I have generally avoided television and big screen depictions of political Washington D.C. in the past like “West Wing” and the recent addition, “Scandal,” but tease footage of an attack on our embassy in Yemen promoting the last segment of “Madame Secretary,” piqued my curiosity. I confess. I watched it.
Tea Leoni does a credible job as secretary of state in the new CBS series, Madame Secretary. She’s shown here with Zeljko Ivanek, who is perfectly cast as the President’s chief of staff. (zp2it.com)
I have been reading how it was part of Hollywood’s plan to pump up Hillary Clinton’s role as secretary of state, but the Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz gave it a pretty good review.
The show’s Executive Producer Lori McCreary said the inspiration for the show came from Morgan Freeman, who after watching Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi hearings, called McCreary saying, “What does she (Hillary) go home to, what does she talk about?”
I would have suggested that he might want to read Edward Klein’s book, Blood Fued, to get a pretty accurate picture.
Tea Leoni, as Elizabeth McChord, a former CIA analyst selected to be secretary of state, in no way reminds viewers of Hillary Clinton.
During the sequence on the embassy attack, with hundreds of terrorists shown scaling the embassy wall and gate, McChord is shown in a Skype conversation with the ambassador expressing her concern for his safety.
Later, she made several unsuccessful attempts to get additional military help for that embassy, and was even turned down by the president. As the violence increased, and left to her own devices, she uses offline funds to hire private contractor guards, who were able to secretly move the ambassador to a safe house. In real life, Hillary Clinton ignored five months of warnings in Benghazi and not only refused requests for additional guards, she reduced security assets.
Columnist Monica Crowley says, “Madame Secretary will be the Hillary Clinton she has never been, will never be and can never be: elevated, idealized, perfect.
I saw enough in this segment to watch the next one. Leoni does a credible job in her role, and is joined in the cast by Keith Carradine as the president, and Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith in Cheers), who plays McChord’s chief of staff. Perhaps the best casting was the selection of Zeljko Ivanek as the president’s chief of staff.
I can’t imagine Hollywood’s lefties passing up this opportunity to use this series as a propaganda vehicle. When they do, my remote will be within reach. The show airs Sunday evenings on CBS.
