‘Top Line’ with Sally Quinn — Inside the First Obama State Dinner

 ABC News’ <A href='’>Rick Klein reports: It’s easily the hottest ticket of Washington’s holiday season — the first formal State Dinner in the Obama White House, being held tonight in honor of the prime minister of India. Only 320 lucky guests get to be inside. So on today’s “Top Line,” we checked in on what to expect with a guest who knows more about them than just about anyone: Sally Quinn, a journalist and author who’s been to more State Dinners than she can count over 40 years in Washington. Quinn said she’s a little surprised it’s taken the Obamas so long to hold their first such event. While much of the attention is on the glitz and the glamorous, state dinners are a critical piece of diplomacy, she said. “The suggestions from people in the State Department and National Security Council probably have more say than anybody else over who’s on the guest list,” Quinn said. “Then you start adding the glitz and the glamour. But first you have to really make sure that you’ve got the people who you need to bolster the invitation list, to make it really an important event for the guest.” Among the most difficult tasks in pulling together a State Dinner: Honing the guest list. “There’s blood all over the floor” by the end of the process, Quinn told us. “There are a lot of people who put a lot of pressure on the White House. And then I think that some people in the White House have special favors they want to do for their friends, and people they want to pay back.” “There are a lot of people who ask, who call, who cry. I’ve heard of people calling and crying, begging to be invited because it’s a really special deal,” she said. “I think most people here don’t expect to get invited. But there are a lot of people who do want to, and who will go to great lengths to try.” Watch the full interview with Sally Quinn HERE. Also today, we checked in with Ana Marie Cox of Air America — who joked that she’s taking Sarah Palin as her guest at tonight’s dinner. We touched on the latest in the health care debate — with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., making clear that he won’t support any kind of public option — and the effort among some Republicans to impose a sort of purity test on GOP candidates. On Lieberman, she said: “I gave up on Joe Lieberman a long time ago. I wish voters would.” On Afghanistan, Cox said: “I wonder how much time between now and that address is going to be spent on policy and how much is going to be spent on the speech. Because it’s explaining to the American people why he’s doing what he’s doing that’s going to be the hard thing to do.” Watch part two of today’s “Top Line,” with Ana Marie Cox, HERE.