~1:20am~ EST
A PARTY SHALL START IT ALL: For being in a big city, for being in anticipation of the biggest political election of my lifetime and for being on the cusp of the process of renominating President Bush, I think its pretty conclusive that I will never forget a night like tonight.
And not only that - the best part of the night occurred on the way back to the garage where our car was parked...but more on that later...
Decked out to the nines we struck out for the Time/Warner building. Security was so thick it was hard to breathe - but with the right little laminated card hanging around your neck - it is truly amazing to see how quickly you can get whisked in...
The building was a glow with colorful glasses of drinks, colorful lights, mnusic playing everywhere and the most amazing food. Every table there was more - all more delicious than the last. But there were some distinct highlights as well.
Since we have been here a year we are starting to be "remembered" when we come up to people at these things. John Fund from the WallStreetJournal literally kept bumping into us. We had a nice chat about getting he and his colleague James Taranto on the air on a more regular basis...
And there were colorful folks as well...
Rabbi Boteach - who is conservative on some things and liberal on others engaged me in a very nice conversation, told me how much he appreciated Salem Communications and asked me if I would come on his Long Island radio show sometime...
In addition colorful characters ran into each other...as this shot documents - Boxing promoter Don King (who surprisingly is an ardent Bush supporter) and the poster boy for political roundtables - John McLaughlin...
Long Island Congressman Peter King - no relation to the boxing promoter - said he listens to and appreciates the show...
And the highlight for the Lovely Bride and I - "America's Mayor" passing inches from TLB, actually shook my hand...
We McCulloughs also got a photograph made with Mr. and Mrs. Sean Hannity, (while Mrs. McCullough asked Mrs. Hannity what life had been like in radio all these years!)...We met Kathryn Jean Lopez (of National Review Online - THE CORNER Blog)...We saw SI Models, Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, and tons more CNN types that I didn't have the patience for.
Around 11:15pm I turned to the Lovely Bride and saw that she was ready to call it a night. We left the cool Air-Conditioning and re-entered the hot muggy humidity of NYC in August. We decided to hoof it the 6 blocks back to the car and on about block 3 TLB starts saying how she wished she had not suggested walking. For the next two blocks we debated on whether or not we should get a cab and then our most favorite moment of the night...
The Lovely Bride has never met Ann Coulter - though she has admired her for years...
As we crossed 5th Avenue to the corner of the GM building...I see this tall, trim, lean, blonde beauty - the amazing Ann, and who was by her side other than Mr. Internet - Matt Drudge.
I called Ann's name and once she recognized who it was she grinned big. I introduced her to The Lovely Bride and then fumbled my way through telling Matt Drudge how much I admired what he's been able to accomplish.
Undoubtedly, if they had attended the "hottest party of the year" over at the Time/Warner building - they would have drawn a bigger crowd than Gulliani...but the fact that we got to connect on a downtown street corner was just magical...
My highlight of the night? Ann Coulter tells Matt Drudge how good my show is and that he should hear it sometime...WOW!