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Compares the prospects of statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Opponents' arguments against statehood; Response of statehood supporters; Why the Republican administration supports Puerto Rican statehood but opposes D.C. statehood.

Focuses on the January 1989 inauguration of U.S. President George Bush. Invitations to the swearing in ceremony issued by Roy L. McGhee, superintendent of the Senate periodical gallery; Highlights of the pre-swearing in days; Bush's attendance of prayer service at Saint John's Church; Black-tie ball at Union Station.

Comments on how the conversational practice in Washington, D.C. of conveying large amounts of information in a few choice words can cause the truth of unexamined rumors to be taken for granted, sometimes at the expense of innocent parties. Reference to cost overruns for the B-2 bomber as simply `six-hundred dollar toilet seats'; Clarence Thomas and the sexual-harassment hearings; More.

Focuses on the unique aspects of the city of Washington D.C. Importance of attending social functions; View of Dimitri Simes, a Soviet expert who arrived in the mid Seventies in Washington, that opinions should never be too strongly expressed in the journals; Discussion of political and economic condition in the U.S.