Skeleton at the Inauguration

Oscar Wilde once hymned Frank Harris as the man who was “invited to every great salon in London—once,” and, as one who reveres Wilde as much for his socialism as for his attention to the importance of gossip and frivolity, I should hope to do no better in the Washington of the Busheoisie. Still, one must be civil. I shall, at least initially, instruct my man that I am “in” to all callers. And I shall accept, and return, all invitations from the newcomers to our city. Once.

I fall into an unavoidable coma of boredom when anybody employs the phrase “bottom line” or dilates about “goals.” It is just not possible to rain on such a parade. And so I think I shall arrive late and leave early at the soirée for the new Treasury Department and its minions. Something tells me that here, and at the State Department too, there will be much babble about “credibility,” no ashtrays, and only bland white wine.

CH

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Christopher Hitchens

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Oscar Wilde once hymned Frank Harris as the man who was “invited to every great salon in London—once,” and, as one who reveres Wilde as much for his socialism as for his attention to the importance of gossip and frivolity, I should hope to do no better in the Washington of the Busheoisie. Still, one must be civil. I shall, at least initially, instruct my man that I am “in” to all callers. And I shall accept, and return, all invitations from the newcomers to our city. Once.

I fall into an unavoidable coma of boredom when anybody employs the phrase “bottom line” or dilates about “goals.” It is just not possible to rain on such a parade. And so I think I shall arrive late and leave early at the soirée for the new Treasury Department and its minions. Something tells me that here, and at the State Department too, there will be much babble about “credibility,” no ashtrays, and only bland white wine.