White House handout
Laura and President Bush entertain 7,000 guests of all ages at no fewer than 20 holiday receptions and dinners.
Posted on 12/22/2003 8:03:31 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - When President Bush warned David Gregory of NBC at a news conference last week not to pocket the White House silverware at a coming party, he was a little more than halfway through an Iditarod of holiday receptions at the Executive Mansion. Leaving aside what Mr. Bush's wisecrack says about his attitude toward the news media, it does highlight some of the most arduous socializing the president does all year.
From Dec. 3 through the Hanukkah reception that Mr. Bush and the first lady will give at the White House this evening (with the traditional potato pancakes, or latkes, made by an outside kosher caterer), the president will have presided over no fewer than 20 holiday receptions and dinners, sometimes two in an evening. They have been given for a total of 7,000 guests: members of Congress, the cabinet, White House staff, the Secret Service and the news media, as well as big political donors, family and friends. Some nights Mr. Bush shook more than 1,000 hands.
This is not to say that a president who has shown no interest in the dinner parties of Establishment Washington has suddenly transmogrified into a party animal. Most of the holiday receptions are standard seasonal events, with many of the same guests and much the same menu year after year, no matter the president. The sumptuous table in the State Dining Room always includes baby lamb chops (16,000 served this year) and crab cakes (23,000 served), along with several hundred gallons of spiked eggnog and a full bar in the East Room.
But the teetotaling, early-to-bed president distinguishes himself at the parties by what guests say is an uncanny ability to remember small details about thousands of friends, acquaintances and staff members: the names of new babies; the number of children a guest has; the fact that an old college classmate played the trumpet his freshman year. Mr. Bush, a former Yale fraternity president who stunned his fellow pledges when he was able to rattle off all 55 of their names, may be aggressively anti-intellectual, but his social recall is formidable. Even Democrats say that his one-on-one schmoozing skills are like those of Bill Clinton and that he has the ability to lock in on a guest as if that person were the only one there.
Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a research institution in Washington, met Mr. Bush for the first time on the opening day of the White House holiday party season, Dec. 3. As is the custom, Mr. Cromartie and his wife waited in line to greet Mr. Bush and have their picture taken with him in the Green Room, and a uniformed social aide formally introduced them.
"The military man reads out the name and the president immediately says, `Come on over, Michael!' " Mr. Cromartie said. "And then it's `Welcome to the White House!' And then Laura says, `Welcome to the White House, it's great to have you here!' The president was laughing and said, `Isn't this a blast?' "
Mr. Cromartie said he left feeling as if he had been treated like a major political donor, and wondering if such social skills were one reason that people like Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton get to be president. "You and I like people," Mr. Cromartie said, "but can we do 800 a night, for 20 nights in a row?"
Last Thursday evening, when there were two back-to-back parties for the news media, the numbers were even higher. The first shift of 600, mostly newspaper and magazine reporters and their guests, lasted from 5 to 7; the second shift of 600, mostly television and radio correspondents and their guests, went from 8 to 10. The Bushes stood in the first receiving line from 5 to 6:45, then slipped upstairs in the small elevator off the Grand Foyer for a 15-minute break. Then they were back down for more handshaking and picture-taking from 7 to 9.
Guests at the second reception were still going strong at 10, the president's bedtime, when the social aides began gently steering them out, again, a standard practice of most chief executives, who know that some guests will hang around the White House as long as they can.
The polite way to ask them to leave? Gordon Johndroe, the first lady's press secretary, said the wording is something like, "Thank you for coming, but if you could kindly begin heading toward the exit . . ."
As for the silverware, which was in fact silver plate (sterling or vermeil is used for state dinners), none was reported missing by Gary Walters, who as chief White House usher oversees all operations in the mansion and on its grounds. There have been problems in the past, Mr. Walters said, although none evidently related to thievery. "Our major problem is small sugar spoons or demitasse spoons that get swept up in the cleanup," he reported.
Nonetheless, when a reporter at the party asked Mr. Gregory of NBC if he was going to steal some silverware, he dramatically flung open his suit jacket — and revealed a fork in his breast pocket.
Laura and President Bush entertain 7,000 guests of all ages at no fewer than 20 holiday receptions and dinners.
His impersonation of Tom Brokaw as a twenty nine year old reporter is remarkable. (As seen on C-SPAN and Imus In The Morning on MSNBC)
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