By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Halloween's all the rage—and I don't mean the sweet young set of trick-or-treaters. I mean with grown men and women everywhere. Somehow you're never too old and dignified to get into a Halloween costume for a party.
So here's my designer dream Halloween party, set for midnight tomorrow at home in Washington. Quite a cast of characters, mostly political because, well, politics is what we do here. It's all we know.
Let's start with the obvious: the three Bushmen—George 41, George 43, and Jeb—are naturals as the three Macbeth witches with the boiling cauldron. Theatrically, they ask when the three of them shall meet again—in Florida, Texas, or in Maine?
Dick Cheney has only one option: to portray the Prince of Darkness.
Sarah Palin will put on an old frock and smudge her cheeks to become Eliza Doolittle, the unlettered Cockney flower girl in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady.
Sen. Max Baucus will come alive as an insurance salesman.
Hillary Clinton is slated to dress and sing as Madonna.
Madonna's coming as Nancy Drew.
Chris Matthews will get decked out as our very own Dennis the Menace.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will be there as his alter-ego, Jim Manley.
David Corn will conjure up Mother Jones to remind us the liberal media is still out there somewhere.
Newt Gingrich presents as the wise Constitution-carrying Sen. Robert C. Byrd, to help get some real history in his head.
Byrd will appear in Aaron Burr's character.
Bill Clinton comes as a True Compass, as if to heal the breach with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy during the very close 2008 presidential primary race.
Monica Lewinsky will create Hester Prynne's girl, Pearl, who has a reality show of her own.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman comes clad as a certain ancient Roman senator, lean and hungry, hearing four-letter Latin phrases in the marble halls lately.
Sen. Dick Durbin promises to cross party lines to re-enact Abraham Lincoln and recite the "Farewell to Springfield" address by heart.
Sen. Lindsay Graham has Sancho Panza down pat, to an art form.
A general in Afghanistan got crossed off the A list for speaking out of school. An old general, lovable Washingtonian Colin Powell, will step in as a Cowardly Lion.
Karzai comes as a Baltimore restaurateur.
My editor Robert Schlesinger is a dead ringer for Judson Welliver (the first White House speechwriter).
Sen. Barbara Boxer plans to summon poet Emma Lazarus's look and spirit.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi plays the man of the House (in a good way).
Al Hunt and Bill Press have it easy: They just pose as each other.
Maureen Dowd is still deciding under deadline.
As for myself, shall I be Alice in Wonderland or perhaps Sally Quinn, the Washington writer and leading Georgetown partygiver? How much difference would there be?
Late add: President Obama says he'll act as the kid who's just Too Cool for School. Or he'll arrive as the ghost of Lyndon B. Johnson. I left it up to him. He is, after all, the president.
When the National Cathedral bell tolls in the night sky, we'll know.
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Reader Comments Read all comments (6)
Sandi Martin of CA 1:45PM November 01, 2009
Barbin of VA 11:21AM November 01, 2009
Bill Hedges of MO 12:41PM October 31, 2009