The Reliable Source: On The Town
With Lloyd Grove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001; 11:45 p.m. EST
Lloyd Grove, the voice of The Reliable Source, is out and about on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 9:45 p.m. EST, reception hopping and dropping by the many balls around town. Washington's in a whirl and there are a lot of stops to make and people to see for the intrepid Mr. Grove. He will be online twice in the evening (he first checked in at 9:45 p.m. EST) to talk about where he's been and where he's going.
"I'll be trying to figure out where to park my car so I can start the new administration with working wheels," Grove says. He talked with actor William Baldwin about the Creative Coalition festivities via audio.
So join in and hear what's going on inauguration night from a very Reliable Source.
Below is a transcript.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Lloyd Grove: I've moved on to the Creative Coalition inaugural ball at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Bo Derek and Ricky Schroder, along with Sharon Lawrence and a bunch of congressmen trying to rub elbows with the kind of celebs who have joined me here. Comments?
Washington, D.C.:
Any scuttlebutt you've heard about how the outgoing/incoming couples got along today when the cameras weren't rolling? I heard a rumor that Lynne Cheney and Tipper Gore were so icily polite to each other that it might have had an effect on the weather.
Lloyd Grove: Interesting, but I didn't hear that. I talked to Linda Daschle who was there with her husband, the former Senate Majority Leader for three seconds, Tom Daschle, and she told me that everybody seemed to be getting along just fine. Watching on television, I saw Tipper take Lynne Cheney by the arm as they were walking out of the White House. Now it may have been to push headlong down the rain-slick steps, but I don't think so.
Tucson, Ariz.:
How did you end up with the late shift? Why do you think Webster Hubbell was left off the pardons list? Were there any other surprises?
Lloyd Grove: I guess I just had a tendency to let myself be victimized. As for Web Hubbell, since his shenanigans at the Rose Law firm, where he was a partner with Hillary, came as a complete personal betrayal to the Clintons, he never seemed to me a particularly strong candidate for a pardon.
Bryn Mawr, Pa.:
Who are the bigger inaugural parroters, Democrats or Republicans?
Lloyd Grove: Well, I have to admit this is my sixth inaugural. Four for Republican presidents and two for Bill Clinton, and it seems to me that both parties party when the spirit moves. I do sense a definite ratcheting down in celebratory mood from previous inaugurations. I guess those five hundred thousand plus negative votes that Bush won by count for something after all.
San Diego, Calif.:
What's the average wait time to buy a drink at the ball(s)?
Lloyd Grove: Thankfully, I have avoided the official balls entirely this time and so am unable to answer your very good question. Here at the Creative Coalition Ball it takes a minute at most to obtain a free drink. I hesitate to think what the thousands of condemned soul in the hell of the official balls must be enduring at this moment.
Bethesda:
So what is Bushie style?
Lloyd Grove: Bush doesn't have a style. That is too much to ask of a regular guy like him. I think we're in for a period of calm and anti-glitz for the next four years.
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