The weather has been unseasonably mild-Monday and Tuesday saw record low temperatures in the 60s-but it`s still a lousy week to get married here.
Getting a church might not be a problem, but the newlyweds would probably find themselves serving pans of supermarket pasta salad at a reception in an open field.
Nearly every food-preparation outfit and indoor space in town have been tied up this week by partying Republicans, lobbyists, members of the media and assorted other moochers partaking of hospitality, Texas-style: bigger than anyone else`s, bolder than anyone else`s and more likely to feature Mexican food than anyone else`s.
More Top Picks Best Electric Standing Desks Under 500
Such was the case Monday night at the Hot Town Cool Down, a fiesta at a Tex-Mex joint called the Drive Inn sponsored by assorted oil interests.
There, Greg Jefferies of Alabama was spotted on the dance floor gamely executing an elaborate version of the Texas two-step.
”I didn`t know what I was doing, so it was pretty complicated to me,”
said Jefferies, wearing well-worn blue jeans and boots.
His get-up is what landed the 32-year-old Birmingham resident, a lobbyist for an Alabama utility, in hot hoofing water.
”See, I was wearing a cowboy hat,” Jefferies said, explaining how a Houston woman and veteran two-stepper had come to ask him to dance. ”She thought I was a Texan.”
While the Grand Old one is the most prominent party in town this week, it has spawned a litter of subparties so big that the official convention list of to-dos is 47 pages long, with a dozen events per page-and new ones are being added all the time.
Tuesday night, after hearing Housing Secretary Jack Kemp and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas speak, the delegates` numerous apres-convention options included the Congressional Cruise `92 in San Jacinto Park; the College Republicans` Reception in the Sam Houston Room of the Sheraton Astrodome; the Arab-American Institute Gala at the Westin Galleria; and the nightly Illinois Nightcap, poolside at the Doubletree-Post Oak Hotel, where the state`s delegation is staying.
There is method to this madness. While partygoers around town seemed to enjoy sipping margaritas out of boot-shaped glasses and dancing to country and western music, they were also playing their part in an elaborate courtship in which politicians, potential candidates and party loyalists try to rack up financial and political support.
The whirl of celebrations marks the wooing-and spending-of the Republican dollar.
National Convention News, a daily newspaper published by Congressional Quarterly, estimated that during the week at least $10 million will be transferred from interest groups to assorted Republican Party coffers.
And Gramm, host of an immense extravaganza Monday night in one of the halls adjoining the Astrodome, told the paper that, with all the big-money Republicans gathered in one place, ”I can`t think of a better place to do fundraising.”
Washington-based lobbyist Tom Korologos was more blunt: ”They are ripe for the plucking and there they sit.”
According to Iowa delegate Cheryl Kramer of Dubuque, Gramm, a likely GOP presidential contender in 1996, gave complimentary $75 tickets to the entire Iowa delegation.
”You know, he`s probably going to get his start in Iowa in 1996,”
Kramer said. ”Makes sense, doesn`t it?”
The huge Gramm bash, dubbed Red, White and Boots, featured such top-name entertainers as Louise Mandrell and single mother Tanya Tucker.
The night before, Starkey Armistead, an Alabama delegate and an assistant drugstore manager, stood surveying the back yard of the still-elaborate mansion of bankrupt clothier Bob Sakowitz.
”It`s quite nice,” Armistead said. ”Of course, its quite different from what I`m used to.”
A little farther down River Oaks Boulevard, Houston`s most exclusive street, delegates poured out of Mayor Bob Lanier`s house and squeezed past a swarm of police officers.
Across the street, delegates from New Jersey dined on white linen-covered tables set up on the front lawn of the McNair residence as a mariachi band played. Several yards away, a placid longhorn bull stood before an American flag, letting delegates sit on its back and get their pictures taken.
Neighborhood children whizzed by on roller blades; families walked hand in hand to view the sights; and a vintage fire engine, its horn blaring, circled block after block, bearing a huge sign welcoming the Louisiana delegation.
More Top Picks Best Talking Watches For Visually Impaired Seniors
”I like watching how people pretend,” said Hiram Crittenden at the Sakowitz party for the Alabama delegation. But Crittenden and his father, a delegate, left the party early to scoot across town to Robbie`s, a club across the street from the Kwik Wash and next door to the Wig Plaza.
There, black Republicans saluted pioneers in the party, played host to Kemp and listened to jazz great Lionel Hampton.