Ainsley is a Republican. Her father was a Republican. His father was state chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. When Ainsley was younger, she was a Young Republican. She couldn't be more Republican. And this White House is Democratic.

So how'd she end up like this, a Republican working in a Democrat's world?

It all started when she appeared on the TV show Capital Beat as an unknown political analyst who has been "clerking for [Justice] Dreifort". Sam Seaborn was expected to wipe the floor with her, as he is known to do. But Ainsley put him on the spot, among other things reminding him that "the town of Kirkwood [is] in California and not in Oregon" as Sam had claimed.

Sam was appalled and dismayed at his defeat on national TV, but President Bartlet saw something the others didn't. A spark. A sense of civic duty. And so Leo was told to hire her.

Which he did. And successfully. Ainsley was hired and placed in a sub-sub-basement office with steam pipes decorating the walls. Not the loveliest office in the world. But to Ainsley's patriotic spirit, it's just the right place to be.

Not that she was accepted easily. Sam balked upon learning she had been hired. CJ Cregg was infuriated. Her boss, White House Counsel Lionel Tribby, has no respect for her (or for her former employer, Justice Dreifort), and wishes to have nothing to do with her. It seems as though Ainsley's big break is a big flop. But Tribbey sends her on her first mission - fix a problem with two staffers who lied to congress.

Though her first assignment is initially beyond Ainsley's capabilities, she grows into her role as White House Associate Counsel. From Sam she learns the way things work, and the two have grown closer, becoming fairly close friends.

In fact, when Sam learned Ainsley had never met the president, he tried to surprise her by having Bartlet show up unexpected in her office. Unfortunately, Ainsley was unclad (in a robe, as her clothes had wet paint on them), drinking, dancing, and on an extreme adrenaline high after a major TV appearance. Needles to say, the meeting did not go well.

We fully expect Ainsley Hayes to grow into her role, to fulfill her potential, and to be the most consistently entertaining character on prime-time TV, for as long as Aaron Sorkin sees fit to keep the character on the show.

Episodes to date:
S2.4 3- In This White House,
S2.5 3- And It's Surely to Their Credit,
S2.6 3- The Lame Duck Congress,
S2.7 3- The Portland Trip,
S2.13 - Bartlet's Third State of the Union,
S2.14 - The War at Home,
S2.18 - 17 People,
S2.19 - Bad Moon Rising,
S3.3 3- Ways and Means,
S3.13 - Night Five.