Pictures from the frontlines of the Democratic National Convention

Wednesday, August 16, 2000

Dave Barry had a meeting with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan, at a downtown diner (owned by the Mayor) a few blocks from the convention center. Since Mr. Barry is, of course, a presidential candidate, it was necessary for him to have a security detail -- comprised of cartoonists wearing sunglasses with cords stolen from their hotel phones stuck in their ears. The Mayor's actual security people took this in stride, once we explained, "We're with Dave< Barry."

3: One of the Baldwins explaining, from what I could hear, how he uses his celebrity to the betterment of all at the abc.com booth.

This is true: somehow we talked the Mayor into the idea of having us accompany him as his security detail to a very exclusive party that evening hosted by consummate insider lobbyist Tommy Boggs in honor of main Democratic fundraiser Terry McAuliffe. From left to right: a mover and/or shaker, Rob Rogers, Chip Bok, Mayor Riordan (codenamed Sourdough, in honor of his diner), Dave's campaign manager Ted, Walt Handlesman, myself, the mayor's wife (codenamed Porkchop, if memory serves), and Mike Lukovich.

The very professional security detail, hard at work.

With Carl Bernstein. Handlesman walked up to him and said, "hey, congratulations on that Watergate thing. How'd that work out for you?" Bernstein also revealed that Deep Throat was a composite character based on Ted Koppel and Diane Sawyer.

An amazingly surreal moment. Granny D, the elderly woman who walked across the country to raise awareness about campaign finance reform, somehow managed to crash this party. Lukovich, ever the facilitator (see yesterday's Johnny Rotten anecdote) introduced her to Terry McAuliffe, who is shown here lecturing her on his own deep, deep commitment to reforming campaign financing.

Bernstein with Tommy Boggs.

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