Inauguration notebook

[AP photos] President Bush and first lady Laura Bush appear at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington Saturday during one of their inauguration night balls.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 21, 2001

Day of renewal, tears, protests, parties

WASHINGTON -- Following tradition, President-elect Bush and his wife, Laura, started Inauguration Day by attending services at St. John's Church, across Lafayette Park from the White House, surrounded by family.

Their 19-year-old twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were there, as were Bush's parents, former President Bush and Barbara Bush.

The president-elect was among the last to leave the service, and bells rang as they walked out. Several guests cheered when the president-elect and his wife walked outside.

A morning welcome, and one last dance

Walking up the steps of his new home, Bush greeted the couple who were leaving to make room for him.

"How are you doing?" he asked Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Great," replied the outgoing first lady and freshman senator from New York.

President Clinton and Sen. Clinton had been waiting on the White House steps when the Bushes arrived in a limousine after the service at St. John's.

"Good morning, senator," Laura Bush said.

The two couples posed for pictures. Asked how he was feeling, Bush gave a thumbs-up.

Vice President Dick Cheney spins his wife Lynn during a dance at one of the inaugural balls in Washington.

After the Clintons and the Bushes went inside, Vice President-elect Cheney's motorcade pulled up, and the pair was greeted by Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper.

Before Bush arrived at the White House, a reporter looking through a window spotted the Clintons dancing together in the foyer.

Two minutes past noon, the oath is taken

Bush became president at noon Saturday, even though his official swearing-in ceremony did not begin until two minutes later.

Under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, Bill Clinton's term ended at noon. And since the country cannot be without a president, Bush's began then.

It was 12:02 p.m. when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist asked Bush if he was ready.

"I am, sir."

And the tears he had dreaded welled in his eyes but did not spill over.

With that, Bush, his hand on the Bible first used by George Washington and later by another George Bush, swore to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The namesake of the former president faced not his father -- whose sight at that poignant moment, the younger Bush had openly worried, would reduce him to weeping -- but President Clinton, whose impeachment Bush used as a campaign issue, and Gore, whose attempts at vote recounts Bush had squashed in no lower than the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bush's first act as president was to pump Rehnquist's hand. He kissed his wife and held her briefly. He kissed their beaming twin daughters, his hand in Jenna's blond hair before reaching for Barbara.

Political rancor still simmers in chilly rain

Behind the elegantly bundled Bushes, congressmen, senators and others of the Washington elite sat wrapped in clear plastic ponchos. Supreme Court justices wore earmuffs.

The National Weather Service said temperatures were in the lower 30s for the inauguration and parade, with intermittent rain and winds blowing out of the north at 10 to 15 mph. The rain was predicted to turn to sleet and snow Saturday evening.

Partisan feelings were heated -- at least in the crowd of thousands below on a rolling Capitol lawn reduced to slippery, muddied slides. When former President Carter and his wife, the last Democrats before Clinton to hold the White House, were introduced, many booed.

Bush's daughters did not applaud as Sen. Clinton and Tipper Gore were introduced and took seats across the stage.

Sen. Clinton studiously carried on a conversation with her daughter, Chelsea, turning her back to House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, as he passed by to claim a seat.

It's not a home until all your stuff is there

At precisely 12:04 p.m., as a 21-gun salute rolled across the National Mall, two nondescript government vans loaded with autographed baseballs, Texas mementos and other personal belongings of the new president were cleared through the southwest gate of the White House, drove up West Executive Avenue and began disgorging their heavily guarded cargo at the basement entrance to the West Wing. The vans had been checked by bomb-sniffing dogs and positioned just outside the gates of the executive mansion as Bush was sworn in.

Simultaneously, a team of two dozen cleaners, curators, security agents, communications specialists and movers launched an extensive makeover of the most famous office in America.

Six hours later, the remake was complete. Clinton's golden damask drapes were history. His glitzy royal blue oval rug, deemed by Bush as too pop-arty, was in presidential storage, replaced at Bush's order with Ronald Reagan's elegant ivory, beige and terra cotta carpet. Clinton's cherry red and cream silk-covered sofas gave way to more traditional blues and yellows.

The Oval Office rehab project began with a tip-to-toe scrubbing -- as Bush once vowed on the David Letterman show in a veiled reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Then the presidential phone console was reworked. Clinton's two dozen direct lines were replaced by links to Bush's wife, Cheney and other top aides.

After a touchup paint job, Bush's personal artifacts, including photos of his parents, wife and daughters, were strategically sprinkled around the room, in Bush's private study and the dining room just down an inside corridor.

Bush favors felt-tip pens, so his desk drawers were amply stocked with fresh supplies. The pens, made by the A.T. Cross Co. in midnight blue and emblazoned with the presidential seal and Bush's signature, will double as spiffy souvenirs to Oval Office visitors.

It wasn't a total makeover, however. In addition to several works of art, Bush is keeping Clinton's desk, an 1880 gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes that was used by John F. Kennedy.

The new president would later find on that desk a handwritten note Clinton left him. Attached was the note Bush's father had left to Clinton eight years ago.

A lunch Jefferson would have loved

Immediately after his swearing-in, the new president was treated to a three-course lunch in Statuary Hall at the Capitol.

The meal was a far cry from the 1801 inaugural lunch for Thomas Jefferson, the first president sworn in at the Capitol: Congress fed him sandwiches. But Saturday's three courses from Washington caterer Design Cuisine were a commemoration of the 200 years since that event, with food from 1801, 1901 and 2001.

