C.J. also walks out of her office, and she runs into Toby in the hall. He apologizes for missing their little meeting, but she tells him that Cliff knows what he needs to do. There's more clumsy exposition as they discuss the fact that there's a dinner for Nobel laureates that evening. C.J. seems to be anticipating the dancing and the "Latin jazz on tap," but Toby is less excited: "For those of us who are seated with the organo-metallo chemists, we'll run out of small talk by the soup course." C.J. gives him a look and tells him that he's going to have to miss the soup, because she's scheduled him to meet with the "Future Leaders for Democracy." Toby wants to know if we're talking about the near future or the distant future. C.J.: "Middle. Middle-schoolers, in fact." Shockingly, Toby seems less than thrilled at the idea of hanging out with a bunch of kids. I know, it seems so out of character. C.J. tells him to give them ten minutes, but Toby is angry that his whole day has already been divvied out in ten-minute chunks. C.J. tells him he's going to have to suck it up, because these kids have already been bumped from Jed's schedule and from hers, and it's their last day in town. Toby wants to know why he's getting stuck with them. C.J.: "Because you're so good with kids." Yeah, I mean the fact that he never stops talking about his own kids is proof enough of that.

Capitol rotunda. Cliff greets Santos, who is running in, Josh on his heels. Santos asks if he's missed the vote, and Cliff tells him that they're "doing the rule right now." Okay, my understanding of this process is that, for each bill, there is first a vote on the rule that will control the debate and certain other procedural details related to that bill. Only after the rule is approved can the voting on the bill take place. It's also my understanding that the proceedings can be stopped at any point, until the vote on the actual bill has commenced -- once that point has been reached, there's no going back. I'm sure that these three sentences are wrong in fifteen different ways, all of which I'll hear about shortly. Josh apologizes for cutting it so close, blaming the traffic from Dulles. Ugh. Tell me about it. They should have taken the bus to the subway. But Santos makes it clear that he wouldn't miss this vote for the world.