Clifford Calley

Clifford "Cliff" Calley is a fictional character played by Mark Feuerstein on the television serial drama The West Wing. Appointed Director of Legislative affairs to fill the political planning void after Josh Lyman left the White House to serve as campaign manager for presidential candidate Matt Santos. Realizing Lyman had left a big hole when he left, and that Calley possessed many of the same qualitites as Lyman, Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg dragooned him into taking the White House Director of Legislative Affairs job.

Calley is a Republican, and took some convincing to join the administration of President Josiah Bartlet, a Democrat. When Calley was majority counsel to a House committee, he had a brief relationship with Lyman's assistant Donna Moss, despite their strong political differences. After being "traded in" as majority counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform for the committee's hearings on President Bartlet's concealing of his multiple sclerosis, he firmly insisted that a member of the committee should not be allowed to reveal that Bartlet's then campaign manager and later Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, a recovering alcoholic, had been drunk on the night of the third presidential television debate during the 1998 Presidential Election, as this was "not what the hearings were about", and that behaviour such as this was "why good people hate us".

Calley was educated at Choate Rosemary Hall, Brown University as an undergraduate, and attended Harvard Law School. He was a lobbyist before joining the White House. He always flirted with C.J. to get White House M&M's because his niece loves them.

As Director of Legislative Affairs, Calley, along with then congressman Matt Santos, was instrumental in successfully orchestrating a Democratic victory on a vote for Federal-funded stem cell research in the House. The strategy involved dozens of Democrats hiding out in the Vice President's office, as well as provoking Speaker Jeff Haffley to call the vote while believing his opponents were out of town.

See also

• List of characters on The West Wing
• List of politicians on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes