President Bush drew cheerful laughter from 3,000 journalists, government bigs, tycoons, Hollywood types and others with a slide show of "never before seen" family photos at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night at the Hilton Washington.
"Some people have asked me . . . if the vote recount left any hard feelings between my brother Jeb and me," the president said. "Not a bit! In fact, here's a picture of the governor of Florida."
Naked, frontal, age 4 or so.
The crowd, accustomed to enjoying these annual self-deprecating humblings of the commander in chief (though the Marine Band played "Hail to the Chief" this time), ate it up.
There's a photo of little W on his fave horse ("sure-footed, steady . . . his name was Dick Cheney"); taking a bath with Dad and his brothers and sister ("With all those kids in the tub, it's not arsenic in the water I'd be worried about"); reading Playboy in college ("The press has gotten the wrong idea that I was a smart-aleck party guy. . . . I actually did a lot of independent reading.").
Bush's first-grade report card flashed on the screen -- all A's. "My advice," he quipped, "is don't peak too early."
"I don't know who laughed harder, me or Doris Kearns Goodwin," said actress Bo Derek of the historian. "We sat together. We talked about everything from Roosevelt to Churchill to Lincoln." Derek, who'd made campaign appearances with Bush, said she thought him "fantastic. He'll be a great president. He is."
Derek was talking on the balcony of the Trade Ministry of the Russian Federation next to the Hilton, where many pooh-bahs attended media mogul Michael Bloomberg's tony "after-party," complete with costumed dancers. Then she excused herself for a photo with former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who'd sidled up.
"The president did well, it was nice," Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myerswas saying to "West Wing" actor Richard Schiff (the black-bearded guy who plays Toby, a top adviser to the prez). "He was funny. Clinton was not so good his first year. He got better every year at holding the room. Bush did really well considering it's his first."
"Maybe he was swinging for singles with that slide show, rather than a home run," Schiff said.
"Yeah!" Myers agreed.
Schiff had to speculate, because he and the other "West Wing" cast members were held up at Washington National Cathedral Saturday night shooting a script and missed the dinner.
There did seem to be a sense that the tone of the evening was a bit more gentle than at similar events during the Clinton years. Even "Saturday Night Live" comedian Darrell Hammond's wicked impersonations of Clinton, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson and others -- he performed after Bush -- were within (though at moments, barely) adult bounds; mercifully, perhaps, Hammond didn't impersonate El Presidente.
"It was different this year, a little less raucous," said actress Dana Delany of "China Beach" fame at the Bloomberg party.
Mega-developer Donald Trump, there with his daughter Ivanka and his girlfriend Melania Knauss, thought Bush's performance "very beautiful at the end, with his references to family. I was here four years ago with Clinton, and it was different. This was funny tonight, but actually more serious."
Indeed, Bush ended his talk with a photo of himself and his wife -- the first lady was with him at the dinner -- as young lovers. "Eventually I met a woman named Laura Welch," he said to applause. "She changed my life. She has given me as an adult what I enjoyed as a child, and that is a loving family. . . .
"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been blessed with a family that is full of love, and I pray the same for you."
Bush also grew serious in his talk as he saluted the pilot of the U.S. surveillance plane that had been held in China, Lt. Shane Osborn, and crew member Lt. j.g. John Comerford, both of whom were there.
"He was excellent," said Osborn, in dress whites, later at the Bloomberg party, hugging his girlfriend, Roxanne Faustino. "It was an honor to meet him, the greatest honor of my life."
"The president was outstanding," agreed Comerford as his girlfriend, Colleen Mavar, gazed dreamily at him. "My biggest concern was our families being worried about us." Comerford had used an ax to smash computers on the plane as it limped in for a landing in an effort to deny sensitive intelligence equipment and data to the Chinese.
"We got the highest-priority items" destroyed, he said. "We did all we could. I'm proud of the crew."
The black-tie event had kicked off with a series of "pre-parties" hosted by ABC, Gannett, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, National Review and other organizations in rooms outside the main ballroom. Guests at most of these tended to spill out and mingle in the hotel's outdoor courtyard on the beautiful, mild spring evening.
Internet journalist Matt Drudge was there in his dark glasses and little straw hat, chatting with New Yorker contributor Jeffrey Toobin. Aldrin was talking with Vietnam veteran Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Among the topics that came up were the revelations concerning former senator Bob Kerrey's (he wasn't there) Vietnam service. "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch, along with others who've appeared on the show, was much in evidence -- as were ABC's Sam Donaldson, CBS's Bill Plante and the great Bloomberg.
"If Bush keeps dumping on himself," Donaldson quipped of two big Washington dinners where he's seen the president tell jokes, "we'll believe him."
"Survivor 2" alumna Maralyn "Mad Dog" Hershey, who'd spent 26 years on the D.C. police force, said of a tattoo on her arm: "This is definitely a crocodile. And I have a kangaroo on my right calf. Wanta see it?"
Hershey and others were more than eager to smile and talk for various roving camera crews. Tourists, apparently amazed by the milling scene below them, stood on a balcony gawking and taking snapshots.
"I took the low road," Drudge joked of his muckraking career to Toobin. Glancing around, he said he sensed that this year's event was a little "less Tina Brown, more Bill Buckley."
Indeed, the grand old man of the conservative movement, editor and writer William F. Buckley Jr., seemed in his element. "I was delighted to meet Katherine Harris," he grinned. "I told her to do it again four years from now. She promised she would."
The dinner kicked off with a video spoof of "Survivor," featuring staged antics by media types and politicians in a skit about Republican and Democratic "tribes" fighting. At one point, Bob Dole is shown eating something and saying, "Well, monkey brains aren't too bad with Pepsi."
Journalism awards were announced, and a four-year college scholarship went to Daniel Lyght, 17, a senior at Rockville High who's thinking of going into sports journalism.
After receiving his award and a presidential handshake, Lyght returned to his table and said happily, "That was the most nervous I've been in a while."
He'll get used to it.
