USNews.com: Inside Washington: Paul Bedard: : 9/11 Widower Ted Olson Back at the Altar

October 20, 2006

9/11 Widower Ted Olson Back at the Altar

It's been a long five years for former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson. Sept. 11, 2001, was his 61st birthday, and a bad one: His wife, Barbara Olson, was on the 9/11 flight that slammed into the Pentagon. And while that's still in his mind, he's belatedly celebrating his 66th birthday this weekend in Napa Valley, where he's marrying his new love, Lady Booth, a fellow lawyer and businesswoman.

Word is the shindig is taking place at the elegant Meadowood in St. Helena, known for its pampering, fancy weddings, and wine list filled with hard-to-get local bottlings. And that's a good thing. Friends say the two share a passion for vino. Olson told Legal Times that they met at the 2002 Kentucky Derby, horse-race watching being another common hobby.

So who's going to be at the wedding? We hear about 300 of the couple's closest friends. Among the guests are Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman and his wife, Ricki, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his wife, lawyers Robert Bennett and Brendan Sullivan, former Bushie and new Mitt Romney adviser Barbara Comstock, media legal pundits Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, National Review's Kate O'Beirne, and current Solicitor General Paul Clement. Says one wedding-goer: "Most of the Washington legal establishment is trekking out here to toast the happy couple."

Posted at 02:02 PM by PaulBedard

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WHAT IS THIS?

Have you ever wondered what reporters do with all the stuff they collect but never write about? Well wonder no more. The bosses here pay me a good chunk of change and haven't ever choked on my Amex bill so it seems only proper to dump out my notebook every week. It won't be just news we didn't use. The blog will sometimes write about the process of getting stories-like why we choose Charlie Palmer's (quiet, spacious) for source lunches on Capitol Hill over Bistro Bis (crowded and noisy). Or why it's hard to get reporters at U.S. News to answer their phones on Fridays (it's our deadline, silly.) We'll even include pictures of our travels. Don't hesitate to applaud or criticize. We might just run your comments. Go ahead and email me at pbedard@usnews.com.

HISTORICAL STUFF

In Washington Whispers One Year Ago: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy can be one of the Senate's blustering best, but we found him in a candid moment last week when he sized up his speech this week at the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. "You're gonna miss a great speech there," he said with a chuckle. "Same one I've given for 40 years. It's going to be breathtaking."

Five years ago: Vice President Dick Cheney knows how to keep reporters happy. Flying home on Air Force Two from an energy policy town hall meeting in Pittsburgh, his press corps asked stewards for beer. Breaking with practice, the jet was dry. Scribes whined to Cheney who found two bottles of vino, red and white, to give the pampered pressies.