I told Jill that while I would never make the mistake of underestimating Kevin’s political prospects (which means having to block out a lot of Gilman memories), I don’t see him as a player on the national stage. Which brought us to ex-Mayor, ex-Governor Martin O’Malley who, as of this writing, had emerged as the only declared alternative to Hillary Clinton as the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Whether he’s a credible alternative depended on who I talked to, Jill Kamenetz (no) or host Gerry (yes). “If Hillary implodes or gets hits by a bus, we need to have other people in the race,” Gerry said. “It strengthens the party to have a more competitive primary.” Contrary to the dictum of F. Scott Fitzgerald, that once-Baltimorean, there are plenty of second acts in American life — in politics, even third ones. Gerry, son of a notable U.S. Senator, had a promising start in the family business, until he was walloped in the ’94 Congressional race by the aforementioned Bobby E. (who is currently practicing law in D.C.). He’s kept a lower profile since then, in recent years doing pro bono law and serving on the board of the Maryland State Fair and on the Maryland Aviation Commission. (And, from what I could tell, he’s running his own Aquatics Commission, managing pool, waterslide, and Tiki Bar.) But Gerry, politician-in-exile, wasn’t as under-theradar as I had assumed. Some of us admired the photos on the wall of Gerry pressing the flesh with Barack Obama in campaign mode. It was a fundraiser, he said, “but I did have the opportunity to talk with him on those occasions to share some of my thoughts and concerns.” He’s back! Gerry said he’s “very involved” with O’Malley’s emergent presidential campaign. If Hillary does implode, he says, “Martin is in a good position to make his case, and if she doesn’t, she still needs to pick a vice presidential running mate.” (You read it in the Notes first!) Suppose Martin O’Malley does become President — not likely perhaps, but certainly not impossible — Gerry becomes a political kingmaker of, who knows, conceivably awesome power. Maybe Ehrlich would launch a comeback to counter. All very House of Cards! Chris Hutchins strolled by to bring things down to earth, his specialty. “Gerry’s always been full of [it],” he said. Then he told a story about being “born again” on a plane trip, his seat mate an evangelical preacher with a Bible handy and something to prove. Chris assented to being saved. Then the preacher asked how he felt. “I feel good,” Chris said, “but I felt good before.” It was time to eat. Gerry pointed to the delicious-looking tenderloin on the sideboard and said, “This may not be part of the Diet.” How did he know
that I written a diet book, The Swift Diet, last year? (Well, a diet-meets digestive health-meets gut bacteria/ microbiome book, check it out on Baltimore Fishbowl: (http://www.baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/swift-diet-lovestory-microbiome.) I would have voted for him if he’d been running for something. And I should think David Meyer would feel the same way. Gerry, or his people (whoever they might be), knew that it was David’s birthday so after dinner we celebrated it with a large birthday cake with a greyhound on it. Even if the coloring of the greyhound’s icing looked distinctly beagle-like. Still on my power kick, I ran into Gare Smith who has, I discovered, become a person to be reckoned with in D.C. Over the approximately 40 years since I had last seen him, Gare had parlayed a law degree into gigs working under notables like Bob Strauss, Vernon Jordan, and Bill Clinton (when he was President). He said he even worked for a time as a Swiss mountain guide. This was starting to sound like a Wes Anderson movie. Someday, when we all have more time, Gare’s career will have to be looked at in more detail, perhaps with an eye to film rights. But now, for the record, he is a partner in the D.C. office of Foley Hoag, specializing in corporate responsibility, globalization issues, and other high-toned stuff. Giovanni Prezioso was the other D.C. power player in residence but I and the other members of the Gilman NYC posse (MacKay Wolff, Tom Miller, Andy Kaufman, David Morton) had kept pretty good tabs on him over the years, so his overachieving ways were not news. He had served as general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Dubya Bush administration (you can look it up; Gio has a nice Wiki entry), and then returned to securities law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Speaking to the cat-andmouse game between regulators and financial institutions (and he’s been both a cat and a mouse), Gio said “The great thing about being a lawyer is that there is always one side or the other that’s doing too much.” This was in lieu of parsing Dodd-Frank, which he knew, for me, would be too much. Scene Five: Downscaling Gio is also a triathloner, which I regard as piling on. On his weekend-warrior runs through the D.C. area, he said he’ll often check in on Dirk Fitzpatrick, who can be found in his garage in the final throes of a home improvement project that Dirk said has taken about four years. Although he doesn’t sport a salt-and-pepper beard, or much of anything in the hair department, Dirk looked suave and relaxed at Chez Brewster, perhaps because he’s downscaled the career, moving from some high-pressure, semi-secret GPS-related engineering project that I don’t know much about (nor should I) to keeping regular hours as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton. The expert on downscaling, the expert (selfappointed) in so many areas, is Kaufman. Early on, Andy fled the law (as in practicing it) to go for the big bucks on Wall Street. He sold bonds, he was a hedge fund guy, and now, as he told me at the party, “I do my own thing.” What exactly does that mean? He explained
it be to have another Gilman reunion in the Governor’s Mansion? JH: The last time we did that, as a lifelong Democrat, I had the feeling that I was living in an occupied country. Not that our Republican classmate Bobby Ehrlich wasn’t gracious. JK: My boys, who go to Gilman, can someday talk about going to their Dad’s reunion at the Mansion. But I tell them not to go into politics or I won’t give them a dime.
fall 2015
56594_91-158.indd 121
121
10/20/15 2:13 PM