Good News and Bad News Tonight

The transit strike in New York has been postponed until Tuesday, with only a limited strike against a couple of private bus lines in Queens set for Monday. It promises to be a temporary reprieve, however; the union and the MTA haven't made any progress, and no further talks are planned as of yet.

Also, I learned that "The West Wing"'s John Spencer, who played White House chief of staff Leo McGarry and not only looked but also exuded the part, died of a heart attack four days short of his 59th birthday. This alone is sad news. It will be interesting to see how the show's writers deal with this. Bear in mind that McGarry was tapped by Representative Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits), the Democratic presidential candidate running to succeed Martin Sheen's Josiah Bartlet, to be his running mate. (The fictional election hasn't been decided yet, but anyone can tell it's leading to a Santos victory.) Only one vice presidential candidate in real life, to my knowledge, has ever died during the campaign - incumbent Vice President James Sherman in 1912, who died six days before the election (he was incumbent President William Howard Taft's running mate), weakening a ticket already fated to lose. (Sherman is also the seventh - and most recent - Vice President to have died in office.)

Art may imitate life, as "The West Wing" has suffered in the Nielsens since NBC moved it to Sundays and has only aired twice since its live November 6 presidential debate episode; it's going to be pre-empted again this Sunday for a special Tom Brokaw report. Spencer's death could spell a similar fate for the series.