Perry
[at dinner]
How can you defend them, Richard?
Richard
It's not about defending anyone. I just don't agree with you.
Perry
You don't think the White House is dismantling our civil liberties?
Richard
No, I don't think so.
Lynn
Our guests aren't interested in this, Perry.
Perry
Well, they should be, dear sister. What we do, affects everyone. When we say "Jump!" the rest of the world says "How high?"
Ambassador Harrington
[scoffs softly]
Guh.
Lynn
That was rude, and this is not the time or the place.
Perry
Why not? What do you say, Mr. Szamos?
Mrs. Szamos
Careful, Tamas, you are very bad at jumping.
[all laugh]
Mr. Szamos
In these troubled times, I would presume that safeguards might be your President's first priority.
Ambassador Harrington
As usual, my son grossly exaggerates the issue. Nobody is dismantling anything It's a perfectly normal price to pay for Homeland Security.
Perry
Please! They're stealing America! And God forbid if you're anti-war, pro-choice, or gay, or not one of their fanatical legions of evangelical hand puppets.
Ambassador Harrington
Yes, God forbid.
[gets scowled at by his son]
Perry
What about the judiciary, huh? Isn't anyone concerned that it's being turned into a Goddamn right-wing dog-and-pony show?
Mrs. Harrington
Perry! Language!
Perry
Sorry, mother. But really, it's a joke! Just like their slash-and-burn environmental policies.
Ambassador Harrington
Well, you may not have noticed, son, but there is an energy crisis, and the White House doesn't have to sugarcoat reality. We are at war. And the world of your tree-hugging ideology is *passe* and it is uninformed, and it is *dangerous.*
David
To the oil companies it is.
Ambassador Harrington
[clearly offended]
Excuse me?
David
Sometimes I think it's just White House rhetoric, masking Conservative support of big business, designed to scare us into oil exploration.
[which doesnt make him any more popular with father-in-law to be]
David
Everything they're doing is designed on fear.
[smirks]
Ambassador Harrington
Fear?
[doesn't hide his distaste]
David
We're a nation scared of our own shadow.
Mr. Szamos
[chuckles]
How the hell did a Liberal Republican get appointed counselor in your embassy?
[the Ambassador chuckles]
Mrs. Harrington
He's a very fine lawyer, that's how.
Perry
Not to mention he's screwing the Ambassador's daughter.
Tish
And doing it quite well, I might add.
[all laugh]
Mrs. Harrington
Shame on you, Tish. And you, too, Perry.
[to Mr. Szamos:]
Mrs. Harrington
Pay them no mind. Lynn is my only child with *any* sense of grace and subtlety.
[all laugh]
Mrs. Harrington
These two act like... Southern Democrats.