Ann Compton: Texans Take D.C.
W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 18, 2001 -- Bigger than life, over-the-top, outrageously extravagant — Texas-style partying this weekend is setting the tone for Washington social life in the coming Bush II years.
The capital city — with its long and richly deserved history as a stuffy, buttoned-down social scene — is getting a makeover during the inauguration. But local hostesses predict the jalapeno-hot kickoff will not succeed in changing Washington in the long run.
Boot Scootin'
It's not the inaugural balls setting fire to the party scene, but the quadrennial Black Tie and Boots bash thrown by Texas expatriates living and working in Washington.
On the eve of the presidential swearing in, a venerable hotel in an upscale residential district will be brimming with 11,000 native- and would-be Texans in gowns and high-heeled cowboy boots, tuxedos and Stetsons. They'll cram into every reception space alongside real cattle and country-and-western icons. They'll eat brisket with their fingers, but also nibble sophisticated fare such as 60,000 jumbo shrimp and gulp down martinis in a cigar bar opened just for the night.
The mix of trendiness and Texas matches George W. Bush's mixed heritage of Ivy League and oil-field roots. But Washington's true social cave dwellers are not impressed.
"Social life here changed violently mid-Reagan," laments Betty Beale, the dowager empress of Washington society reporters.
Standing amid the swirl of a pre-inaugural soiree in fashionable Georgetown, Beale bemoaned the end of glitter and elegance, and the fundamental change that ended Washington society as she knew it. "Women don't want to be hostesses anymore," Beale says. "They want to be players."
Legacy Gap
It's true that Generation X has not produced a new line of women, or men, in the traditional host roles.
And for the first time in memory, the "players" include a former president and his U.S. senator wife. Power couple Bill and Hillary Clinton may turn their swank living room in a $3 million home just off Embassy Row into a new center of political gravity. Not since the legendary hostess Pamela Harriman brought the Democratic Party back to life at soirées in her Georgetown mansion has the out-of-power party enjoyed such a glamorous epicenter.
More and more entertaining is done in Washington restaurants and the newest crop of restaurants cater to a decidedly bipartisan crowd. West 24 is owned by the town's most famous bipartisan couple, Clinton Democrat James Carville and his Republican wife Mary Matalin, who is heading into a new White House job. And The Caucus Room is a group investment for former Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour and Democratic power lawyer Tommy Boggs, among other bipartisan backers.
In fact, befitting the close presidential election and the nearly equally divided Congress, Washington remains a transient town that will celebrate power, no matter which political party wields it.
The Scent of Power
Witness the hot ticket earlier this week as successful jewelry designer Ann Hand (wife of an LBJ Democrat) unveiled her new perfume "Power" at a hip Georgetown café overflowing with Republican and Democratic power players.
"Each political party brings its own cache," insisted Carole Laxalt, who with husband, former senator and Reagan pal Paul Laxalt, throws galas that draw presidential contenders, Supreme Court justices, and the cream of the political pundit elite.
Amid the flutes of champagne-and-peach-nectar, one popular Democratic wife and hostess stood just off the dance floor and shrugged.
"Bush brings the Episcopalian version of s---kicking," she decided. "Country club in cowboy boots."
But she's unfazed. Like other longtime Democrats in the capital, she was here when these Texas Republicans got here. She'll be here when they leave.