I was staying at Washington's Hay Adams Hotel, the most elegant inn in town, not so much fashionable as tailored, its rooms discretely artful but in the grand style. It is also very expensive. I assume, therefore, that its itinerant customers are either rich or on someone else's lavish expense account.

Of course, anybody and everybody I met in the elevator or in the lobby on this particular week-end was a Democrat -whites, blacks, Asians, no Hispanics, really, just well-heeled Democrats. In fact, many African Americans with their well-behaved children in tow.

Nieman Marcus had set up a showroom on one of the upper floors, and there was a statuesque blond come-on between check-in and the elevators on the first. She wore a long black gown, topped with an ornate multi-strand choker necklace and dazzling drooping earrings. But what the young woman was really exhibiting (and, I guess, selling) were fur coats. She changed her lush outer ware about every 15 or 20 minutes. The first item I noticed was a short chinchilla jacket, actually a ravishing short chinchilla jacket. I asked its price, not because I was looking to buy but just out of curiosity. $61,000, she told me.

The lady then donned a long sheared mink with chinchilla sleeves and more chinchilla at the hem. This was a Neiman Marcus bargain at either $20,000 or $40,000. Alas, even if you're truly intrigued, I can't remember which. And, then, a sumptuous lamb pelt layering priced at something under ten thou. Everybody can afford that, even now. Can't they?

I commented to the concierge on duty that somehow I did not think such clothes would be well received in the current economic atmosphere. He put me down quickly. "You know, he said, Democrats are just as rich as Republicans and good furs sell well at anytime, even bad times." Then, he added after a sight, "But Democrats don't tip as well as Republicans, even in times of plenty."