Outside the courthouse, State's Attorney Bond is exulting in his successful indictment of Clay Davis on corruption charges. "It shines a light on a cornerstone issue for any representative government," Bond tells the assembled media. "Public trust of public servants." Like trusting that officials sworn to uphold the law won't turn a blind eye to a slam-dunk federal case just to avoid handing a political rival an easy win? Is that the kind of public trust we're talking about here? Ah, but I'm being churlish on Bond's big day. And I'm not the only one feeling churlish -- the Sun's Bill Zorzi stops mid-scribble to sidle up to Pearlman and berate her for staging the perp walk of Clay Davis without bothering to phone the newspaper. Pearlman protests that they did call a reporter named Gail Gibson -- whoops, she hasn't been at the Sun in four months. "From now on," Sorzi says to Pearlman, handing over his card, "just don't jam me up like that again." And if you're thinking, "Boy, that sure is mean of that dick Sorzi picking on our poor Rhonda like that," let me just point out from my own newshound days that interacting with sources is a delicate balance, sometimes requiring the velvet glove and other times the iron fist. Guess which part of the delicate balance I excelled at? Pearlman takes Sorzi's card, but she doesn't look at all pleased to do so; Bond continues to pontificate about integrity.

In fact, he's still pontificating on the television set in Carcetti's office, where the mayor is watching with near-orgasmic glee. "How's it feel, Clay?" Carcetti asks of no one in particular. "Not much fun on the ass end, is it?" Sounds like someone's still aggrieved about not getting a return on his $20,000 investment. "You said it, Norman," Carcetti says, after Norman fails to jump in with any wry observation about the frailty of the human condition. "There's the short con and the long con." Norman simply suggests that Carcetti issue a statement about this turn of events and not to sound too happy about things: "You don't dance on Clay's grave until you sure the motherfucker's dead." So true, about so many people on this show. After more warnings about not pissing off Clay's supporters with any too-exuberant statements to the press -- "That guy still has a base," Carcetti cracks, "after all the shit he's pulled?" -- both Carcetti and Norman comment on how mayoral Bond looks. I assume they mean "mayoral" in the general, complimentary sense and not in the "prone to hissyfits" Carcetti sense. "With the profile he gets from this," Norman observes, "I'd say it was Mr. Bond's base to lose." Carcetti manages to suppress any "Hey, I'm not even halfway through my term yet" looks that may otherwise have flashed across his face.