In America/Conor O'Clery: Who was that lady in pinstripe suit and white collar posing for a photograph with the President and First Lady at a White House reception on Tuesday?
Why, it was none other than the famous New York publisher, Judith Regan, who came as the guest of Gen Tommy Franks whose book she published.
But why was she getting so many icy stares? Could it be because Ms Regan was one of the women mentioned in the newspapers that very day as a party to Bernard Kerik's love trysts?
As New York police commissioner in autumn 2001, Kerik had conducted two extramarital affairs - with Regan and with a long-time friend - in an apartment overlooking Ground Zero originally set aside for exhausted rescue workers.
This came out in the messy aftermath of the withdrawal of Kerik's nomination by George Bush as head of Homeland Security, ostensibly over his hiring of an illegal immigrant as nanny.
The media are now speculating that the nanny did not exist and that the story was a cover for other embarrassing allegations.
These included undeclared gifts, socialising with a contractor with suspected mafia links, law suits from his time as head of New York prisons, a multimillion stock trade, misuse of New York police to research his own bestseller (and to scour the city for Ms Regan's missing cell phone), his secret first marriage and - really offensive to the moralistic White House - simultaneous extramarital liaisons with two women at Ground Zero.
The Kerik affair has tempered America's adulation of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and may have wrecked his presidential ambitions. For over three years he enjoyed hero status for his leadership after the 9/11 attacks. But the city's media have turned on him over his attempt to install Kerik - Giuliani's former driver and current business partner - in a big-budget cabinet post.
As old enemies gloat, questions are being asked about how Giuliani came to make Kerik head of the NYPD in 2000 in the first place. The New York Department of Investigation apparently knew at the time of ethical breaches by Kerik.
More damaging to both Giuliani and Kerik, however, is the questioning for the first time of the millions they have made exploiting 9/11 through consultancy work as experts on counter-terrorism, and from huge fees for speaking at events.
As columnist Terry Golway wrote in the New York Observer: "It is surely time to ask why people like Bernie Kerik have become rich playing the role of symbolic heroes of 9/11 when there are real heroes who are still fighting fires and patrolling the streets."
During the second World War, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt started his last term with a low-key inauguration ceremony marked by a 559-word speech and a luncheon of cold chicken salad. But the second-term inauguration next month for President Bush, who campaigned as a war-time president, will be the most lavish in history, costing some $40 million.
To pay for it the Republican Party is offering access for cash. For $10,000 a donor gets two tickets to a VIP reception with Republican House leaders and an inaugural ball.
Individuals who give $25,000 will get two tickets to a luncheon with Republican senators and to the swearing-in ceremony. Those who give $100,000 or more to the inaugural committee will have access to the inauguration, all nine black-tie balls, and candlelit dinners with the First Couple. The event will have a nation-at-war theme, with a commander-in-chief's ball to which 2,000 service families will be invited. Anti-war protests are also expected at the January 20th ceremony, with a website called www.turnyourbackonbush.org urging demonstrators to turn up and turn their back as the President's motorcade passes.
Donald Rumsfeld has become a divisive figure, not just in partisan politics but in the ranks of conservatives.
His critics on the issue of insufficient troop levels and armour in Iraq now include Republican Senators John McCain, Chuck Hagel, Trent Lott and Susan Collins.
The controversy was ignited over Rumsfeld's comment to a worried US soldier: "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
This week William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and a leading neo-conservative, accused Rumsfeld of passing the buck, and called for his resignation. But support for the 72-year-old Defence Secretary has come from an unlikely alliance of President Bush, who believes he is doing "a great job", and influential radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who accuses the "McCain-Hagel caucus" of discrediting the war effort by attacking an innovative Pentagon leader.
"What in the world do we want to join the other side for and say get rid of Rumsfeld?" he asked his listeners.
Rocco Buttiglione, the Italian politician whose name was withdrawn as Italy's EU commissioner after he called homosexuality a sin, was in Washington this week to receive the "Faith and Freedom" award from the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. Buttiglione has admirers in the White House but approaches for a meeting were rebuffed, leading Father Robert A. Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, to tell officials that their decision was "morally revolting".
The White House snub is, however, being taken by European diplomats as a sign that Mr Bush is serious in wanting to improve relations with the EU on his visit in February.