Keeping Your Guests from Killing Each Other
Writing in the Washington Examiner, Meghan Cox Gurdon looks at the secret fear of every Washington cocktail party host: that her guests will hate each other.
At a cocktail party, a glamorous right-wing blonde interrogated a once-powerful senator, a man who still bore a sense of surprise at the swiftness with which he had been deposed. The woman pointed an accusing finger and let fly a sharp remark. The senator's wife, ignored, sighed and shifted uncomfortably in the corner of a sofa where she'd been trapped by other people's legs.
At a Christmas party, a left-wing congressional staffer sidled up to the wife of a famous neoconservative and began asking barbed questions about her husband's past. Amid the cheer and gaiety, the woman's face darkened in fury and she stormed away. The aide chuckled to himself.
At yet another gathering, this one predominantly "progressive" in political tinge, the host introduced his friend, a well-known conservative journalist, to a group that included a famous Obama confidante. As the journalist extended his hand, the confidante executed a sudden pirouette and leapt gracefully away, like a fawn escaping a dog.
Oh, but parties in Washington can get complicated! If you are the host or hostess, the longer you live here the trickier it becomes to pull together a guest list that includes your favorite people but that avoids forcing antagonists to endure each other's company.
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