Bill Clinton, John Kerry and a couple thousand other Democrats packed the National Building Museum last night for a gala tribute to departing Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe. The Democrats ate and drank. They clapped and cheered. They hooted and hollered.
Wow! Imagine what they would have done if McAuliffe had won the election.
Before the party, the DNC released a four-page compilation of McAuliffe's accomplishments during his four-year reign. They included raising more than $500 million, building a spiffy new DNC headquarters, training 25,000 precinct captains, and mobilizing 233,000 volunteers who knocked on 11 million doors and made 38 million phone calls.
On and on the list went. The only statistics missing were these: Democrats in the House when McAuliffe took over the DNC -- 212. Democrats in the House today -- 204. Democrats in the Senate when McAuliffe arrived -- 50. Democrats in the Senate as McAuliffe departs -- 44. And, of course, Democrats elected president during McAuliffe's term -- 0.
But the Democrats didn't seem to hold any of that against McAuliffe. Actress and Democratic activist Cicely Tyson called him "a truly great, great man." Sen. Kerry praised his "enthusiasm and his sense of zeal."
"I truly love Terry McAuliffe. He represents to me the best in America," said former president Clinton. "Terry McAuliffe can talk an owl out of a tree but he also has the heart of a lion and he works harder than almost anyone I've met in my life."
Many speakers praised McAuliffe's legendary ability to raise money. He is said to have brought in somewhere in the vicinity of $800 million for the Democrats since 1980. He inherited a party that was millions of dollars in debt in 2001 and left it with millions of dollars in the bank today.
Some of that cash was evident at the party. At the several open bars, liveried servants poured deep shots of top-shelf hooch -- quite a contrast to the inaugural parties the Republicans threw last month, where party loyalists who had shelled out $150 apiece to attend had to shell out another $7 to wet their whistle.
There was plenty of fancy food, too. One dish was a small glass of what looked like vanilla ice cream with a little spoon stuck in it. It was amusing to watch Democrats dig in to it only to find it was some kind of raw-fish-and-lime dish. It tended to evoke a quick wince from each partaker.
Onstage behind all the speakers was a woman signing for the hearing-impaired. This allowed liberal radio host Al Franken to get off a good riff.
"Don't listen to Mr. Franken," he said, and the signer repeated. "He doesn't like deaf people. I heard him backstage. Let's kill him later." By evening's end, they hadn't done him in.
Clinton noted that "McAuliffe is long-winded and I am and John is and we Democrats are." The gathered Democrats proved that point by gabbing through almost all the speeches, except for Clinton's.
By the time McAuliffe came out, a large part of the crowd was already in line for their coats and missed the rip-roaring McAuliffe campaign speech.
"All of you in this room showed the cynics that this Democratic donkey still has a kick in it. No, we didn't win the White House, but we did win 9 million more votes in 2004 than in 2000.
"It's going to be a great 2008 for the Democratic Party."
