We'd all like to believe that politicians of both parties really believe in what they say they believe in, really feel strongly about their convictions -- and that the political system isn't just some exclusive club where, when the cameras shut off, everyone is really just great friends. But every now and again, the coziness of the Washington Establishment and the clubby nature of it gets put on display. This week there was one of those occasions at the 10th anniversary party in Georgetown for Fox News Sunday.
Here's the Washington Post excerpt:
"There was a buzz when Dick Cheney walked into the 'Fox News Sunday' 10th anniversary bash Wednesday night, but it was another guest -- arriving fashionably late -- who really got heads turning. Hillary Clinton?!!? Here? 'Having the clear frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination show up at a Fox News party created a lot of excitement, and makes a statement about how we're regarded in top Democratic circles,' said host Chris Wallace , who invited her to the celebration. Clinton spent an hour at Cafe Milano schmoozing with News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch (very chummy since last year's truce), Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, and most of the Bush administration, including Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett and former Fox host Tony Snow, just hours after he was named the new Bush spokesman...More than 300 VIPs crammed into the Georgetown hot spot, passing a gantlet of security to make the cut. Much jockeying for face time with Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly, and once-and-future power brokers such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sens. John McCain and Ben Nelson, Rep. Tom DeLay, Newt Gingrich, Ken Duberstein, Ted Olson, Vernon Jordan and former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe. Yes, that flashy redhead was Georgette Mosbacher... The mood was conservatively expansive...and appropriately lush: Open bar, lots of food, cigars aplenty."
This really shows you how Washington works. It is a nauseating portrait, for sure -- particularly the Democratic Party aspect of it. Here you have a network that behaves like the press wing of the Republican Party, and yet here you have high-profile Democrats publicly celebrating its milestones. This, of course, comes one day after other high-profile Beltway Democrats cheered the appointment of fringe right-wing talkshow host Tony Snow as the spokesman for the White House.
To call this pathetic is an insult to things that are pathetic. It is like Washington Democrats motto in fighting the GOP is "Thank you, sir! May I have another?"