It's true. A lot of people have commented that appointing CJ Chief of Staff is also very gendered move, in that CJ is the dutiful daughter and somewhere, Leo had to have known that if he asked her, she wouldn't say no. A bit like how caretaking for her father seemed to fall to her by the sake of her being there, even though we know she has two well-off brothers (whom we never do see in canon.)

True, but do you think he'd be able to get through one meeting with the chiefs of staff without pissing them off? Not to mention he wouldn't have been able to write anymore, which would have increased the general Toby misery considerably.

True. I just have a problem with the show twisting reality to make CJ CoS. It really is a decision borne more of 'they have Allison Janney in the role' and less to do with reality than anything else that ever happens on that show. Especially given that the Bush White House was shedding Press Secretaries left right and center in those years, who would come out and write tell-alls about how they knew NOTHING of inner policy discussion.

I also think there's some deliberate effort going on in the writing immediately before those episodes to make Josh a bit dumber about foreign policy than he appears in the Sorkin years. 'The one shaped like a boot' sounds like a quip he made in jest, and we'd seen him do a lot of Latin American policy in other episodes. It's not dramatic enough, I agree... but then, maybe they should have brought in a new character entirely to serve.