Hanging with Loretta

Rebecca Schoenkopf reporting from . . .

SANTA ANA, OC Performing Arts Pavilion, Victory Party for Loretta & Linda Sanchez--The food: salmon and couscous studded with pomegranates. The drink: $6 for a beer, even after the $40 entry ticket. Seriously: What the fuck? People to whom I complained of The Beer Situation of 2006 have offered me beers. But I am not taking them up on it. I shall go somewhere where the beers are free. Or else I'll go to Proof Bar, where I'll pay $12 for a martini but not $40 for an entry fee. Not that I paid $40 here, where I'm press and all. But you get the idea. Loretta looks lovely—I believe she's wearing blue; I'm certain she's dancing on the floor right in front of the six-or eight-foot-high stage. She seems elated, giddy even—as befits the new chairwoman of the Homeland Security Committee. HSC is cool—it's the seat former Congressman (now SEC chair) Chris Cox warmed until recently. And she'll continue to sit on Armed Services. Who will handle AS's big chair? Don't know, but not Duncan Hunter. We're schmoozing with super-lawyer Wiley Aitken and L's chief of staff, Lee Godown. Any further dispatches will come from my own computer, rather than through my long-suffering editor.