TITLE: Dreamer AUTHOR: Kasey RATING: PG-13ish SUMMARY: A side of Leo few see, as told by Mallory. DISCLAIMERS: Not mine.  One of the ideas she mentions, she’s talking about a quote, is from Brad Whitford, but I can’t find the actual quote, it was in that article his brother wrote.  No disrespect intended, I’m making no money on this, please don’t sue. THANKS: To Lieutenant Flip for betaing, and to Janie for the conversation that inspired this little vignette fic. He wishes things were a lot better than they are. I don’t blame him, I think everyone does. But he’s an ever realist, and he knows that certain things can’t happen, because of their repercussions.  They can’t pass an aggressive crime bill through Congress, no matter how badly they need to, they can’t say Bartlet did nothing wrong, they can’t say “what’s past is past, get over it”.  Why not? Because that’s not how the game is played.  You get elected, you govern less than half of your term, then you start gearing up for re-election.  So he knows he has to, as chief political strategist and head of the CRP, tell the President he shouldn’t run again.  He has to tell the President to fire the Surgeon General when she says something that screws up their position.  It’s the cost of doing business, it’s been factored in.  When you work for the President, you do a lot of things you don’t necessarily agree with, I think.  I wouldn’t know first-hand, but so I gathered. So he’s told me. From what Mom says, he didn’t used to be so jaded, so much a company man, so much of a politician.  He was a guy out to change the world, having seen the horrors of war and wanting to make it so no one would ever have to see such despicable sights again.  He was once optimistic, a dreamer… He still is a dreamer, a little.  But only around me.  If he starts being a dreamer around Jed, then above the fold in the Post and the Times the next day is a story about a massive new policy shift, some radical approach that’s never gonna pass because it would have far too much positive affect. Things with that much positive affect never pass in government. Which is another little phrase that Dad has decided should be a maxim.  He’ll say it, from time to time, if we’re on the subject anyway.   As far back as I can remember, Dad has felt…I can’t even think of the word.  Cheated, maybe? …by the system.  As though the system was put in place to do great things and he believed it could do great things, then he received the slap in the face that great things never get done. That’s something I think the President is learning now.  He’s hardly ever even been opposed in his races, he’s always been immensely popular in New Hampshire and had no problems getting elected, and so he’s done what his heart told him and it never hurt him before.  But this is the big time, and he’s gotta worry about Congress and re-election. So Dad’s trying to teach him that, all the while not being so down about it himself. I’m the only one he can really dream around, now.  Used to be me or Mom, but…well…I don’t think she’d be all keen on her ex-husband calling her up and complaining about the job that destroyed their marriage. He knows the things he can and can’t dream about, so he puts all his energy into those he CAN dream about.  Like when Mom and Dad were separated and Mom was asking for a divorce, Dad kept saying “It’s gonna blow over, it’s gonna be fine, Baby, this thing’s gonna blow over.” He was wrong, by the way. I get the feeling he needs to still have that little bit of a dreamer in him just to get him up in the morning some days.  I was reading an article on some actor awhile back – I honestly can’t remember who it was, even – but there was a quote about why actors are basically alcoholics waiting to happen. Something to the extent of “If you go to the theater and see people acting and say ‘that should be me’ and you actually follow up on that then it means you’re one of the most assertive people and the business completely pacifies you of that and that’s a very assertive chord in you that’s been severed and there really is no resolution for that.” I’m not sure what made me just think of that.