A Farewell Letter to 'Veep,' the Show that Really Got Washington
In covering Washington, I’ve kept a favorite question to ask the political underling on the other side of a lunch table buried in some Capitol Hill basement or beside me at one of the Hill’s dimly lit drinking holes: What Veep character is your boss?
Usually, they answer Selina Meyer, the show’s cut-throat title figure played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus who embodies this swamp more than we admit. But, occasionally, one of them will name-drop Jonah Ryan, the bumbling idiot who is too stupid to be effective until, suddenly, he isn’t. Mine is a loaded question and one that’s always off-the-record because nobody on Veep is admirable.
After seven seasons and 17 Emmy Awards, Veep closed last week with a few scenes of Meyer’s funeral to seal the lid on this watercolor of Washington. Ask anybody orbiting the Hill or the White House, and they’ll tell you that Veep is a much more accurate depiction of this most powerful city than House of Cards. Maybe our politicians like to pretend that they’re on House of Cards, hatching elaborate plans to take down rivals and enact their agendas, but it never plays out so cleanly. We saw a trademark Veep bumbling just last week when Republicans in the House were set to vote on a disaster bill until the president tweeted that they shouldn’t. That lead to 34 Republicans fracturing with their party and voting with the Democrats and confusion on the floor of the House.
Veep’s most iconic ingredients are the insults and the bluntness with which they are delivered. Dan Egan looking at Jonah Ryan and shouting “you’re so stupid, you don’t even know you’re being used for your stupidity.” Or Meyer ripping, “is there a pro I-don’t-give-a-shit lobby?” Only on HBO could that bluntness—which is one of the honest bits—be recreated. The last three centuries of profanity should be chiseled into the steps of the Capitol for the frequency with which our curses and blasphemies are uttered in the halls of Congress. And we’ll miss the show’s barbs more than we should.
After seven seasons and 17 Emmy Awards, Veep closed last week with a few scenes of Meyer’s funeral to seal the lid on this watercolor of Washington. Ask anybody orbiting the Hill or the White House, and they’ll tell you that Veep is a much more accurate depiction of this most powerful city than House of Cards. Maybe our politicians like to pretend that they’re on House of Cards, hatching elaborate plans to take down rivals and enact their agendas, but it never plays out so cleanly. We saw a trademark Veep bumbling just last week when Republicans in the House were set to vote on a disaster bill until the president tweeted that they shouldn’t. That lead to 34 Republicans fracturing with their party and voting with the Democrats and confusion on the floor of the House.
Veep’s most iconic ingredients are the insults and the bluntness with which they are delivered. Dan Egan looking at Jonah Ryan and shouting “you’re so stupid, you don’t even know you’re being used for your stupidity.” Or Meyer ripping, “is there a pro I-don’t-give-a-shit lobby?” Only on HBO could that bluntness—which is one of the honest bits—be recreated. The last three centuries of profanity should be chiseled into the steps of the Capitol for the frequency with which our curses and blasphemies are uttered in the halls of Congress. And we’ll miss the show’s barbs more than we should.
Washington shows are uniquely positioned in that their audience never goes away. People here still talk about The West Wing as if it were a real era of power.
Among the frequently quoted insults is one that Meyer aims at Jonah Ryan: “what are you laughing about you Jolly Green Jizz-face?” You could send yourself spiraling into insanity trying to imagine what Meyer would brand current White House ghoul Stephen Miller.
My favorite Veep-in-real-life moment is one that I never witnessed but read about in Ronald Kessler’s book, The Secrets of the FBI. Kessler writes that when an anonymous FBI agent said “good morning” to Hillary Clinton in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Clinton tore him apart before quipping “and where do you buy your suits? Penney’s?” It’s parting fire that we can imagine Selina Meyer delivering to some Washington minion unfortunate enough to stumble into the same hallway as her.
That real-life shading has been commented on countless times. In 2014, a Democrat operative told WNYC “Veep is sometimes so painful to watch because it is so close to things that have happened in my world. I’m aware that it is funny, but I can’t possibly laugh at it.”
Which distills the strangest quality of Veep—it taught me a hell of a lot about Washington. I came into this town wide-eyed and dumb. I’m hardly any wiser, only a bit more informed and with a few more friends and enemies. And a lot of that this-is-how-it-works knowledge came from watching the interactions on Veep, most notably the way in which the best-laid plans are always killed and revived a few times before they ever play out. And the notion that we keep people around only as long as they are useful to our current cause. I’ve read all the Washington manuals, This Town by Mark Leibovich, Joan Didion’s Political Fictions, Katherine Graham’s Washington and Meg Greenfield’s Washington and a dusty stack of books by members of Congress and the press, but rarely do they illustrate the point of a power-hungry town chasing the carrot quite as clearly. At best they offer sporadic vignettes and anecdotes that share some insight.
My favorite Veep-in-real-life moment is one that I never witnessed but read about in Ronald Kessler’s book, The Secrets of the FBI. Kessler writes that when an anonymous FBI agent said “good morning” to Hillary Clinton in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Clinton tore him apart before quipping “and where do you buy your suits? Penney’s?” It’s parting fire that we can imagine Selina Meyer delivering to some Washington minion unfortunate enough to stumble into the same hallway as her.
