Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Off to a Decent Start

Friday, January 19, 2001

All righty, then. Got the opening ceremonies behind us. Got the fireworks. Got the first speech. Got the big dinners out of the way. This Inaugural Weekend is cooking, even if the weather is not cooperating.

At one of the three, intimate "Candlelight Dinners" for 5,700 people last night, a Hollywood type showed up at will call with an entourage. The problem? Only the actor and his guest were expected but he showed up as a party of five.

When informed that they could not all sit together, but that the additional three would be seated in a good location, one of their number said, "Well, maybe we'll just get on a plane and go back to California."
"Fine," I said as I turned and walked away. "See ya."
"Hey," he said as he followed me down the line of tables. "Can't we work this out?"
"I made an offer to seat you. You countered with an offer to go home. I've decided to accept your offer."

In the end they were seated and, I presume, enjoyed the dinner. But that guy will never eat LUNCH in this town again.

Meanwhile the Democrats were having a difficult time landing a solid punch on John Ashcroft as his confirmation hearings bumped along through the end of the week. Senator Edward Kennedy is leading the hearings as Committee Chairman for the rest of this day and a part of tomorrow,. He has now threatened a filibuster to prevent a vote on Ashcroft which is the tip-off he doesn't have the votes to block.

Kennedy's leadership in the fight to stop Ashcroft's nomination has, to me, just the most gentle scent of hypocrisy.

And while we're on the subject of hypocrisy. Let's hear it for 59-year-old Jesse Jackson! Woo Hoo!

Word on the Hill is he got a note of congratulations on the birth of his daughter - even though the announcement cards were about 18 months late going out - from 238 year-old Senator Strom Thurmond who suggested he wasn't certain he was finished yet his own self.

The 39-year old woman has written a book on Jackson entitled, "Beyond the Boundaries: Reverend Jesse Jackson and International Affairs" which is almost too good to be true.

I was busily counting on my fingers to see if Jackson's ministering to Bill Clinton coincided with his ministrations to his paramour when I made may way down to the 19th graf of the Associated Press piece by Martha Irvine, "The child is reportedly 20 months old, meaning she could have been conceived as early as July 1998 - a month before his visit with the president." Just imagine THAT conversation.

Bill Clinton's farewell address last night will not likely be compared in future high school history texts with George Washington's but he did remind us, again, of J. R. Ewing's observation that "once you can fake sincerity, the rest is easy."

The Washington Post's John F. Harris noted that the speech was the 14th time Clinton had addressed the nation from the oval office even though, "The most famous White House speech - and the most painful for Clinton - was not delivered from the Oval Office, but from the White House Map Room, when he acknowledged an improper relationship with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky."

It is interesting to reflect on that part of Mr. Clinton's character which would not allow him to admit, in the Oval Office, what he had been doing in the Oval Office.

I know you don't want to hear this, but many members of the outgoing administration are first rate people. On my cell phone last night, amid about a hundred messages about people who couldn't find their seats at one or another of the dinners, I received a short verbal note from former Clinton image-enhancer, Josh King, wishing me - as a surrogate for the Bush team - well. It was a very thoughtful thing to do.

Last night, driving home from my encounter with the big-time-Hollywood-type, traffic was stopped for the President-elect's motorcade returning to Blair House. I put the Mullmobile in park to watch, counted 31 vehicles, and smiled.

Mullings (which will begin a regular "Letters to Mullings" section shortly) received the following:
DEAR MULLINGS: I got an official looking invite to the inauguration.
In order to know how special I should feel, I would like to know how
many of these were sent out?
Jeremy Berg

DEAR JEREMY: Eight.
r.
-- END --

Copyright © 2001 Richard A. Galen

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