Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Democrats give new class high grades Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:11:15 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE;ABOUT TOWN \HD Democrats give new class high grades \BY Ann Geracimos \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES They also serve who stand and wait. Several hundred party loyalists at a Woman's National Democratic Club reception stood around for two hours Tuesday before even one of their heroes - Sen.-elect Carol Moseley Braun - turned up. The event was held in conjunction with the Democratic National Commitee's Potomac Group to honor the entire newly elected Democratic Senate tribe. So anxious were guests that one of them early on seized upon the sight of a tall man with a ponytail to announce that Ben Nighthorse Campbell had arrived. Unusual as male ponytails are in a precinct belonging to 1,500 women of mostly middle age, it was a false alarm. "They're at the real party," said a grumbler, referring to the fund-raiser being given by the Women's Council of the Democratic National Committee at that very moment for the very same folks at La Colline, a restaurant near the Capitol. "They've learned fast," said another with tired feet. Those who reportedly had previously "confirmed" at the WDNC included California's Barbara Boxer, Wisconsin's Russ Feingold and Washington state's Patty Murray. No-shows among promised-shows are more the rule than the exception at social political fetes no matter which party is in power. On hand was newly re-elected South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings, who called himself the Senate's "senior junior senator" (elected in a special election in 1966, he has served 12 years fewer than his colleague, Sen. Strom Thurmond). Mrs. Braun was the only one of the new group to come. Her welcome was tumultuous, walking to the podium hand-in-hand with supporters as if the Winged Victory herself had sprouted arms. "Win one for the Gipper!" called out a devilish Sen. Charles "Chuck" Robb as she passed him in the clap-happy throng. Mr. Robb is the soon-to-be ex-chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "I have not felt a kind of exhilaration among the public since 1960 that I feel today" said senior Illinois Sen. Paul Simon by way of introducing titled attendees. "I am proud of the state of Illinois. It is appropriate that the land of Lincoln should send the first African-American woman to the U.S. Senate. . . . But she is much more than a symbol." And then Mrs. Braun delivered. She told how earlier that day, when she was in the Capitol's old Senate chamber ("When was the last time they had a session there? Was it 1849?"), she "looked up the desk of Stephen Douglas, the senator from Illinois who was serving at that time, and sat in that seat, and I thought how wonderful that so many years later I, a person who did not legally exist at the time of that session of the legislature, was now sitting in that seat as a member [-elect] of the U.S. Senate." What Mrs. Braun didn't mention was that Democratic Sen. Douglas of Illinois, whose robust but short frame earned him the sobriquet of "the Little Giant," once offered a less-than-noble bargain with slavery proponents in the Senate so he could profit personally from land deals in the newly settled Middle West. But this was a night for looking foward, not back. Energy flowed among the smiles and handshakes. Esther Peterson, consumer affairs adviser under Presidents Johnson and Carter, reflected, only with prodding, about the first time she voted in a presidential election. "It was 1928, for Al Smith. Can you imagine?" This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM