MEDIA CAPITAL
The executive branch and the press haven't been this close since …
The 63rd annual White
House Correspondents'
Association Dinner
(WHCAD) is undoubtedly
Washington's Oscars,
and thus, "the weekend"
to see-and-be-seen.
The Saturday night dinner is just the
centerpiece of an extended fourday
love-in between the media and
politicians. This year's A-list floated
from the FOX 10th Anniversary party
at Cafe Milano on Thursday to the
Washington Life/Creative Coalition
Friday luncheon at Teatro Goldoni; to
Saturday's pre-dinner brunch hosted
by Tammy Haddad; receptions at the
Hilton; the Bloomberg after-party
(the biggest playpen and the toughest
ticket in town); and finally wrapping
with a well-deserved Bloody Mary
on the rooftop of the Hay Adams at
Cristina and John McLaughlin's Sunday
brunch overlooking The White House.
MAKE THAT A DOUBLE
The Double Mint twins showed up at The
Hilton in the form of G. Dubya Bush and
G. Dubya Bush where the flavor of the
night was Comedian-in-Chief President
George W. Bush, "Ladies and gentleman,
I'm feeling chipper tonight. I survived
The White House shake-up." He survived
this night as well, whereas last year the
First Lady took home the Blue Ribbon.
"She's hot, muy caliente," said Bush's
body double Steve Bridges, whose act was complete with all the annoying
snickers, sneers and body shakes of a
Bevis and Butt-Head sideshow. The
Presidential duo was a hard act to follow
for comedian Stephen Colbert, who
sardonically poked fun at the White
House press corps almost as much as
President Bush himself. Assuming his
dead pan personality he declared, "I am
appalled to be surrounded by the liberal
media that is destroying America, with
the exception of Fox News. Fox News
gives you both sides of every story: the
President's side, and the Vice President's
side. But the rest of you, what are you
thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping
or secret prisons in eastern Europe?...
Over the last five years you people
were so good over tax cuts, WMD
intelligence, the effect of global warming.
We Americans didn't want to know, and
you had the courtesy not to try to find
out. Those were good times, as far as
we knew. But, let's review the rules.
Here's how it works: the President makes
decisions. He's ‘the Decider.' The press
secretary announces those decisions,
and you people of the press type those
decisions down. Make, announce, type.
Just put ‘em through a spell check and
go home." (No wonder Colbert received
such an icy reception at the dinner.)
The President had his moments as well
asking: "How come I can't have dinner
with the 36 percent of the people who
like me?" But Bridge's G. Dubya got shot the only trial lawyer in the country that's
for me." "Some of my critics call me arrogant.
I won't even honor that with a response.
Screw em. No, don't screw em. Let's hit them
with some rhetorical eloquence: My friends,
our purple mountains with ramparts red flare,
white with foam and justice for all and fruity
plains gallantly streaming from sea to shiny
sea with a shiny city, on a shiny hill, above a
shiny prarie and maybe some shiny shrubs, I
see a shiny America." And that's not even the
Spanish version.
SHALL WE DANCE...?
BY CHRIS MATTHEWS HOST
MSNBC'S HARDBALL WITH
CHRIS MATTHEWS
The mutual allure of Washington and
Hollywood reminds me of the enormous
popularity of all those Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers movies from the 1930s. Paired
with Rogers, the dancing Astaire appeared
sexier. Paired with Fred, partner Ginger
seemed smarter. So to get the picture at the
annual WHCAD just think of Washington as
Fred Astaire, Hollywood as Ginger Rogers.
This explains the "prom night" atmosphere
of the annual event. It shows Washington
snapping up the advice of Horace Greeley to
"Go West!" And it has Hollywood ignoring
Rudyard Kipling's warning that "ne're the
twain shall meet."
What gives special dazzle to the night, of
course, are the oddly wondrous pairings, like
this year's coupling of Newsweek's hawkish
Lally Weymouth with Syriana's dovish
George Clooney. I felt sorry for the sweating
and puffing waiters trying to get through the
army of table-hoppers massed at that table.
You could say, quite safely, that the WHCAD
is just journalistic rivalry by other means.
The greatest joy on Washington's "prom
night" comes not just in what star you got but
who you scooped. George Clooney wasn't
sitting with Time. That's right, ladies and
gentlemen. The guy sitting with Newsweek
this year wasn't sitting with Time. Nor was
Time alone in its envy. From every table in
the Hilton ballroom except Newsweek's you
could hear the moan of that old Astaire-
Rogers lyric, "Won't you change partners
and dance with me?"
