"I think she should ask Diane Sawyer if Mike Nichols was the best sex she ever had," Miller joked. "And then she should ask Sam Donaldson if he's ever had sex.''

But there is a sort of poetic justice in the infusion of these media-made stars to the big press blowout. McDonald merely brought Maples to dinner. Sawyer brought her into America's living rooms.

Eight year later, Insight's Rodriguez put that last sleazy straw on the camel's overburdened back by bringing Jones -- a woman whose only claim to fame was that she had accused the leader of the free world of whipping it out and asking her to "kiss it."

"He believes in the whole theory that any publicity is good publicity," says a former Insight employee. "He deserves some of the criticism" for the soiling of the dinner. "He was really happy with himself that he was getting all the attention."

Rodriguez seems to see the Times' hand-wringing as annoying more than anything else. "The gist of it was, I wasn't going to take some moral position on who was good enough to go and who was bad enough to go," he says. "Not to put Jones and the Supreme Court on the same playing field, but should we not have allowed any of the nine justices who ruled unanimously that the president could be sued? What about [Clinton attorney] Bob Bennett? It became a real slippery slope. How do you make these kinds of calls? It was a tough issue but then it dawned on me that it wasn't something I really had to grapple with -- she had as much right to be there as anybody else. And if she had enough stones to go then why not?"

Donaldson, newly reassigned to the White House beat for ABC News, didn't seem to have a problem with it that night, as he sidled up to Jones for a photo. Rodriguez points out that he wasn't her only suitor for that night -- Jones was asked to attend by five or six other news organizations.

Since he took office last year as WCHA president, Stewart Powell has tried to remind the members of the WCHA that the night is intended to honor the president. "We rely on the good judgment of our members to invite guests who share that goal," he says. "But if a news organization or a member of a news organization has a different agenda, there's really not much we can do."

Powell has also initiated a number of changes to help steer the ship back to the land of respectability. For one, he says, instead of a comedian, the supremely inoffensive Aretha Franklin will be this year's host. (Virtues king Bill Bennett was heard repeatedly mumbling "son of a bitch" after each of host Al Franken's GOP-targeted jokes in '96.)

Additionally, Powell has enlisted MSNBC's cleanly pressed, lightly starched Brian Williams to help the evening refocus on the awards phase of the dinner. As Powell wrote to Oreskes in February, "I am hopeful that the changes that we're undertaking will strike a balance at our dinner -- underscoring the traditional purposes of the event while retaining the sense of excitement that so many of our members look forward to each year."

Oreskes, who has nothing but praise for Powell's leadership of the WHCA, says he's eager to see what happens. "I don't have anything against having a dinner and getting together," he says. "I'm not a malcontent or an unsociable fella." He allows the possibility that the Times may grace the event with its presence next year.

Oreskes won't be the only one sitting this year's dinner out. Rodriguez, Jones' date from last year, is sidelined with a broken neck from a scuffle with a lobbyist. But even if Flynt develops a head cold and the event is attended by no one more controversial than Mr. Rogers, the dinner is guaranteed to have some awkward moments. How could it not after this past year?

Though the president will be the only one offered the microphone to deliver extensive remarks, the association will present the annual Edgar A. Poe Award to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff -- the man who introduced the world to Monica Lewinsky. In his recent book, "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," Isikoff wrote, "Presidents ought not be permitted to deceive the public [and] Clinton did so repeatedly and brazenly," and that he became "convinced Clinton was far more psychologically disturbed than the public ever imagined." Might be hard for the president to work up the energy for applause on that one, but whatever, welcome to Washington.
salon.com | April 23, 1999

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