Maureen Dowd Was Also At This Party, Being Awesome.

Before the below-mentioned party, we had the pleasure of attending the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. It was very crowded and exciting (George Clooney was there! And someone named Henry Kissinger!). The president was hilarious, Stephen Colbert bombed, and Mayor Bloomberg told us to stay away from his daughter, Georgina. (Whatever, she’s fierce and we love her).

Later, we attended the Bloomberg afterparty at the Macedonian Embassy. The party is best described as Washington Media Elite meets Failed Alcoholics Anonymous, meets Midnight at the Oasis. Anyway, there were clumps of flirty fags everywhere. At one point we actually said aloud the sentence: “God, look at those gays by the bar, they’re totally cruis – Oops, that’s Bill Hemmer!”

We kept catching RNC chairman Ken Mehlman’s eye, probably because we were continually sending baleful looks in his direction. Eventually left our friends for a moment, and accosted him.

BIGMOUTH: Hi. I wanted to introduce myself. I write for [redacted] and I’ve reported out some crazy stories in my time. But it’s funny, I’ve never been bitched out by a publicist more than when I was bitched out by [White House Deputy Spokesman] Steve Schmidt, when I was reporting a story about whether or not you were gay.

KEN MEHLMAN: I’m not gay.

BM: It just struck me that his anger over the issue was innappropriate, given the subject matter. It shouldn’t have been something to get mad or offended about.

KM: I didn’t tell him to get angry. I wasn’t angry. The reason I didn’t answer the question is because there ARE a lot of people on the committee and in the campaign who are, and they said ‘If YOU answer, we will all have to.’”

BM: I wish your office had returned our calls so we could have had this conversation then.

KM: Well, it did do a number on my dating life for six months.

So there you have it. Angry, tall gay meets duplicitous, short RNC chairman. Did we further any understanding? No. Did we continue to receive lingering glances for the rest of the night? Yes.

Sigh. Small victories.