The centerpiece of the Radio-TV Correspondents Association Dinner, the dinner itself, is almost secondary to the event. The hotel staff had to aggressively move people out of the pre-parties, flicking the lights with increasing impatience until they basically just turned the lights out and forced guests into the lobby to pass through the Secret Service magnetometers. Of course, given that everyone was decked out in formal wear, nearly every guest ended up getting wanded by the Secret Service officers, who must just hate black tie events.

Waiting for them at their seats, each guest had a 44-page booklet listing not the just the program and menu but also the seating assignment for everyone else in attendance--which allowed everyone to spend the rest of the meal searching for famous people nearby. We, being a guest of PR Newswire, sat right in the center of the ballroom at table 28.

Following the presentation of the colors by a military honor guard and flourishes from the band and the national anthem, the head of the association led the crowd of 2,000 guests--sprinkled across hundreds of tables set up in the Hilton's ballroom--in a toast to the President and the 109th Congress and introduced the head table, which ranged from correspondents to administration and Hill officials.

The dinner itself consisted of a "gala salad," a mushroom phyllo flower, overcooked horseradish crusted filets of beef, cajun salmon, garlic basil mashed potatoes, and grilled vegetables in a merlot sauce, and then the highlight of the meal: a chocolate truffle cake with vanilla ice cream. The highly efficient and officious wait staff kept the pressure up throughout to get to the post-dinner program close to on time--eat it or lose it being the message of the night.

Many guests raced through their meals at their assigned tables to mingle with other guests and tables. The oddest pairing of the evening, as has been noted elsewhere, belonged to ABC, who placed Howard Dean and Karl Rove just one seat apart--and placed George Stephanopoulos right in between.

After dinner the association presented its two awards of the evening: Bill Plante presented the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting. The award remembers a former producer for the CBS Evening News and Face the Nation.

Divisions and competition, both partisan and professional, were evident in the applause at different points. Some tables filled with competing cable channels remained silent and seated as CNN's Candy Crowley accepted the Barone award, while CNN's gang cheered up a storm.

The second award of the evening, the David Bloom Award for Excellence in Enterprise Reporting, remembers an NBC correspondent killed outside Baghdad in 2003--fittingly enough two years ago last night. His family introduced the award, remembering Bloom for allowing audiences to "empathize with soldiers like never before." ABC's Nightline fittingly won the award for a November 2004 episode focusing on soldiers recovering from burns.

Chris Bury accepted the award and to friendly laughter deadpanned that Ted Koppel had wanted to be there for it, "but he said something about a job interview. He asked me to stand in for him, something which I've gotten used to doing." Providing yet another sobering moment, he mentioned Peter Jennings and his struggle with lung cancer, and how the anchor was "facing his toughest assignment." More warm applause.

Soldiers and the war played a big part in the evening, which many observers said was much more muted than years past. As the Post explains, "In lieu of celebrity guests, CNN invited a group of wounded U.S. soldiers who are being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. One guest, Army Ranger Eivend Forseth of Billings, Mont., was wounded in an ambush in Mosul, Iraq, on Jan. 4. He has since undergone 14 operations in an attempt to repair nerve damage in his right arm. 'It's kind of overwhelming to be treated like a VIP for a night,' said the 31-year old Forseth. 'I just wish every soldier could experience this.'"

Following the awards, the Vice President stood up, told a bad joke, and then admitted "I'm not into funny." He then proceeded to illustrate his point with a eloquent and somber remembrance of the Pope.

Lewis Black of Daily Show fame provided the post-dinner comedy, and spent most of his routine saying how hard it was to come up with good clean material for such a distinguished crowd. An area native (as we noted yesterday), Black's high school prom was in the same ballroom and he explained, with his trademark arms flailing, that he felt very similar: "I'm dressed in a tux. I'm uncomfortable, and once again, I know I'm not gonna get lucky."

Black struggled to meet the line demanded of comedians at such events--funny without "crossing the line" or actually roasting anyone. He stuck to safe material, like the strangeness of Valentine's Day and the lameness of New Year's.

Following the comedy, the association handed over its gavel to the next chair: Michael Viqueira of NBC News.

Then everyone broke for the real fun of the evening: The Post-Parties.