Two-Stepping Out

The much-anticipated Katherine Harris, maligned throughout November as the sugar cane heiress snagging Vice President Gore's hopes, sailed into the Florida ball shortly after Gov. Jeb Bush arrived and made her way to the roped-off press pen. She wore a simple black satin gown, dashing the hopes of those who wanted a gander at the $9,000 James Purcell delicacy she was said to have purchased. "I never even saw that dress," said the Florida secretary of state with a laugh.

She said her notoriety had grown so vast that on a recent getaway to exotic Marrakech, she found herself stopped by strangers who pointed and screamed "Larry King" and "CNN" when she was walking the streets. "I needed a veil," she said.

By the end of the evening, keen-eyed reporters had lost count of men in tuxedos and cowboy boots. But at the Marriott Wardman, Larry and Karla Boggs, from Red Oak, Okla., were noticed. The owner of a 700-acre ranch wore a "black 8X beaver cowboy hat." He had black leather boots on, a black tuxedo, black vest. She had a black gown decorated with black dragonflies. Asked if he were a Republican or Democrat, he said, "Unless you want to get hung at sunrise, you're a Democrat where I come from. But we're not." In fact, he's the Latimer County Republican chairman. He said, "Our voters are so smart in Oklahoma, that even after you die you can vote. I'm not joking."

He also said: "We like Mr. Clinton a lot better this evening than we did this morning."

At the Texas Ball, the room was full of men in black and white, accompanied by women in every color of the rainbow – violet and pink and powder blue sequins and every conceivable shade of red. It looked like a bunch of penguins being taken for a stroll by a bevy of peacocks. If you were from another planet, you would think the human species was divided into two sexes, one black and white, and the other in living color. And only the females were allowed to display their chests or shoulders (by the way, there were a lot more shoulders on display than cleavage).

In one crowded booze line, there was a guy in a low slung black cowboy hat with a white mustache and a twinkle in his eye. He said he's the guy who sold George W. Bush his ranch. His name? "I don't know, I'm not getting into that."

And just why are some people in black hats and others in white ones?

"Some women like black hats, some women like white hats."

What are the women like who like men in black hats? "Good dates," he said. When he got to the front of the line he picked up the basket full of tips and said, "I like a bar where they give you money along with the drinks."

At Union Station, Drayton Prator showed off another kind of native costume. A 42-year-old Texan who says he lives down the street from former president Bush, Prator was wearing a tuxedo with Texas flag vest, bow tie, NRA cuff links and black Stetson. A gaggle of photographers surrounded him, taking pictures – he's not a celebrity but he's a Texas character and that's close enough. He says his wife picked Union Station because they thought it would be the best locale. Did he realize what a center of attention he would be tonight?

"I've been here about five minutes and I've just found that out," he said.

And at the Washington Hilton, a fiftyish blonde picked her way carefully about the room, on her head a model of the Washington Monument.

The woman wouldn't give her name, protesting that "I'm from Washington, D.C., and don't count."

"I've been to too many of these things and you have to make your own fun," she offered. Nor would she divulge construction techniques in creating her obelisk, which boasted a burst of gold spangles reminiscent of fireworks.