Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Ok, so that's not directly related to the subject of this post, but I like it so I'm going to use it.

As you may or may not know, Saturday night was the Whi+e House Corresponden+s' Dinner. It's more or less the Washington, D.C. equivalent of the Ac@demy Aw@ards. It's when a bunch of media types and celebrities get together and pat each other on the back and say how cool they are.

At any rate, I'm not quite important enough just yet to get a ticket to the actual dinner, but I was able to score entry to the pre-dinner cocktail party. Which, aside from the President's speech and S+tephen Colber+'s little routine, was probably almost as cool.

My friend Jessica was supposed to get in town later that night for a weekend visit, but I was able to get in touch with her the night before and convince her to change her flight so that she would arrive in time to come along.

(For what it's worth, calling a girl and telling her to change her flight and pack a formal dress because we're going to a White House function is probably the smoothest thing I've ever done, and quite possibly ever will do.)

At any rate, it was one of those times in my life that I just couldn't help but laugh at myself. It was like I was being let in on the inside joke. All of these famous, and in some cases enormously powerful, people were surprisingly normal. And in many cases were much smaller in person than I expected. Apparently the camera adds ten pounds and six inches of height.

When we first arrived at the Washington Hi|ton, we actually got to walk down the red carpet. Having press and other spectators on either side of us made me feel like a total rockstar. Nevermind the fact that none of the photographers took our picture and none of the spectators knew who we were and were likely wondering to themselves 'Why the hell do they get to go in?'.

The majority of the attendees congregated on the pool deck. It was quite a pleasant evening and there was quite a lot more room there than in the cabana rooms where various publications were holding their actual receptions. There really wasn't much food around, but there were literally 15 or so open bars within a 100 yard radius.

Here's a picture of Jessica and me in our formalwear. What a sexy bitch. And Jessica looks nice, too.



Some of the names on the guest list were actually quite impressive. I was trying to be discrete in my picture taking so as to not look like a total star-struck dork; thus, some of the pictures are a little blurry. My apologies.

Federa| Reserve Chariman Ben Bern@nke showed up. Some argue he's even more powerful than the president, and in many respects they're right. The president might be able to start wars, but Bern@nke can turn us into a third-world country with the stroke of a pen.



Ambassador Joe Wi|son and his wife also attended, despite being at the center of the leak scandal.



Former chairman of the RNC, Ed Gi|espie seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere and was apparently mildly inconvenienced by having to carry on this conversation.



Tucker Car|son was moving really quickly.



While mingling, accidentally bumping into other attendees was quite a common occurrence. After one such occasion, I looked up to apologize to the man into whom I had bumped. At this point, I realized that he was wearing an earpiece and lapel pin with a secret service insignia. During that apology, I bumped into another person. I turned to apologize to this person, at which point I realized that it was Justice An+onin Sca|ia. By the time I fished my camera out of my pocket he had worked his way farther down the walkway, so I was only able to get a picture of his back.



Not long after that, I bumped into (though this time not literally) into associate Supreme Cour+ Jus+ice and fellow Georgia native C|arence Thomas.



Massachuse++s governor and possible 2008 Presidential candidate Mi++ Romney also made an appearance.



As did Home|and Security Secretary Michae| Chertoff...



And Week|y Standard editor Bi|| Kristo|...



And for some reason, New York Gian+s defensive end Michae| S+rahan.



There were also sightings of Ac@demy Aw@rd nominee Terrence How@rd, Super Bow| Champion Ben Roeth|isberger (I probably spelled that wrong, but I'm too tired to look it up) and a few other notable people, but I didn't personally see them.

My crowning achievement for the evening, however, was meeting Ann Cou|ter. She was a guest of the Examiner, so I didn't feel completely ridiculous asking her for a picture. I still felt considerably ridiculous, but not completely.

And it might've just been because she saw me as a political ally, but despite her flame-throwing writing style, she's actually quite pleasant in person.



All in all, it was quite an experience. Maybe next year I'll actually get to go to the dinner. Here's hoping.