Oxymorons Counter-Inaugural Party

Here's some good press coverage of the ADA Counter-Inaugural bash!

Washington Post:

Two-Stepping Out
After a Long Power Outage, Bright Lights

By Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 21, 2001; Page F01

...
In the Mayflower Hotel's ornate and corniced ballroom, the District's own Oxymorons played "Lawyers, Guns and Money" as left-out-in-the-rain liberals munched on melon slices and California rolls at the Americans for Democratic Action counter-inaugural ball.

The 54-year-old ADA - founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and others - sponsored its first ball in 1977 when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated. In 1985, it shifted to an anti-soiree when Ronald Reagan was sworn in for the second time.

"This is a place for liberals to come and party and have fun and say, 'This is the beginning of fighting back,' " said ADA National Director Amy Isaacs. About 800 people made reservations. Larry Baldwin, 76, a retired Navy pilot from Centreville, said: "Hell, the president is a loser. We've got to celebrate the fact that the Democratic force is a majority force."

At a nearby table, ballgoers bought "SMUSH BUSH" pins and paid $2 apiece to lift a pretzel jug full of confetti and guess the answer to: "How Many Chads (in ounces) Does It Take To Steal An Election?" A hot seller was this T-shirt: "A Thousand Points of Light, and We Got the Dim One."

During a lull in the music, a somber Paul Strauss, "shadow senator" from D.C., was asked why he was at the ball. "You mark occasions," he said. "I go to funerals, too."

Read the whole article.

The Nation
The Beat, Feb. 12 2001
by John Nichols

MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRIC "You can't always get what you want," crooned activist-musician Doug Hartnett, as his band the Oxymorons ripped into the Rolling Stones classic and a set of equally appropriate tunes for dissenters on the first night of the George W. Bush Administration. Rocking a crowd of more than 800 at the Americans for Democratic Action Counter-Inaugural Gala, Hartnett, who works by day as a lawyer for the whistleblowing Government Accountability Project, and the Oxymorons had no trouble filling the dance floor at Washington's Mayflower hotel with a multigenerational crowd that answered the call to "party liberally." Grand Old Partyers arriving to celebrate in another wing of the hotel did double takes when they encountered revelers like Baltimore's Sarah McClintock, whose green brocade gown was accented with gold glitter slogans that read, "Reject the Republicans" and "Jail to the Thief." "I wanted to make a fashion statement that no one would misinterpret," announced a grinning McClintock.

Read the whole article.