“It’s like Vienna in 1914,” said James Carville in his unmistakable drawl. “It’s like the opening of The Guns of August.” Barbara Tuchman’s classic account of the first days of World War I opens with the funeral of King Edward VII, which, for all its pomp and circumstance—nine kings arrive, followed by “five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens,” and a “scattering of special ambassadors”—marks the start of a steep descent into war.
Near Carville stood two police officers, guarding a metal detector erected outside the expansive basement ballroom of The Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC. There, a few hundred of the people who once ran the town gathered on Monday to mourn the passing of one of their own.
The memorial was for Robert Barnett, the famed Washington lawyer, power broker, and confidant of presidents who negotiated blockbuster book deals for superstar clients, including the Clintons, the Bushes, and the Obamas. The invitation-only service, held on a sunny November morning and attended by a dizzying collection of Washington’s boldface names, was a fitting tribute to Barnett, who died in September at the age of 79. Nearly 700 people packed into the ballroom, filling every seat, to hear speeches from his many clients: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bob Woodward, and James Patterson, to name a few.
Barnett was once labeled “the kingpin of Washington book deals” by The New York Times, but his influence extended far beyond the capital. He negotiated contracts for politicians, television stars, writers, royals, and celebrities, but also acted as a trusted counselor to many; Hillary Clinton wrote in her 2003 memoir—for which Barnett secured her an $8 million advance—that he was the first to suggest to her that Bill might have indeed had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Washington has changed a lot since Barnett made his fame there. Donald Trump twice stormed into office with a pledge to drain the swamp, which manifested not in a departure from grubby DC corruption, but certainly a humbling of the establishment insiders who ruled the capital for decades. In Trump’s Washington, many of the powerful in the room at The Ritz felt more powerless than ever. They loathe what he’s done to the East Wing. There is nothing they can do about it.