That real-life shading has been commented on countless times. In 2014, a Democrat operative told WNYC “Veep is sometimes so painful to watch because it is so close to things that have happened in my world. I’m aware that it is funny, but I can’t possibly laugh at it.”
Which distills the strangest quality of Veep—it taught me a hell of a lot about Washington. I came into this town wide-eyed and dumb. I’m hardly any wiser, only a bit more informed and with a few more friends and enemies. And a lot of that this-is-how-it-works knowledge came from watching the interactions on Veep, most notably the way in which the best-laid plans are always killed and revived a few times before they ever play out. And the notion that we keep people around only as long as they are useful to our current cause. I’ve read all the Washington manuals, This Town by Mark Leibovich, Joan Didion’s Political Fictions, Katherine Graham’s Washington and Meg Greenfield’s Washington and a dusty stack of books by members of Congress and the press, but rarely do they illustrate the point of a power-hungry town chasing the carrot quite as clearly. At best they offer sporadic vignettes and anecdotes that share some insight.
Ask anybody orbiting the Hill or the White House, and they’ll tell you that Veep is a much more accurate depiction of this most powerful city than House of Cards.
I asked a veteran of multiple White Houses what they thought of Veep’s portrayal of Washington. The answer came back “where Veep gets it right is the interlocking relationships and friendships—even as toxic as they are depicted. DC is a much smaller town than people realize and teams form and re-form fluidly around the contours of those relationships.” But they didn’t agree entirely with the portrayal, telling me “what they miss are the divisions around issues and the fact that these things really do matter to some of the people involved. That’s why they take the low pay. That’s why the power struggles are so vicious. Ultimately who sits on the Supreme Court does matter. Veep gets it that it’s a game. But it doesn’t fully reckon with how high the stakes are.”
In Washington, that’s the redeeming quality of the characters—they really believe what they’re doing is right for the country. Ted Cruz is one of the more disliked figures in the city, but I’ve talked to Ted Cruz dozens of times and every time, I get the sense that he honestly believes that his agenda is helping the country. But like the Veep characters, he’s had to sell out and embrace Donald Trump’s agenda, hoping that he can insert a few of his ideas into the president’s thinking.
The saving grace of Veep is a character named Richard Splett who rises from a Capitol Hill underling to president because of—or perhaps in spite of—his honesty. There are still a handful of Spletts in DC, men and women who are honest to the point that it sometimes costs them points in the polls or bills on the floor of Congress. But most of the time they seem to be here only to act as foils to the more colorful figures.
We won’t know for a few years if Veep has staying power, but Washington shows are uniquely positioned in that their audience never goes away. People here still talk about The West Wing as if it were a real era of power. But Veep wasn’t just a Washington show, either. Some of the seasons were too rich with inside-the-beltway jokes, but it hit a wider audience. Maybe because it resonated widely but probably just because it was so damned funny.
Each political era leaves some characteristic lingering on the personality of this city. For Obama it was the idea, perhaps untrue, that we can participate in the politics of the town without catering to the old guard. Trump’s tenure will probably serve to strengthen Washington’s theory that Americans outside eyeshot of the Washington Monument are idiots. In that imaginary Washington of Selina Meyer I can only guess that her legacy will be that winning at all costs is possible but that selling our souls to the powers is rewarding only in the cruelest sense.
In Washington, that’s the redeeming quality of the characters—they really believe what they’re doing is right for the country. Ted Cruz is one of the more disliked figures in the city, but I’ve talked to Ted Cruz dozens of times and every time, I get the sense that he honestly believes that his agenda is helping the country. But like the Veep characters, he’s had to sell out and embrace Donald Trump’s agenda, hoping that he can insert a few of his ideas into the president’s thinking.
The saving grace of Veep is a character named Richard Splett who rises from a Capitol Hill underling to president because of—or perhaps in spite of—his honesty. There are still a handful of Spletts in DC, men and women who are honest to the point that it sometimes costs them points in the polls or bills on the floor of Congress. But most of the time they seem to be here only to act as foils to the more colorful figures.
We won’t know for a few years if Veep has staying power, but Washington shows are uniquely positioned in that their audience never goes away. People here still talk about The West Wing as if it were a real era of power. But Veep wasn’t just a Washington show, either. Some of the seasons were too rich with inside-the-beltway jokes, but it hit a wider audience. Maybe because it resonated widely but probably just because it was so damned funny.
Each political era leaves some characteristic lingering on the personality of this city. For Obama it was the idea, perhaps untrue, that we can participate in the politics of the town without catering to the old guard. Trump’s tenure will probably serve to strengthen Washington’s theory that Americans outside eyeshot of the Washington Monument are idiots. In that imaginary Washington of Selina Meyer I can only guess that her legacy will be that winning at all costs is possible but that selling our souls to the powers is rewarding only in the cruelest sense.
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