GEARING UP
It was a stealthy move for host Chris
Wallace to invite Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton to FOX's 10th Anniversary party
at Cafe Milano's pre-pre-party where
she shared the spotlight with new press
secretary Tony Snow, FOX's Roger
Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, Brit Hume and such
administration types as Karen Hughes,
Josh Bolton, and Carl Rove. Vernon
Jordan and former DNC Chair Terry
McAuliffe played backup. Owner Rupert Murdock, who recently held an eyebrowraising
Clinton fund-raiser, rationalized
that decision, saying: "She's been an
effective and good senator. It's no big
deal. It's got nothing to do with anything
other than her Senate re-election."...Sure.
UNO BELLO MOMENTO
It was a Pantoliano moment when the
Soprano's star showed up early at the
WL pre-WHCAD lunch with the Creative
Coalition for fifty at Teatro Goldoni, so the
hotshot hammed it up with the staff in Jersey
Italian. CSI's Hill Harper, who was recently
named one of the sexiest men in Hollywood,
surprised guests with a complimentary copy
of his book: "Letters to a Young Brother."
Dining on lobster risotto prepared by Chef
Fabrizio Aielli were Newsweek's Eleanor
Clift, The Post's Amy Argetsinger, Debbie
Dingell, The Hill's Jackie Kucinich and
Microsoft's Matt Gilman, Mark McFadden,
Marquis Jet's Suzanne Showers and
Lionsgate's Marc Dubic, amongst others.
ON CELEBRITY
CHASING … BY ED HENRY CNN
WHITE HOUSE
CORRESPONDENT
Rolling at the CNN
pre-party with the unlikely
triumvirate of rapper Ludacris, Jeopardy!'s Alex
Trebek and Super Bowl-winning quarterback
Ben Roethlisberger was quite interesting given the
mob vying for a photo-op with them. But spying
Karl Rove dining just a few tables away from
Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson definitely added to
the intrigue of the dinner. Here were nearly 3,000
newsmakers and journalists rubbing elbows at a
time of unprecedented tension between politicians
and the press. As a disciple of the late muckraker
Jack Anderson, I'm a hard-liner when it comes to
standing up for the First Amendment, but what's
wrong with socializing with the people we cover
for one big night? There's actually something
reassuring about our ability to break bread,
despite the blizzard of subpoenas and stakeouts,
depositions and suppositions.
I sat at the same table with Gen. Michael
Hayden. This guy doesn't just collect secrets – he
knows how to keep them: We sat together for
nearly three hours and he gave not one solitary
hint that within days there would be a coup at
the CIA resulting in him replacing Porter Goss!
I squirmed in my seat when guest comedian
Stephen Colbert cracked, "If anyone needs
anything for your tables, just speak clearly into
your numbers and someone from the NSA will
be there shortly." But I noticed Gen. Hayden
chuckling – and I was pleasantly surprised to
find him talking about sports teams from his
hometown of Pittsburgh instead of wonkery
battles in Aspen. I resisted the temptation to
join the stampede to George Clooney's table
(didn't want to confirm the impression that the
journalists put style over substance) so, imagine
my surprise when Gen. Hayden suddenly
jumped up from his chair and raced across the
room. Had the intelligence officer spotted a
terrorist? Nope. Gen. Hayden, a quarterback in
grade school, had been calculating just the right
moment to approach Pittsburgh Steelers Ben
Roethlisberger for a handshake – and he was
pouncing like a linebacker. Maybe celeb-chasing
isn't so bad. You have to like a four-star general
wearing his blue-collar roots on the sleeves of
his Air Force dress blues.
TAMMY'S PLACE
MSNBC's
Tammy Haddad's pre-gala annual
brunch on Saturday afternoon left no
doubt it would induce a Monday morning
call to the lawn docs. Co-hosted by Biz
Bash's David Adler, Barbara Comsock,
Russ Hodges and Hilary Rosen, the mediaheavy
guest list included colleagues Rita
Cosby, Tucker Carlson, Chris Matthews
and Rick Kaplan. The Washington Times'
Editorial Page Editor Tony Blankley wished
Tony Snow well and hoped "the staff allows
him to do it right." "Tony's got enough
pre-standing presence not to be pushed
around," he added. As for rumors that
Newt Gingrich (Blankley's former boss) is
running for president: "I don't speak for him
anymore, but he looks pretty energetic out
there." Former Senator Fred Thompson
was seen negotiating a deal with ABC
Radio. Best deal of the day though was
Tammy Haddad's: She got to keep the tent
up for her daughter's birthday party the
next day.
