January 21, 2005: Headlines: COS - Dominican Republic: Congress: Inauguration: Presidents - Bush: Hartford Courant: Dodd gets ring side seat at Inauguration
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January 21, 2005: Headlines: COS - Dominican Republic: Congress: Inauguration: Presidents - Bush: Hartford Courant: Dodd gets ring side seat at Inauguration
Dodd gets ring side seat at Inauguration
Dodd gets ring side seat at Inauguration
Dodd Offers View Through A Democrat's Eyes
January 21, 2005
By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief
Caption: President Bush, center, is applauded on Capitol Hill Thursday, Jan. 20,2005 after being sworn in by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, far right. From left are, Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's daughters Mary and Elizabeth, the vice president, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rehnquist. (AP Photo/Wally Hines)
WASHINGTON -- Chris Dodd stood alone in the sea of Republicans Thursday. He also sat, and had coffee, and ate lunch with the presidential party.
Wife Jackie, seven months pregnant, was at the lunch, too, and her husband had a special request.
"Could we sit her next to Bill Frist?" he asked. Frist is a surgeon.
That didn't happen, but Dodd had himself a heck of a time.
What a difference, he said, four years makes.
As top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, the Connecticut Democrat had a ceremonial role in 2001, too. But he knew this time would be more fun, right from the start.
Traditionally, Dodd and other bigshots go to the White House for coffee before heading to the Capitol for the swearing-in. In 2001, President Bush had won an election decided only after a Supreme Court ruling.
The tension was everywhere. "I felt like I was witnessing a duel," he said of that day. "All you could hear was the china clinking."
The highlight of the day, he could now reveal, was the ride with Bush and outgoing President Clinton in the limousine to the Capitol.
"I thought it would be this great moment, two presidents talking about weighty things like nuclear proliferation," Dodd said. "Instead, we get in the car and Clinton starts saying how cool it is, showing off all the gadgets. He was like a car salesman."
There was none of that this time. Dodd had his coffee, and at the Capitol was the lone Democrat in the official program, asked by Rules Chairman Trent Lott to participate as a show of bipartisanship. Dodd introduced House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who administered the oath of office to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Then it was on to the inaugural luncheon at the Capitol's Statuary Hall, a feast of scalloped crab and lobster, roasted Missouri quail, and brined root vegetables. Dodd sat at the head table, next to Hastert's wife. His big job was to give Cheney the official inaugural photograph.
It was supposed to be a formal occasion, but Dodd couldn't help himself. He peered over the crowd and gazed at the photo and asked, "I wonder how I look in this thing."
When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." |
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
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Story Source: Hartford Courant
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Dominican Republic; Congress; Inauguration; Presidents - Bush
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By RPCV (user-105n8fk.dialup.mindspring.com - 64.91.161.244) on Monday, January 24, 2005 - 10:17 pm: Edit Post |
Looks and smells like a Republican, Must be a Republican. Figures.