Published: March 15, 2008 09:23 pm         

Nation’s historic icons embellished with history

I will never think of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in quite the same way again.

When I first went to the nation’s capital to take a job, I was enthralled with the historical icons that included not only government buildings and landmarks but others such as the Mayflower that were famous for catering to celebrities and famous figures during the many, many years of history the hotel has stood.

I never stayed at the Mayflower but I did have lunch there one day. The dining room, as I recall, had a gold and crystal hue about it, with the white linen table cloths, chandeliers and what may have been real silver.

The waiters were impeccable and their demeanor condescending ... just what you would expect of a Washington icon.

As with a lot of other capital landmarks, history has left its mark.

Watergate is an example.

The Watergate complex of hotel, restaurants, offices and apartments was being built when I arrived and shortly before I left, a friend and I had lunch at the Watergate Restaurant. Nothing fancy here.

She worked for the State Department, nearby, and was getting ready to go to Burma as a secretary. Actually, that was a euphemism because she and I went to work for the Central Intelligence Agency at the same time. She was “transferred” to the State Department for this assignment.

I’ve often wondered what happened to her. We kept in touch via snail mail (pre-e-mail days ... they really did exist) for a couple of years while she was in Burma but then we lost touch.

And in the meantime, some years later, the Watergate scandal hit the newspapers and spawned phrases ending in “gate” for administrations to come, from “Contragate” to “Irangate” and others

Blair House, the official guest accommodations for the nation, across the street from the White House, is a national landmark. During the presidency of Harry Truman it became his home, while the White House was undergoing remodeling. While he was staying at Blair House, there was an attempt to assassinate him and two Puerto Rican men were arrested as a result. This occurred in 1950. I was in the first grade but I can remember people talking about it.

When I finally got to Washington I made of point of looking up Blair House.

I also checked out Ford’s Theater, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated ... a pretty innocuous building I thought at the time.

As I lived in Washington during the Camelot years of the Kennedy Administration and the national mourning that following his assassination in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963, many sites and their significance of the time became even more firmly imbedded in my memory ... St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Pennsylvania Avenue, Arlington National Cemetery and the Eternal Flame lit at the president’s grave site.

The latest piece of history in the making concerns New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and involves prostitution that apparently took place at what has been described as Washington’s “swanky” Mayflower Hotel.

Expensive prostitutes to be sure, but prostitution, nevertheless, and not at some sleazy downtown dive but the Mayflower!

The world’s oldest profession has brought down yet another talented politician aspiring to greatness and in the process diminished a landmark in my eyes.

OK, I’m being melodramatic.

But, come on, why do some people seem to think the law just does not apply to them. They believe, somehow, that if they spend enough money, they can buy anything and they won’t be found out or, if they are, it won’t make any difference ’cause their money, power, influence or whatever will keep them safe from retribution.

Wrong.

Spitzer has been caught and I think the price is going to be a lot more than he can afford.

And the loss is not only his but his constituency, as well.

The former corruption-figher with the “straight-arrow” image has resigned.

The resignation came in a one-minute statement on Wednesday in which he said, “I go forward with the belief as others have said that as human beings our greatest glory consists not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.”

I have to think about that for a minute. There are falls and there are falls.

Those of our own making require a lot more effort on our part to rise again and a lot of forgiveness on the part of others.

Contact Mona Ridder at mridder@times-news.com.