WASHINGTON — For once, the crowds that gathered Monday outside the White House were not carrying antiwar placards or shouting angry slogans. Instead, on a sunny spring day that contrasted with the dark mood of partisan discord that normally clouds Washington, they cheered loudly for President Bush and for the regal woman by his side, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
A large crowd that included about 370 children from a local charter school and the British School of Washington gathered in front of the White House, hoping for a glimpse of the president and his royal visitor. When they appeared, and even ventured outside the tall fence, the screams evoked those that typically greet the latest teen heartthrob.
"I was just so excited," said Shayla Young, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at IDEA Charter School, who got close enough to hug Bush, shouted "Oh my God! Aaaaah!" and then did a faux faint behind a railing.
Agreed Bob Brooks, a retired federal employee: "Americans are so impressed with royalty."
Gone, at least for the day, were the tense encounters between Bush and Democratic leaders of Congress, tussling over the war and economic priorities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was a guest at the gala state dinner Monday night, though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declined his invitation because, his spokesman said, "he's not really a white tails and dinner sort of guy and would just as soon spend a nice quiet dinner with his wife."
In place of political standoffs was a pageant of pomp and circumstance, full of such moments as the Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps parading on the South Lawn in uniforms patterned after those of George Washington's Continental Army.
'In 17 -- in 1976'
In the morning, the queen was welcomed to the White House with an official arrival ceremony as thousands of invited guests cheered; in the evening, she was feted with a five-course, white-tie dinner -- the first of the Bush administration -- in the State Dining Room, with more than 800 white roses capping elegant tables swathed in cream damask and set with gilded silver.
Even the president -- a self-described down-home Texan who prefers barbecue to chateaubriand and had to be persuaded by his wife and his secretary of State to don white tie and tails for the night -- seemed to revel in the respite from controversy. He was grinning broadly after he escorted the queen across Lafayette Park to Blair House, the official guest house where she and her husband, Prince Philip, are staying during their two-day visit.
