WASHINGTON, May 4 —
How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle and was once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth prepare for a state dinner with the queen?
With tips from an etiquette guide, of course — and a little gentle prodding from his wife.
The White House is atwitter over the visit on Monday by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. This is the first visit by the queen since 1991, when Mr. BushÂ’s father was president. White House aides say the state dinner in her honor is not only the social event of the year, but also of the entire Bush presidency.
It will be closely watched by the social elite for its collision of cultures — Texas swagger meets British prim. Dinner attire is white tie and tails, the first and, perhaps, only white-tie affair of the Bush administration. The president was said to be none too keen on that, but bowed to a higher power, his wife.
“I think Mrs. Bush is thrilled to have a white-tie dinner, and we’ll leave it at that,” Amy Zantzinger, the new White House social secretary, said on Friday as she arranged seating for 134 on a computerized screen behind her desk in the East Wing.
Ms. Zantzinger was not swamped with requests. Anybody who had not already received one of the elegant gold-rimmed invitations (hand-penned by a calligrapher and then engraved) apparently knew that it would be gauche to ask. Still, the exclusivity has created some awkward moments, as when the social secretary bumped into former President Bush, who was not on her list, in the West Wing.
“He was making jokes, and then he said, ‘You know what, that is the hottest ticket in town,’ ” she said, adding, “If he wanted to come, he could have.”
At that, the first ladyÂ’s press secretary, Sally McDonough, apparently fearing an international incident coming on, interrupted.
“It’s not that he didn’t want to come,” Ms. McDonough explained, adding that the elder Bushes would be guests at the “reciprocal dinner” that the royal couple was having on Tuesday at the British Embassy.
“It’s very strategic in the coordination between the two dinners,” Ms. McDonough said. So strategic, in fact, that the color of the women’s attire is also coordinated, to avoid the horror of the first lady and queen clashing — or, worse, matching.
Mr. BushÂ’s moniker for his father, 41, is well known, and he will surely need no etiquette guide to warn him away from referring to the queen as II. Even so, as it does for every official state visit, the White House has been consulting with the State Department chief of protocol.
The resulting booklet of tips is not exactly classified, but it is definitely not public.
Aides to Mrs. Bush shared a few dos and don’ts. The queen shall be addressed as “Your Majesty.” The prince is “Your Royal Highness.”
For women, curtseying is acceptable, but not required. One does not shake the queenÂ’s hand unless the queen offers hers first.
And after Her Majesty finishes her meal, everyone’s meal is finished. (Not to worry, a senior official said of Mr. Bush: “He’s a really fast eater.”)
The guidebook includes the queen’s dietary restrictions. “She doesn’t like spicy food,” said Anita McBride, Mrs. Bush’s chief of staff.
The visit has brought a sense of giddiness to a White House worn down by the Iraq war and fights with Democrats in Congress, as well as distracted by a sex scandal that brought the resignation of a top State Department official
In the West Wing on Friday, the talk was of negotiations with Syria, but in the East Wing, it was all about china — and not the country. The meal of five courses instead of the customary four will be served on gold-trimmed Lenox bought in the Clinton years.
The floral shop was frantic, with seven florists arranging centerpieces for every public room in the house. Cream-colored roses and white lilacs for the State Dining Room, pale pink roses for the Green Room, pale yellow roses in the Diplomatic Room and classic red roses for the Red Room.
“Wet Paint” signs were everywhere, and workers were washing the windows in the Colonnade that runs past the Rose Garden. Inside, at Mrs. Bush’s direction, a panel of photographs of earlier royal visits was on display, including one of President Gerald R. Ford dancing with the queen in 1976.
Even Vice President Dick Cheney got into the act as the official White House representative at the welcoming on Friday in Jamestown, Va. He proclaimed the visit an affirmation of “the ties of trust and warm friendship between our two countries.”
Even some bipartisanship was in the air. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat known for her elegance, will attend the dinner. The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, decidedly less elegant, declined.
“Senator Reid isn’t much of a white-tail-at-dinner kind of a guy,” his spokesman, Jim Manley, said.
But dinner only goes so far toward bipartisanship. “He’s issued three veto threats this week,” Ms. Pelosi’s spokesman, Brendan Daly, said about Mr. Bush.
On the Republican side, Representative David Dreier of California understood the white-tie anxiety. “Just the idea of tails — it’s not comfortable,” Mr. Dreier grumbled.
But he will happily wear his own on Monday, he said, to escort Leonore Annenberg, chief of protocol for President Ronald Reagan.
This is the queenÂ’s fourth state visit to the United States. Aside from the 1991 and 1976 visits, she was here in 1957 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.
And Washington has mingled with British royalty on the other side of the Atlantic, as well.
In July 2001, the Bushes had lunch with the queen at Buckingham Palace.
“He didn’t drink water out of his bottle,” said Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary, who was there.
By Mr. FleischerÂ’s telling, Mr. Bush once did drink water out of his bottle at a United Nations lunch, prompting Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to give the president a gentle hint by pouring water in his glass.
On their official visit to the Britain in November 2003, the Bushes were feted at a state banquet, also white tie. Two years later, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were here. And, as Ms. McBride pointed out, the president and the first lady were guests in 1991 at the last state dinner for the queen, with Mr. BushÂ’s parents as hosts.
The president made no social miscues at those events, but last year he was spotted eating a dinner roll while talking to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. At that meeting of world leaders, Mr. Bush also gave Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany an impromptu shoulder rub.
Ms. McBride was not concerned. “I wouldn’t worry at all about his table manners,” she said, adding, “The president, frankly, is quite comfortable in every setting, no matter who it is.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/washington/05queen.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin