By Richard Leiby
Tuesday, January 27, 2004; Page C03
Journalists weren't wowed when Drew Barrymore, better known as a "Charlie's Angels" vixen than a political correspondent, tried to wangle seats on the crowded media bus covering Wesley Clark's campaign in New Hampshire yesterday. At first they shooed her and her video crew away. The actress apparently is making a documentary about the presidential campaign, but she refused to entertain questions and her PR people did not return our calls. Clark aides managed to find three seats and she interrogated the candidate, asking how to bring young people into the political process. She pressed on, but the retired four-star general told her he had to take other questions, reports The Post's Paul Schwartzman. At a restaurant in Londonderry, Barrymore interviewed Clark's brother-in-law, Gene Caulfield, and they traded kisses on the cheek after that chat ended. It was a very Hollywood moment, but those hard-bitten, hungry scribes aren't easily impressed. On Saturday night, they spurned an audience with Clark supporters Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, saying they'd rather just go eat. • It sounded like open-mike night at the Improv on Saturday night as President Bush cracked up the crowd of panjandrums at the Alfalfa Club dinner. On former secretary of state Jim Baker: "Jimbo's been going around getting countries to forgive Iraq's debt. Next, I'm going to send him out and see what he can do about ours." "But what a stellar crowd," Bush continued. "It looks like the index of Paul O'Neill's book. Let me say something about that book. Paul said I was disengaged because he talked to me for 45 minutes and I didn't say a word. I wasn't disengaged. I was bored as hell and my mother told me never to interrupt. . . . "I feel especially good tonight. The economy is coming back. We're creating new businesses. Just the other day, I read that Pete Rose and Bill Bennett are opening a casino."
Ba-dum-bum. Who knew the prez was such a stand-up guy? • The always vivacious Conservative Political Action Conference wrapped up Saturday at Crystal City's Gateway Marriott with a visit from the cops and reports of an altercation involving David A. Keene, who chairs the American Conservative Union, the convention's main sponsor. That would be the same David A. Keene whom President Bush has thanked publicly, along with the ACU, for "advancing our compassionate conservative agenda." "Yes, something happened," ACU spokesman Ian Walters confirmed yesterday. "But there were no handcuffs, no fight, no knockdown, no charges and no escort out." Turns out a hotel security guard made an assault-and-battery report saying Keene pushed him after he tried to block Keene from entering a restricted area. Police investigated but the local magistrate declined to issue an arrest warrant. Police would not release the name of the alleged "victim," and the hotel management wouldn't return phone calls. Keene told us he and the guard "bumped chests." He added: "I'm still alive and free. There are people who'd like to see me locked up, but not for that." • If presidential candidates were books, could we judge them by their covers? Well, why not, since we're torturing a metaphor anyway. Below are titles from a roundup of candidates' favorites, as culled last week by the American Booksellers Association. Try to correctly match 'em with your favorite Democratic presidential aspirant (or Republican incumbent).
1. Wesley Clark
2. Howard Dean
3. John Edwards
4. John Kerry
5. Dennis Kucinich
6. Joe Lieberman
7. Al Sharpton
8. George Bush
A. "Undaunted Courage" (Stephen Ambrose) B. The Bible C. "The Great Santini" (Pat Conroy) D. "Moral Man and Immoral Society" (Reinhold Niebuhr) E: "Sometimes a Great Notion" (Ken Kesey) F. "The Good Life and Its Discontents" (Robert J. Samuelson) G. "The Trial of Socrates" (I.F. Stone) H. "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq" (Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry)
(The answers: Clark: C; Dean: E; Edwards: G; Kerry: A; Kucinich: H; Lieberman: B; Sharpton: D; Bush: F)
With Anne Schroeder