Jeff Bezos corruption party at his DC house.

[DFW]

15. I wouldn't get too tied up about this

This kind of gathering happens in Washington all the time. And not all attendees are corrupt oligarchs. Don't forget, after trashing each other during the day, Tip O'Neill and Reagan used to do cocktails together at the White House.

With TV cameras and microphones on 24/7 everywhere else, something like this might be a substitute for the type of O'Neill-Reagan chats. I was at a thing over New Year's (where I was hanging with Al Franken, among others). I was also hanging with Richard Viguerie, who, apart from being a nice guy, is a total right-wing nut case--a very intelligent, twisted, dangerous, influential nut case. He wouldn't be caught dead chatting with the likes of me in public. But we do--when the cameras and microphones are off. He learns where I come from, I learn (again) where he--and thus the lunatic right wing fringe--come from. It's a setting where no one expects us to shout because no one is listening.

Washington is strange like that, but it's a reality, and there aren't many settings left these days, especially in an election year, where white flags can be raised, and dialogue can take place uncensored. Maybe nothing will come of it, but the chances are better in such a setting than during shouting matches on Fox Noise. I'll never be asked to attend anything like that, but I don't condemn it out of hand. It's better than gunfights across the Senate aisle, and from where I stand, that's the next phase.