The Election-Night Party, A Year Late

By John F. Dickerson

One year after the Champagne went flat on election night in Austin,Texas, staff members are finally getting to celebrate. "The party we never had, at a time we could use it," say the invitations that went out last week to members of the Bush presidential campaign. The party, to be held at a D.C. nightclub on the first anniversary of the 2000 election, will steam some Democrats who, even in this era of high bipartisanship, claim the election was stolen from Al Gore. But the hosts, who include ex-campaign advisers Mark McKinnon, Stuart Stevens and Ed Gillespie, were more worried about wartime appropriateness. They ran the idea by the White House; it okayed the fete but wanted security tight. Inside, guests will get jiggy with a band called Nailing Jello. Quipped an invitee: "Are they trying to remind us of how hard it is to fight the Taliban?"

--By John F. Dickerson