Marbury and Leo are in the Mural Room. Marbury's giving him hell over the distance by which the warhead missed the target. Just then POTUS arrives. They greet each other warmly and Jed asks, "What made you agree to take the post?" Marbury responds, "I don't know, I suppose it's possible I was drunk." Josh cheerfully says, "Reasonable bet." Jed says he has to go across town and give an address on global warming and the future of their planet, and asks Marbury, "That's not something you're interested in, is it?" Marbury says, "Oh, good God, no." Jed tells him, "Okay, stay here and fight with Leo about something. We'll get you some dinner, I'll be back in an hour, we'll do your thing, and then enjoy the reception." Marbury thinks that's fine. POTUS takes off as Donna comes in. Marbury sits on the couch and says, "An hour, did he say? I'll need some amusement!" Donna says, "Good evening, Your Lordship." He looks at her and says, "Excellent." Donna smiles like a shy contestant in a beauty pageant.

Back in New York, C.J. and Cornelius are going at it. The gist of the problem seems to be that he told a joke about New York city cops shooting at black men, to a roomful of rich Democrats attending a fundraising dinner during a national campaign. I'm assuming this was during the Bartlet campaign, and I'm assuming Bartlet was the candidate. But if so, I don't see why C.J. keeps referring to him cryptically as the candidate, and if not, why it matters so much. C.J. claims that as inoffensive as Cornelius may think the joke was, there was tremendous pressure on the candidate to disavow his remarks, and he didn't. Cornelius wonders if he supposed to feel good about the fact that he wasn't disavowed. C.J. tells him not to be naïve, and to remember that they were courting law enforcement. Sykes points out that they were also courting the black vote. She asks what he expected them to do. He says, "I expected that, when I was called in any number of places a 'Hollywood sleaze,' that you might have said a few words, maybe, on my behalf. I expected that you were gonna say that 'we in the Bartlet campaign don't believe Cornelius Sykes is a Hollywood sleaze. We believe he's a world-class humourist and millions of Americans agree. We believe his humour can be disconcerting to some, but those who are making noise right now are feigning their concern in an effort to frighten white men.' But what you said was, 'He didn't laugh at the joke.'" C.J. starts to respond and Sykes asserts, "He did laugh at the joke." C.J. weakly agrees. Cornelius adds that he killed that night, and that it was a very big deal for him, and that he got Bartlet to laugh, and then his parents read in the paper the next day that he is "Hollywood sleaze." C.J. says she understands. Sykes says he doesn't want to cause any trouble for the President, and that C.J. knew that when she walked in. He says he'll decline the hosting job, but reiterates that he killed the night of the fundraising dinner. She admits that he did. She says she's gotta go. I notice she's never once apologized for any of this. Cornelius gives a little wave and says, "See you next time."