‘West Wing’ rings true for former Clinton aide Brooklin resident served as deputy chief of staff

BANGOR – Washington insider Karen Tramontano wasn’t exactly a faithful viewer of NBC’s hit political drama, “West Wing.”

She was too busy living it.

“When I worked in the White House I just didn’t get home in time,” said Tramontano, who served as deputy chief of staff to President Clinton throughout his second administration. “Now it’s one of the only shows I watch with any regularity.”

As Clinton’s new chief of staff in his post-presidency transition office in New York, the 44-year-old Tramontano still hasn’t had time to tune in every Wednesday night. (She still hasn’t seen the season finale, although – like almost everyone else in America – she knows what happened.)

And since leaving the White House in January, Tramontano and her fellow Clinton aides have fielded countless questions about the accuracy of the Emmy-winning television show since the administration’s departure, she said.

For the Providence, R.I., native, Hollywood’s take on the fast-paced atmosphere of the White House, rings true – at least for the most part.

“It’s very, very close to what happens, in the hours worked that it portrays and the chaotic, but collegial atmosphere,” Tramontano said of the late nights spent fine-tuning policy and securing political support of the administration’s objectives. “That’s very real. That’s what happens.”

If there’s one small thing Tramontano said is a bit off the mark, it’s the casual relationships between the senior White House staff and the first family.

“There’s no ‘Oh, come on down and have breakfast with the president,’ or just popping on into the Oval Office,” Tramontano said while in Bangor this week to deliver the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Penquis Community Action Program. “That’s not an accurate reflection. There’s a little more formality.”

Tramontano began her Washington career nearly two decades ago when she and outgoing Penquis CAP Chairman Lee Umphrey worked inside the Beltway for Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I.

Since then, Tramontano has gained keen insight into the political process and – in the past four years – the close relationships among senior White House staff.

It’s those relationships that bind the aides of fictional Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, (Martin Sheen), a brilliant but personable country lawyer from a rural state who, against all odds, wins his party’s nomination and later the presidency.

Sound familiar?

It does to Tramontano, whose small-screen equivalent is Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, played by actor Bradley Whitfield. Tramontano’s thankful that the opinionated Lyman wasn’t strictly based on anyone in particular, she said.

“I don’t think Josh was modeled on any one of us, thank god,” she said. “Probably more, ‘thank god,’ for the show than anything else.”

Senior Clinton staff did have “a lot of back and forth” with the show’s creators during its first season, Tramontano said, giving them behind-the-scenes looks at Clinton’s final State of the Union address and, at other times, “a little access here and there to help them out.”

But since her boss left Washington, the show’s creators haven’t been as eager to pick up the phone, she said.

“They’re not calling us anymore. I’m not sure who they’re calling,” Tramontano said. “I guess we’ll have to see what happens next season.”