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The first question may be answered, in part, by an episode tonight that mixes scenes from three seasons of the NBC White House drama with recollections of past and present occupants.

"Hey, we're kind of getting this thing right" was the reaction of executive producer Thomas Schlamme after former presidents, cabinet members and others were interviewed for the special.

It's their drive and dedication that the series has captured, Schlamme said.

Among those heard from: former Presidents Ford, Carter and Clinton and the political adviser to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove.

"We are absolute fiction," Schlamme said. "So what we care about getting right is the emotion of what it's like to be part of the West Wing. ... It's not a history lesson or civics lesson or accuracy of government."

But what makes "The West Wing" intriguing is that it has it both ways: Democratic President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his staff are imaginary but the political issues and crises they face are drawn from fact.

There's terrorism, on which series creator Aaron Sorkin based an episode in quick response to Sept. 11. There was a partisan clash over accusations of lies and a cover-up by the Bartlet White House, reminiscent of the rocky Clinton years.

The environment and other hot-button topics have been woven into "The West Wing," with Bartlet's advisers jousting — not always successfully — in often provocative debates with Republican adversaries.

But as Bartlet gears up for a re-election battle, "The West Wing" may be venturing into the most controversial corner yet of its parallel universe.

Sorkin is setting up a race between Bartlet and a Republican opponent that is intended to echo what Sorkin considered an intriguing aspect of the Gore-Bush 2000 campaign — but which Sorkin insists is not about the politicians themselves.

"I want to have two characters in which I can dramatize that conflict (between) the know-it-all and the guy without gravitas who somehow relates to the everyman," Sorkin said in an interview. "That doesn't make one of the characters Bush and one of the characters Gore."

The "West Wing" version has been slowly unfolding. In the Jan. 30 episode, White House communications director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) accused the president of refusing to confront his differences with the likely Republican presidential nominee, Florida Gov. Robert Ritchie.

"It's between educated and masculine. Or Eastern academic elite and plain-spoken," Ziegler tells Bartlet, adding: "A funny thing happened when the White House got demystified. The impression was left that anybody could do it."

In the March 27 episode, Bartlet was questioned by a television reporter about Ritchie (the character has yet to be shown or cast) and his newly published book.

"Have you read the book?" the reporter asks Bartlet in a supposedly off-camera exchange. "I'll read it when he does," Bartlet replies, waggishly, then adds: "I think we might be talking about a .22-caliber mind in a .357-Magnum world."

It later appears the Bartlet knew he was being taped, a sign he's willing to enter the fray with I.Q. held high. (Is Al Gore a fan? Returning to the political arena this month, his speech included a Bartletesque snippet of classic poetry.)

The liberal politician torn by conscience is a recurring figure in Sorkin's work. In his other White House fiction, the 1995 film "The American President," the chief executive (Michael Douglas) initially refuses to defend his philosophy against an opponent's sleazy attack.

Sorkin says he's "uncomfortable getting into personal politics" and calls his interest in the president narrow. "Nothing else about Bush interests me: the oil thing, baseball, drugs when he was a kid or not. All I need is the qualities for that conflict."

He isn't courting controversy, according to Sorkin. He says he had his fill of that after criticizing the news media for "waving pompoms" instead of providing objective news coverage of the Bush administration.

Although the Emmy-winning "The West Wing" is as much as character study as political pageant, Sorkin has been criticized for lecturing, especially in the terrorism episode. He denies any such intent.

"There are no lessons I want to teach you at all or lessons I feel capable of teaching you or lessons I feel need to be taught," he said.

"I have a story to tell every week. ... I just like telling my stories."

"The West Wing" airs at 9 p.m. tonight, NBC

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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