Your Picks for the Cream of the '06 Crop

Chances in '07? Poor: That man is not coming back to D.C. anytime soon.

Diddy (brings a posse of 40 to Lima nightclub, bottle-flinging fight breaks out) -- 0.3 percent

Chances in '07? Excellent: See Page D1 today!

SORRY, YOU'RE NOT ON THE LIST

One in an occasional series of dispatches from parties you should have crashed.

Occasion: Honoring Melanne Verveer and Vital Voices Global Partnership.

Hosts: Kuwaiti Ambassador Salem al-Sabah and his wife, Rima.

Feel-good reason for attending: Empowering women politically and economically around the world.

Self-serving reason for attending: Great place to schmooze up "I'm still thinking about it" presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Chuck Hagel, and brand-new Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Estrogen power: Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, the State Department's Paula Dobriansky and Dina Powell, homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, blogger Arianna Huffington.

Best bipartisan moment: Anita McBride, chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush, paying tribute to Verveer, former chief of staff to Clinton.

Speeches: Earnest.

Menu: Truffle and mushroom tower, lamb chops, risotto, chocolate souffle.

Off note: Broadway ingenue Natalie Toro belting "I Am Woman." Been there, done that -- about 30 years ago. Earplugs, anyone?

Girlie swag: Vital Voices logo scarf by Diane von Furstenberg, fancy Neiman Marcus 2007 datebook.

READERS TELL US . . .

Tons of mail about our item Wednesday that Rep. Keith Ellison planned to take his oath of office on the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Readers were divided into the yeas ("If Congressman Ellison swears on something that he believes in, then he will adhere to the values of that he holds dear"), the nays ("Your article suggests that Jefferson interest in Koran was as a result of the appreciation for Islam, when in fact it was to understand a dangerous enemy" and "This guy better enjoy his term because he won't be re-elected") and the helpful ("Why don't they swear in using a copy of the US Constitution? In that way they are not using their office to endorse their religion"). Our personal fave: "That article shoulda been on the front page." Amen to that, brother -- in the nondenominational, nonjudgmental, self-promotional sense of the term.

Spot a new rep doing something else gossip-worthy? Send your tips to reliablesource@washpost.com.