Think of all the power couples in Washington, and you'll be hard pressed to come up with more than a few in which the woman is more prominent than the man. The Doles would break new ground should Elizabeth become President, but not that much. Bob conceded his alpha maleness when he revealed last year that he'd taken Viagra. A year after Tarloff soaked up the pheromones at Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn's 1997 New Year's Eve party, Washington seems another world, colder than the one in Face-Time, in which a reporter hot on the story of the President's affair never goes with it, and hearts are broken, not the presidency. If only Washington could be so sentimental, so neat and tidy.
Outsiders are shocked that such a seemingly sexless place is now so awash with the stuff.
But it's not surprising that Washington can get so physical. They have schedules instead of lives, talking points instead of conversations, breakfast meetings instead of coffee and newspapers with someone they love. There's solace in the packed calendar, the ever present staff that's more obliging than family, the nightly parties full of people eagerly seeking face time. In the end Tarloff's hero discovers he can live without power but not without love. It must be fiction.