[Gerald]

For top donors, inauguration means access, influence and angling for next big job

View Photo Gallery — History of the second inauguration: Sixteen presidents before Barack Obama got a second chance at giving an inaugural address for the ages. Here are some of them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...m_national_pop

The voters have spoken, but even after a $2 billion presidential campaign, the quest for dollars in Washington continues. This weekend, the high rollers are paying for inauguration parties that are almost always busts, a ceremony that’s better seen on TV and access that’s not exactly priceless but pretty darn expensive.For the thousands of high-end donors who pay for the whole thing, the inauguration is about exclusive access to the president and vice president, as well as what insiders call “placement.” (Jobs, they mean.) Goodness knows it’s not the big public balls that lure the visitors; by universal accord, those http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...010200653.html — people you don’t know and don’t like, bars you’d need a crowbar to reach, bad food and not enough of it.

Note: 19.2013