his Republican opponent will also be attending. Josh and Amy clash over a welfare renewal bill, while Sam is gun-shy after the tape disclosure from earlier.

President Bartlet makes a life-or-death decision regarding the defense minister of Qumar who is a known terrorist. The flirtation between C.J. and her Secret Service bodyguard, Simon Donovan, is limited by their professional relationship and then cut short by tragedy. Josh defeats Amy in the welfare bill battle and their relationship is left with an uncertain future. President Bartlet encounters his opponent, Governor Ritchie, at a performance of The Wars of the Roses.[lower-alpha 1]