Cliff peeks through a partially open door, where he sees an assistant wake up Senator Framhagen to announce that Cliff is there. The assistant strikes me as particularly, I don't know, flouncy as she walks into the reception area and tells Cliff that the Senator will see him.

As Cliff walks in, Framhagen asks him what he'll drink, and Cliff tells him that he'll take a Diet Coke. Framhagen tells him that's a pansy-ass Georgia drink, and that in Florida they drink orange juice. The Senator apparently has some fresh juice flown in every week. Someone should tell him that you can buy it at the grocery store. Even in D.C. Framhagen is played by Brian Dennehy, by the way. I hope they paid him a shitload of money for this role, because he's certainly not in it for the artistic challenge. Framhagen offers to "inject" Cliff's drink with something if he'd like. Is he flirting? Framhagen seems a bit put off that the White House sent Cliff to meet with him. A woman comes in and puts a glass of O.J. in front of Cliff, and Framhagen asks her to freshen up his glass as well. As she leans across the desk to get his glass, Framhagen pretty much buries his face in her bosom. After she leaves, Framhagen tells Cliff that she's a "sashaying piece of pulchritude." He goes on to clarify that he's "talking about smart pulchritude around here." Framhagen asks Cliff if he knows why he's there, and it's pretty clear that he doesn't. Framhagen tells Cliff to go back to the White House and tell them they'd better send somebody who knows something about the Castro rumor. He starts reminiscing about how he could talk with Leo when he was Chief of Staff, apparently on the basis of the fact that they used to "bend [their] elbows together, right in this room, down home, back when." Over yonder, back in the day, over the river and through the woods. Framhagen mentions "that NSA gal," and Cliff repeats, "'Gal'?" It's a colloquial term for a woman, Cliff. Try to keep up. Framhagen says that a couple of years ago, when that "gal" was in Florida, "that would be some serious pulchritude. She's a buttoned-up babe now." Again, Cliff repeats, "'Babe'?" Somebody get this guy a slang dictionary. Cliff finally realizes that Framhagen is talking about Kate. Did he really think the Senator might be calling Nancy McNally a babe? I mean, she's hot, in that "I can destroy the planet before lunch" kind of way, but definitely not a babe. And then Framhagen tells Cliff that if the White House is contemplating softening the Cuba embargo, he'll make sure it goes nowhere. Cliff leaves the office. Commercials.