Today I had the privilege of going on a tour of the West Wing. A guy who I graduated with (Riley) who works in the West Wing and hooked up a tour. It was pretty awesome. Here are some details.

First of all, when you walk into the door that I did, you are immediately struck by all of the pictures of the president on the wall, all of which are very recent. As soon as I walked in, there were giant pictures of the president with Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. I was astonished because it had happened so recently. Apparently they move pictures into the front of the White House and rotate them back as time goes on. It's a pretty cool effect.

As soon as we got past the pictures we were walking up the stairs and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan walks down some stairs past us and said hi. I later saw him giving a tour himself, which was odd. Why would the Press Secretary be giving tours? I figured it had to be a family member or perhaps a big time GOP donor.

We then went out to the Rose Garden, which was really nice. It's a lot quieter than I ever imagined it would be. You could see where Marine One lands, where they hold press conferences, etc. Riley then told us about how he proposed to his fiancé in the Rose Garden. I asked if he had to get permission to do it and he told us how he had to get clearance from his boss, who cleared it with the grounds director, who cleared it with the Secret Service, etc. Pretty crazy. Imagine if he hadn't and the Secret Service flipped out and clobbered him. It would be like a Ben Stiller movie.

Soon after, we saw the Cabinet Room and the Roosevelt Room. The Cabinet Room was pretty much what I expected; it didn't look much different than it does on TV. One interesting fact about the Cabinet Room is that the cabinet members have their own personal chairs, which have their names engraved on them. At the end of a term cabinet members have the option of buying their chair. Riley didn't know how much each chair cost to buy, but suspected it was a lot. The Roosevelt room as brighter than I imagined, which was common of the whole West Wing. I suppose that the TV show turns down the lighting to make it more dramatic.

After that it was on to the Oval Office. We were told that each president has the Oval Office tailored to his tastes. Bush has a southwestern style rug in there, which is sandy and gold. It wasn't the blue that I expected. It of course had the president's seal on it, but on the outer edge it had lone stars on it, giving it a Texas touch.

We then went to the press room, which was smaller and dirtier than I imagined. There were newspapers and garbage everywhere. Also interesting were the seats, which were rumored to have come from an old Air Force One. This was one of the few places where we were allowed to snap pictures (see above). I was surprised that they let us play on the podium. I started giving mock press conference statements about the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and about how I "wouldn't get into commenting about that". That was fun.

Lastly it was on to see the door to the Situation Room. As I walked up to the door, the phone next to it rang and it freaked me out, but it stopped after one ring. I saw shadows moving under the door, but nobody came out of the room.

That's about it. I couldn't go to the residence or East Wing because that's where the president was. Ah well.

Riley explained that there were three major differences from the real West Wing and the West Wing TV show. First of all was the lighting, which I mentioned earlier. Second was the lack of people. There isn't anywhere to fit a ton of people, which is how the show presents the office. The overwhelming majority (about 90%) of people are in the Old Executive Office Building. Lastly, the roles that the characters take on in the show encompass multiple titles. For example, Josh Lyman is the Deputy Chief of Staff and somehow also in charge of all legislative affairs.

The Washington Post has online layout of the West Wing, if you're interested. Actually, I'll post it up here in case they take it down.

1: Linda Gambatesa, Deputy Assistant to the President for Management, Administration and Oval Office Operations
2: Personal Secretary and Personal Aide to the President
3: Scott McClellan, Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary
4: Pamela Stevens, Assistant Press Secretary
5: Erin Healy, Assistant Press Secretary
6: Steve Hadley, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor
7: Condoleezza Rice, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
8: Richard B. Cheney, Vice President
9: Jonathan Burks, Special Assistant to the President for Policy and Veronica Vargas Stidvent, Special Assistant to the President for Policy
10: Joseph Hagin, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations
11: Harriet Miers, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
12: Andrew H. Card, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff
13: Dan Bartlett, Assistant to the President for Communications
14: Mike Gerson, Assistant to the President for Speechwriting
15: David Hobbs, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
16: Eric Pelletier, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
17: Steve Friedman, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
18: Keith Hennessey, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
19: Suzy DeFrancis, Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications
20: Dina Powell, Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel
21: David Leitch, Deputy Counsel to the President
22: Margaret Spellings, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy
23: Kristen Silverberg, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy
24: Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to the President
25: Israel Hernandez, Deputy Assistant to the President and Assistant to the Senior Advisor
26: Alberto Gonzales, Counsel to the President

Lower Press Office
* Claire Buchan, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary
* Trent Duffy, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary
* Josh Deckard, Assistant Press Secretary

West Wing Basement
* Melissa Bennett, Special Assistant to the President for Appointments and Scheduling
* Brett Kavanaugh, Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary
* Karin Torgerson, Special Assistant to the President and Associate Staff Secretary
* Eric Draper, Director of Photography
* Paul Morse, Deputy Director of Photography
* Gen. John Gordon, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
* Dr. Richard Falkenrath, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor
* Brian Montgomery, Deputy Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary
* Colleen Litkenhaus, Special Assistant to the President for Management and Administration