January 24, 2005:

Jesus and Jack Daniel's
In search of the Bush cultural footprint on the capital:
a visit to the hot church and the hot bar.

By Jonathan Darman and Holly Bailey

In terms of social life, Bush's Washington is an oxymoron. The 43rd president has never embraced, nor particularly liked, official Washington—the lawyers and lobbyists and journalists who make up Washington's more or less permanent establishment. Bush, who prefers to go to bed at 9:30 p.m., has entertained at only a few state dinners; his socializing tends to be rare and low-key, mostly with old Yale and Texas buddies. And most of the Texans who came to Washington say they want to return home when their time is done. The one cabinet officer who made the social circuit with some regularity, Secretary of State Colin Powell, was not asked to stay on for the second term.