CLOONEY
AND POWER
COME TO
WASHINGTON
BY WOLF BLITZER
ANCHOR OF CNN'S
THE SITUATION ROOM
WASHINGTON
Together with his
father, he had just returned to the U.S. from
the remote African refugee camps in Chad.
George Clooney had been motivated to take
up the gut-wrenching issue of Darfur. "The
single most important thing I want to achieve
is to try and help make sure that it gets on the
air, that people see it, that people are talking
about genocide, which they're not," he told
me when we sat down to discuss his trip at the
National Press Club. "But if I show up at places,
sometimes cameras follow." That, of course, is
an understatement. The cameras love George
Clooney. And because he took up the Darfur
issue, many people who wouldn't normally pay
attention, did. He was on my show on CNN and
many others – sharing his eyewitness account.
He was also joined by Samantha Power, a
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who has also
taken on the Darfur issue. She won that prize
for her powerful book, "Problem from Hell:
America and the Age of Genocide." Power
and Clooney have both spent time in Darfur
refugee camps. "There have been 80,000
people displaced just in the last two months
alone," she says. The Sudanese government,
she adds, continues to make matters worse
by expelling groups who want to help.
"We all know from the 20th century what
happens when a government that is intent on
committing genocide also knows that people
aren't watching." I covered President Clinton's
visit to Rwanda in 1998 and I remember how
he acknowledged that he had earlier learned
of the massacres there but failed to act. It was
something he deeply regretted. History, Power
said, is going to remember that a million
people died under the watch of an American
president. Now, President Bush and other
world leaders are being pushed by Power,
Clooney and others to help. Clooney says he
and Bush (on this issue) are on the same page.
"Most of the world is on the same page, if
they are reading the book. Unfortunately, that
book isn't getting read often, or loud enough.
My job is to try and bring attention to that."
COLOR THEM RED CARPET
Newsweek's party featured George
Clooney, George Clooney and George
Clooney along with beauty siren
Georgette Mosbacher, actor Ron
Silver, Ambassador of Kuwait Salem Al-
Sabah and wife Rima, CNN's Cristiane
Amanpour, NBC's David Gregory, New
York Governor George Pataki and Lally
Weymouth; National Journal's party
hosted by David Bradley and John Fox
Sullivan starred Time Magazine's Matt
Cooper; former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright; actors Laurence
Fishburne, Maura Tierney, and Doris
Roberts; CQ's Keith White, Andrea
Mitchell and musician John Legend. The
Saturday night gala came midway through
a hangover-inducing week of parties, preparties
and after parties. Joe Wilson
was everywhere. Valerie Plame was
almost everywhere. George Clooney was
somewhere .Vice-President Dick Cheney
was nowhere.
THE ART OF BEGGING
Begging's not pretty, but someone's gotta
do it. If you didn't get an invite to the
Bloomberg After Party there were many
reasons to grovel, mainly that it was the
hottest party in town. If you managed to
get past the high-tech security check-in
where your whole life flashed before you,
you got to trade Colbert barbs with Alex
Trebeck, GQ cover-ready David Bass
with W cover-ready wife Hope, cosmetics
executive Jane Lauder, PR wiz Howard Rubenstein, Jonathan Tisch and the New
York Giant's Tiki Barber. It was a jungle
in there and that didn't include the body
count. Thanks to Bloomberg, guests were
left wondering if the tiger prancing across a
background projection screen was actually
a camouflaged NSA agent. If so, the agents
got their money's worth as I'm sure it beats
trolling through phone records all day. As
for potentially annoyed Kalorama neighbors,
a WL confidant relays this little scoop:
"Bloomberg treated all to a night at The Four
Seasons Hotel and coughed up tickets to the
after party as well."
ALL ABOARD
Not the Orient Express, but those who
"skipped" or weren't invited to the Bloomberg
bash took the fast lane bus to the "K Street"
nightclub downtown. The cushy Reuters
America trail ride deposited throngs of
relatively young reporters, who rubbed elbows
with lobbyists, wire reporters and trade
journalists drinking colorful martinis.
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