Celebrity Lubrication

The West Wing reunion tour came to Washington today so that the actors who played members of an idealistic, left-leaning, pro-labor White House could advocate for the Democrats' lightning rod proposal that would make it easier for workers to organize unions.

"I call this process celebrity lubrication," said Bradley Whitford, who played the irrepressible Josh Lyman on the long running show.

Whitford was joined by Richard Schiff who starred as the oft brooding Toby Ziegler and Martin Sheen, the fictitious Pres. Josiah Bartlet. They linked arms with members of Congress, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ), and a series of workers who have agreed to be the celebrity players in a new ad campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act.

"This is a human rights issue," Sheen told reporters. "It's just bottom line fair that workers should be paid for their labor."

And yes, as Whitford suggested, the actors' job was to make the whole pitch for card check, as the proposal is known, a bit sexier.

They each mentioned that they've belonged to a series of unions throughout their glamorous careers -- and not just of the acting variety. Schiff said he was a union member when he drove a cab and cleaned Greyhound buses on the night shift to put himself through The City College of New York.

"We all come to this issue with a lot of history," he said.

"And we spend our lives on sets," he added, before Whitford interrupted, "with a lot of union members."

It couldn't go unnoticed that the top brass of the Bartlet administration took the lead on a bill that is supposed to have the full support of the actual president. Pres. Obama, departing today for the G-20 summit in Europe, has offered his endorsement of the plan, but with some key Democrats still undecided - especially in the Senate, where supporters need 60 votes to prevent a filibuster - his less than intensive public lobbying for the bill has prompted questions about how devoted he is to its speedy passage.

Sheen and his West Wing counterparts suggested that the Democratic president is on board.

"We hope to go to the White House for the signing ceremony," Sheen said with a smile.

The event also smacked of a group therapy session for the one-time West Wingers, who openly grieved their fictitious glory days running the country - even though their real life political kind actually are in power today at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"All of us have been going through an active identity crisis," said Sheen, who noted that he is known far and wide as the "former acting president of the United States."

Call it Bush era humor.

Sheen said a passenger on his plane to Washington greeted him as he boarded the flight: "Good morning, Mr. President. Air Force One in the shop?"

Whitford added later: "I think the thing that made the West Wing work was Martin's ethical humanity and clarity."

West Wing went off the air three years ago after a seven year run. But the parallel reality of the show still shines brightly for its cast.

At one point during the event, from which the cast members spoke from a podium emblazoned with the seal of the United States Senate, Schiff called Whitford "Rahm" - as in White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel - and then referred to himself as David Axelrod.

Meanwhile, the workers - who are welders and security technicians and nurses and teachers - told nightmare tales of being unable to advocate for themselves on the job, of employers who promised pay raises to colleagues who declined to be organized, of being unable to afford health insurance for their families. Unions, they said, have given them power over their own lives.

The actors, on the other hand, leveraged their influence and raised their voices without hesitation.

Whitford even slammed Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who with a tough reelection battle looming next year, said he'd oppose card check.

"There are profiles in courage and there are profiles in political expediency," Whitford said during a press availability in a conference room in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's office. " ... It sounds to me that he's more worried about his job than his constituents' jobs."

Team Bartlet was expected to meet this afternoon with several members of Congress to make a hard sell for the bill. And in a true intersection of Washington invention and truth, the actors' schedules were not disclosed.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)