ON THEIR TRAIL

BY JANET DONOVAN

John Dickerson books a power party, Russell lounges and Rush regrets

Dearly Beloved Good thing October 30th was a slow news day, because when The Omni Shoreham Hotel dedicated the "Mark Russell Marquee Lounge" it brought out top information brokers Tim Russert, Arch Campbell, Gordon Peterson and Mark "Hi, I wasn't invited" Shields.
"Mark Russell is an authentic genius," said Shields. "I'm an unabashed, uncritical groupie." "I've been in love with him since the '50s," reminisced Roll Call founder Sid Yudain. "Lael and I honeymooned at the Lounge. One night I brought Eli Wallach who was doing a play on Russians. 'You're Eli Wallach, You're in that play about schizophrenics,' Mark said. 'Yes, I am," said Wallach. To which Mark replied, 'I've half a mind to go see it."
Lounge lizards: Tina and Spike Karalekas, Monica Russell, Alison Russell, Norm Ornstein and singers Bill Danoff and Patsy Grier.

Waiting to exhale Working mothers at Margaret Carlson and Mary Matalin's book party for John Dickerson were holding their breath to see if they fit the pattern of On Her Trail: My Mother Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star. No one fainted.
"If any of you have ever had a mother, you know it's not flawless and to explore that relationship all of your life is inexpressible. This is really three books in one," Matalin said. "That's the first one. The second book is that we are sooo boring. This is about real parties, real mansions, and real highballs with people who had excuses for making fools of themselves: They were drunk. We all stand on the shoulders of this trailblazing woman."
"I first met John in 1992 when he was at Time as an over-eager gofer," colleague Carlson said. "Even in that bouncing toy boy way, we all gravitated to him. John had a mother problem and the book worked it out before it was too late." "I find myself without a drink which means I wasn't raised very well after all," said Dickerson among family members; wife Anne, father Wyatt, stepmother Tandy and step sisters Ann and Elizabeth. Close by were old family friends Jack and Mary Margaret Valenti and Liz and George Stevens.
"I want to say that I've learned that you never say you remind me of my mother. That leads to two things: Restraining orders or that people move away from you." In thanking Matalin for the introduction Dickerson said he was worried that if there were tapes about their conversations on their mothers and they are wrongly edited, "people are going to think that Dick Cheney was my mother."
On Carlson: "She sort of took me in this wonderful hug when I came to Washington. At Merrywood I used to answer the door for Mom and Dad's guests. The first party of Margaret's that I came to, she immediately put me behind the bar and I thought, 'Man, I went to school, I work, I'm a correspondent and this was not a great way to go in life.' But then she asked Ben Bradlee (whose wife Sally Quinn was in attendance) to do it and I realized that her parties were different." Hear, hear.

"Who's sorry now?" Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh probably wished he hadn't so mercilessly ridiculed Parkinson's disease stricken Michael J. Fox, at least not before the mid-term elections. Limbaugh's animated shake fest imitating Fox made the rounds on national TV and was no doubt advantageous to the election of at least several Democrats, including Senator-elect Claire McCaskill from Missouri, where the actor heavily lobbied for stem cell research. "Of all the years I have been doing this, this is the thing that upset me most," Limbaugh said upon reflection.
Making the rounds in Washington following the Democratic takeover, Limbaugh was a guest of Vice President Cheney and paid a visit to Walter Reed (where he narrowly missed Sen. John Kerry in the halls thanks to some skillful shuffling by hospital staff). On stage at The Warner Theatre on November 15th to benefit Fisher House, the ABC pundit with the highest-rated national radio talk show in America performed to a sold out crowd. As for the new Democrat-controlled Congress, "El Rushbo" said, "Maybe we needed to flush the toilet a bit. There's good in everything."

Mark Russell gets his own lounge at the Omni Shoreham	Esther Coopersmith and Norm Ornstein at the "Mark Russell Marquee Lounge"

Chris Berry, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Steele at Walter Reed