tion and campaigned for Gloria Duffy John Kerry, I expected the atmosphere in Washington MUTUAL FUN to have a slight chill, 10 days after President Bush was re-elected with his he envelope was stamped TOP much-vaunted mandate. TSECRET in big red letters, and inside, As one friend said when the invitation admonished, “The secret considering whether to depends on YOU!” Obediently, we told no attend the party, “They one about the November Surprise. will be insufferable!” Not A quick flight to Washington, D.C., a that it would particularly hunt on Connecticut Avenue to replace a bother me, with my fam- forgotten set of studs and cufflinks, and Gloria Duffy and Condoleezza Rice and Janne Nolan ily’s 140-year history in into our formal attire. Our friend Janne the Republican Party, but Nolan picked us up at the hotel and off the astonishment. She began to recognize I expected the Bush officials to be jubilant three of us went to the British Embassy, to individual people, from various parts of in their triumph, at a minimum toasting the residence of Sir David Manning and her life and around the country, greeting to victory and another four years. Lady Catherine Manning (aka British and hugging people and expressing amaze- But not so. I have rarely, especially in crime novelist Elizabeth Ironside). ment to see us there. Soon she was whisked Washington, seen such an amiably diverse We were told to arrive an hour before into an elevator and taken upstairs where a and bipartisan crowd. There were football the guest of honor, and the Mannings gown Oscar de la Renta had designed espe- players and politicians, business people and shepherded us upstairs in their elegant cially for her was waiting. She emerged 20 classical musicians, black folks and white stone home, where we drank champagne minutes later, resplendent in the crimson folks, Republicans and Democrats, the and were happy to see people we knew, gown, with her hair done up. religious and the firmly secular, gay people including former Secretary of State George Dinner was served, toasts were made such as Van Cliburn and straight people. Shultz and California and San Francisco to Condi and by her to President Bush, Not a comment was uttered to make the Chief Protocol Charlotte Shultz, former who slipped in during dinner. Van Cli- Democrats present feel excluded; the tone National Security Advisor Sandy Berger burn played embellished versions of “God of the evening was comfortable bipartisan and Stanford professor Steve Krasner. We Save the Queen” and “The Star Spangled celebration. If a values divide simmered saw many people we knew slightly or knew Banner” on the piano. Condi said, “Since below the surface, it was certainly invisible. of – Vernon Jordan, pro football manager I know you are such a big fan of classical Our common goal was to honor and cel- Carmen Policy, Laura Bush, Colin Powell, music in the White House –” The president ebrate someone whom people with various White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, interrupted, “Yeah, right!!” Condi contin- attitudes and affiliations call their friend. Agriculture Secretary Ann Venemen. ued, “– I thought we should ask Van to play As we left the party, I cast a back- Just before 8 p.m., the Mannings asked something classical on the piano.” ward glance at the dance floor, where for our attention and then arrayed us, a Candles in the shape of goal posts (atop a few stalwarts, including Condi, were lineup of black ties, gowns and cham- a cake decorated as a gridiron, a nod to still twirling. Noting the band’s name, pagne flutes, on the two curved staircases Condi’s love of pro football) were blown I thought to myself, let that concept, leading upstairs from the foyer of their out. Then the door of the next room burst “Mutual Fun,” be a harbinger for the year house. We were shushed, and told to sing open and the sounds of Motown and clas- ahead. Let Democrats and Republicans, “Happy Birthday” as soon as the guest sic rock ’n’ roll flowed out from the live people of all faiths and orientations, work of honor arrived. From where I stood, band. We danced until midnight. together, spanning their differences for midway up the right-hand staircase, I The many surprises of the evening the common good. Let the partisans in could see Condi’s black SUV pull up next delighted all the guests, and pleased Condi Congress and in our state Legislature in to the open door, and out she popped, as the birthday honoree. But the biggest California be guided by underlying shared looking trim and focused as always, in a surprise for me was that what I expected values and a spirit of cooperation. There pair of slacks and a sweater. As a ruse to to happen, didn’t. Over the past year, we are so many goals on which, with a spirit get her to the scene of the party, she had have heard lots of partisan bickering and as accepting and positive as was in the been invited to go to a local cafe for an divisions over values among the American room that November night, we could all informal 50th birthday dinner with the people. Gay rights, views on the Iraq war collaborate and solve some of the urgent Mannings and members of her family. and religion are all issues that ostensibly problems that face us in 2005. Ω We chorused “Happy Birthday,” and deeply divide the American people. As one Condi looked up both staircases with who served in a Democratic administra- Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, President & CEO

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