At the Piano: Condi and What's-His-Name
Who says Washington is a man's town? To celebrate International Women's Day, the Kuwait-American Foundation honored two of the world's most powerful: First lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Okay -- they threw in an award for actor Michael Douglas to keep things balanced, but it was the ladies who topped the guest list at the Kuwaiti Embassy last night. Roberta Flack sang, and Rice -- slipping into her concert pianist alter ego -- surprised everyone with a duet alongside composer Marvin Hamlisch .
  Rima al-Sabah, left, and UNICEF's Ann Veneman share a laugh with actor Kirk Douglas, who a-veiled himself at last night's dinner. (Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post) |
The black-tie dinner, hosted by Ambassador Salem al-Sabah and wife Rima , had a little glitz (actor Kirk Douglas ) and a lot of gravitas: Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito (making his first black-tie appearance since his confirmation), White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove , and most of the Cabinet, including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte . The evening, which also celebrated the 60th anniversary of UNICEF, raised $1 million (with the help of underwriters Chevron, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil and Shell International) to build and repair schools in Afghanistan.
There were plenty of heartfelt speeches, never-ending standing O's and a few light moments: Before dinner, 12-year-old Vanessa Campagna , wearing a cowboy hat, sang "The Yellow Rose of Texas" for the first lady. After dinner, Hamlisch introduced his new partner: "I invited a friend of mine to play tonight. . . . This person's probably a little nervous, but I know we can give her a great welcome." Rice and Hamlisch then played selections from the Gershwin songbook to great whoops and applause.
Michael Douglas (sporting a gray beard that made him look like Robert E. Lee) said he has even higher ambitions for Carys , his 2-year-old daughter: In a nod to the august women in the room, he said, "My daughter's opportunies are boundless. Perhaps -- as she will not be 35 years old until 2038 -- she will achieve a dream that no one here has yet achieved. For maybe, just maybe, she will be one of the first female presidents of these great United States of America."
Johnny on the Spot
Newly inducted D.C. Bar member John Ashcroft got a little hazing Tuesday when he showed up for a mandatory day-long ethics course at the Reagan building with all the other new lawyers in town.
Everyone kept turning to stare at the former attorney general -- first to check his reaction when the speaker questioned whether Ann Coulter 's joke about poisoning Justice John Paul Stevens posed an ethics violation, later to see if he held up the right answers on the group ethics quiz. Each time, witnesses say, he turned "red as a beet."
Classmate Elana Fate called husband Aaron , a lawyer working in the building, to tell him Ashcroft was in her class, and he ran over to meet him, shake his hand and ask a "quick" question:
"How do you balance religion with politics?"
"That is not a quick question," replied Ashcroft, who started his own lobbying firm, the Ashcroft Group, last spring.
Fate persisted: "The question is short, but the answer may be long."
Ashcroft smiled and clapped him on the shoulder: "With difficulty." And walked away. Snap!
Oh, and that was no "handler" by his side -- that was wife Janet Ashcroft , also a new member of the D.C. Bar.
THIS JUST IN . . .
· Dick and Lynne Cheney have donated $2.7 million to fund a new cardiovascular center at George Washington University Hospital. The veep has had treatment there for his heart ailments over the years, including a 1988 quadruple bypass.
· Former Texas governor Ann Richards has cancer of the esophagus, a spokesman said yesterday. She is still waiting to learn from doctors how advanced the cancer is. More than 13,000 people in the United States get a diagnosis of esophageal cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society. The five-year survival rate is 16 percent for white patients.
Quote
"Here's Dick Armey . Here's Newt . Newt. Newt. Reagan . More Newt. Newt with Grover [ Norquist ] this time, and with Rabbi [ Daniel ] Lapin . But Newt never met me. . . . Ollie North . Newt. Can't be Newt . . . he never met me. Oh, Newt! What's he doing there? Must be a Newt look-alike. I have more pictures of him than I have of my wife. Newt again! It's sick! I thought he never met me!"
-- Jack Abramoff , rummaging bitterly through a box of old photos with Vanity Fair reporter David Margolick for a profile in the April issue, after hearing that the former House speaker denies knowing him.