The first course was inspired by Abigail Adams: lobster pie in a bechamel sauce with a puff pastry crust. The wine was a '98 Sonoma Cutrer Les Pierres chardonnay.

The second course -- an elaborate version of beef tenderloin filets, with vegetables inserted between the slices -- took its cue from the fancy European dishes that were so popular in this country at the turn of the last century. The vegetables replaced the traditional lard that would have been used in the early 1900s. Each filet was garnished with foie gras and served with a Madeira sauce, which was left off the plate of the teetotaling president. The filets were accompanied by a puree of root vegetables, well seasoned with butter, and a pate a choux ring of cheese pastry surrounding sauteed vegetables. Warm sour cream drop biscuits also were served. The wine was a '97 Fetzer Vineyard Reserve cabernet sauvignon.

The dessert was described as warm nutmeat toffee pudding with caramel sauce, but visitors to England, or any country of its former empire, would recognize this close relative of stick-to-your-ribs sticky toffee pudding, served with vanilla ice cream and Korbel champagne.

Even without the chocolate-dipped ginger, candied fruit rinds, macaroons, florentines and truffles to accompany the coffee, the meal weighed in at 2,000-plus calories and about 100 grams of fat.

Though the ability to eat quickly is not a qualification for the presidency, it's clear that it should be high on the list. During the first course, the president spent most of his time shaking hands and embracing the men and kissing the women who came by to offer congratulations. When he finally sat down he managed to eat his lobster pot pie in record time, keeping the lunch closer to schedule than his predecessor, who had spent most of the lunch table-hopping.

After the pudding, Bush said, "I was wondering if I was ever going to have a warm meal during the inaugural ceremonies" and went on to thank the congressional leadership for providing it. Then he thanked President Carter for coming. Finally he added, "Mother, I'm glad you came."

No time to waste for executive actions

Getting his administration off to a quick start, Bush signed an order establishing ethical standards for it, formally submitted his Cabinet nominations to the Senate and acted to suspend a batch of 11th-hour orders by his predecessor.

The blocked regulations issued by Clinton include new Medicare guidelines and environmental protections. With the stroke of a pen, Bush also proclaimed today as "a national day of prayer and thanksgiving" and ordered a temporary federal hiring freeze until his Cabinet members get in place.

Bush issued his first two executive orders and submitted the Cabinet nominations while at the Capitol after being sworn in. Three hours later, the Senate confirmed seven of his Cabinet nominees.

Among the first members of the Bush administration to win lawmakers' approval were Colin Powell, 63, to become secretary of state; Paul O'Neill, 65, to be treasury secretary; and Donald Rumsfeld, 68, to be defense secretary. Also confirmed were Rod Paige, 67, to be education secretary; former Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., 48, for energy secretary; Donald Evans, 54, to head the Commerce Department; and Ann Veneman, 51, to be chief of the Agriculture Department.

'Hail to the Thief,' and other ugliness

As thousands of protesters hurled insults, bottles, tomatoes and an egg, tensions forced the president's motorcade to lurch along the parade route.

Protesters clashed briefly with police clad in riot gear at a few flash points while Bush remained inside his new armored stretch limousine for most of the parade up a soggy, cold Pennsylvania Avenue.

A couple of protesters threw bottles and tomatoes before the limo arrived, and one hurled an egg that landed near the motorcade, the Secret Service said.

But the protesters managed little else to interrupt the festivities in the face of a massive show of 7,000 police officers. Earlier, a few officers were hurt after protesters threw bottles at them. One officer was seen bleeding from the eye, but none required hospitalization. As the day grew darker and colder, authorities had arrested only six people and activists began to disperse.

"Hail to the Thief," read one sign along the parade route questioning the legitimacy of Bush's election win in Florida. Other protesters sported buttons declaring, "illegitimate Son of a Bush."

Bush remained in his limousine for most of the traditional parade route. He finally exited for a brief walk outside only after he reached a secure zone near the White House filled with inauguration ticketholders and no protesters.

D.C. gets dressed up, parties for the Bushes

Writing the final chapter of the story of President Bush's swearing-in, almost 50,000 well-wishers donned tuxedos and gowns to dance the night away at eight balls around the capital.

Bush, in tuxedo, stood with his wife, Laura, in a sparkling red dress at each ball.

He started serious at the first stop, promising to "keep the peace" and extend the American dream to all, but quickly added, "Now is not the time for speeches, it's the time for dancing," stepping in front of the podium to take his wife in his arms and start a night of presidential partying.

Nell Carter, Kelsey Grammer, Drew Carey, Marie Osmond and Meat Loaf were among the masters of ceremonies officiating at the balls, while the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, Mr. Fabulous and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra were on tap to provide music to dance by.

Tickets cost $125, with the cost of the eight balls held down by the almost $40-million in donations collected by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, a record haul.

Attendees had their choice of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres -- such as wild mushroom tarts, vegetarian spring rolls and puff pastry -- served on buffet tables, and could quench their thirst at a cash bar. They also received a special inaugural souvenir.

First day in new home: Time to thank friends

Today, the Bushes are scheduled to attend a morning prayer service at the National Cathedral. In the afternoon, they are to preside at an open house, as well as serve as hosts to people from around the country whom Bush met during last year's campaign.

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