Chief of Staff Michael Steintorf

Michael Steintorf runs the mayor's office the way a surgeon runs an operating theater: bloodlessly, efficiently, with no patience for feelings that get in the way of results. As Carcetti's chief of staff, he is the one calculating which crises help the boss and which need to be buried, and he does not pretend otherwise.

The Wire is full of idealists who compromise; Steintorf never has to, because he never had the illusion in the first place. Neal Huff plays him with a chilly, unblinking calm that makes every scene a negotiation, and the writing uses him as the show's clearest voice for the ugly arithmetic of ambition.