Columbia is both the US and the dove (Columba) - the latter symbolizing peace - so the bird in the scene would easily signify 'American peace'. And this just happens to directly relate to the imperial dream of the 'neo-conservatives' in/around the Bush administration. (The neo-conservatives, closely affiliated with the PNAC think tank, include Vice Pres. Cheney, defense secretary Rumsfeld, his deputy Wolfowitz, and others like Perle, Bolton, Libby, Feith etc.) Calling it 'Pax Americana' (meaning American peace), it had been the dream of the neo-conservative hawks to create a global empire ruled by the US.

And they had been at it for a long time. The Pax Americana vision was already in existence by the time of the first Bush administration (41) in the early '90s. The 'neo-cons' tried to sell their radical idea to Bush Sr. but it was quickly rejected. They even tried to get Clinton's attention, unsuccessfully of course. It was not until George W. Bush's administration and 9/11 that the neo-cons were finally able to convince the White House and move ahead with the 'Pax Americana' plan.

So yes, those American-peace 'birds' - (false) doves - had been tapping on the White House window for a long time indeed.

As for the craziness ('dementia') reference, it fits right into this interpretation in that those neo-conservatives were indeed viewed as 'crazies' and not taken seriously (until George W. Bush came along).

And it is not a secret today that the neo-con Pax Americana agenda was actually the driving force behind the Iraq war - which began in the month of Mars (i.e. March) just several weeks after the disaster of Columbia (= dove/'American peace').

Now, let me also point out that the grid pattern in the scene made by the window/blind in front of the dove reinforces the relevance of Noah's dove (Columba). In Greek mythology, its version of Noah's ark, (the ark of Deukalion) comes to rest at Dodona or Delphi. We can infer that this landing site corresponds to Ararat where Noah's ark descended. And this is acknowledged geodetically - since both Dodona and Ararat sit on the same latitude, 39.5°N. (It's interesting to note that Dodona is also evoked by the name 'Donna', the lady in the above picture standing in front of the window.)

At any rate, the notion of a 'grid' becomes significant when we realize that Delphi (the other claimed landing site of Deukalion's ark) was thought to be the 'navel of the world' (geodetic center) marked by the 'navel stone', or omphalos. Traditional depictions of the omphalos show two doves (or eagles) perched upon the stone, and they are said to represent 'a net of meridians and parallels', i.e. the grid of the earth.

Further, the omphalos stone is often equated with the Egyptian 'Benben stone', traditionally the capstone placed at the apex of the pyramid or obelisk. Like the omphalos, the Benben stone is often thought to have come from heaven - i.e. a meteorite. Also being a form of 'seed', those 'foundation stones' may be easily related to Mars, since we already have strong evidence of ancient Martian rocks coming here with microbes, or 'seeds of life', carried inside... And this is of course a major theme of the West Wing episode.

In terms of Masonic symbology, the Benben stone (capstone) would definitely turn into the embodiment of the 'All-Seeing Eye' (as seen on the back of the US $1.00 bill).

In ancient Egyptian terminology this would be the 'Eye of Horus'. Since Mars was also viewed as a form of Horus ('Horus the Red'), we have here a confirmation of the foregoing 'rock from Mars' theory.

To get back to the political context, these days the 'All-Seeing Eye' is often viewed as a symbol of the 'New World Order' - a super-elite group allegedly scheming to control the whole planet. Of course, the 'Eye' of the pyramid isn't inherently an 'evil' symbol. For instance, in the Bible it is Jesus to whom the cornerstone or capstone ('that the builders rejected') is compared. So it is probably more accurate to say that the 'capstone Eye' is symbolic of a cosmic opportunity capable of producing either or both 'Christ' and 'Antichrist', so to speak.

The neo-conservative 'Pax Americana' is clearly a form of the New World Order - especially since the Bush family traditionally has a big role in NWO conspiracy theories.

So We've come full circle. We've come back to neo-conservatives. It's now quite evident that, through 'contextual transposition', Sorkin was primarily talking about the current US administration and its war.