Check out the Soft Money Laundromat . Click here for a special offer. Click here for our free newsletter. On the crowded nightclub floor in midtown Manhattan the lawyers jostle the stockbrokers, the stockbrokers jostle the CEOs, the CEOs jostle the union bosses, and the union bosses jostle whomever they wish. It is a Democratic fundraiser and Dick Gephardt stands in front of the buffet table, hugging and kissing people, seemingly at random.
Faces are flushed, spirits are high, and the night is pregnant with possibilities.
If the Democrats raise enough money, they figure, they can take back the House of Representatives, make Gephardt the speaker and Charlie Rangel, whose 70th birthday is being celebrated this night, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. But money does not come through magic. It comes through guys like David Jones. For many, merely meeting Gephardt, the House minority leader, is enough. They want to be part of the effort, be part of the scene.