Goodwill toward the Belfast Agreement is mixed with exasperation, writes Mark Hennessy
In years past the Washington Post reported at some length on the St Patrick's Day celebrations in the White House, using blarney and shamrock clichés galore. This year, however, it found space only for a photograph of Irish-American Dan McGrath as he raised a glass to Ireland's famous saint in a bar in the city's suburbs.
The photograph, perhaps, is worth a thousand lines. Obsessed and occasionally frightened by events in Iraq and elsewhere, Americans have other preoccupations.
And yet goodwill is still available, even if mixed with exasperation that the Belfast Agreement, six years on, has not fully borne the fruit expected.
"People here have been very patient. They have made allowances for a whole range of parties, for all of the complications and subtleties," commented the SDLP leader, Mark Durkan.
Policing provided the theme for the St Patrick's Day reception, as it did last year, but there was a key difference. In 2003 it celebrated two PSNI recruits - the future of a new police force, accepted by all sides. This time President Bush placed the spotlight on a Strabane woman, Mary McCrea, who serves on her local District Policing Board despite numerous republican attempts to intimidate her.
After hearing from her that she would not be forced off the board, President Bush said to her: "You're my sort of woman," according to witnesses. The image of a brave woman refusing to bow to thugs strikes a chord with Bush, who sees himself in the same role, albeit on a global stage, regardless of what many may think of him.
US special envoy Mitchell Reiss had spent the days before St Patrick's Day studying briefing papers before being ready to "prep" the President. "He said he did not have to. Bush knew where he was on all of this stuff. He saw her as a soul sister, or whatever," said the SDLP's Alex Attwood.
Significantly, perhaps, Sinn Féin played it relatively low-key in Washington this week. Gerry Adams attended only the White House reception before heading for functions in Calgary in Canada.
The decision may well have been wise. Regardless of Eta's apparent lack of involvement in the Madrid bombing, the IRA's past links with the Basque terrorists have been revived in Washington.
The decision by the Friends of Sinn Féin to pay for a quarter-page advertisement in the New York Times condemning the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Policing Board backfired. Having cleverly made a point of travelling to Washington for St Patrick's Day in recent years, the PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, is seen as a "can-do type of guy", even by some of those who despised the RUC.
Sinn Féin's refusal to join the Policing Board increasingly provokes irritation, or at least confusion, among Washington political insiders, who believe they are, at best, getting mixed messages.
Given President Bush's opinions on policing and other matters, it is understandable that the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, once more voiced his preference for the Texan.
However, little enough attention was directed towards Mr Trimble in a town that can smell defeat and political weakness even before the morning television bulletins begin.
Instead, it was turned towards the Democratic Unionist Party delegation, including Peter Robinson, Nigel Dodds and DUP newcomer Jeffrey Donaldson. Hopes, for now, are being invested that the DUP will deliver on early signals that it is prepared to do business, but few in Washington are betting the mortgage upon it.
Certainly, the DUP cannot expect the same hand-holding that Mr Trimble received as he manoeuvred his reluctant organisation behind involvement in the Executive. That process took years, and in the end it did not work.
Washington is displaying little obvious appetite for a repeat act - even though it seems unlikely, for now, to believe that the DUP leadership will leave its flanks exposed in the way Trimble did.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration and congressional leaders are waiting to see the outcome of next week's talks in Belfast hosted by the Irish and British governments. Here again, expectations are low.
Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair may talk about fast-tracking the process, but they have few points of leverage to use to extract concessions from the DUP and Sinn Féin. Both have done well electorally and seem set to do so again in June. Neither is faced with pressure from the man or woman in the street to take the hard choices.
If Washington was hoping for enlightenment from Ahern and the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, it seems certain that they did not get a great deal. Murphy, for one, was unable to give much hope as he offered a pessimistic view of events.
The final shape on the Anglo-Irish plan will be put this weekend in London during talks between top Irish officials and their British counterparts. However, most expect another version of Groundhog Day in Stormont or Hillsborough, even if some of the key characters in the drama's leading roles may have changed.
Suspicions on the Irish side are hardening that Sinn Féin and the IRA have always been playing according to their own carefully calibrated script. The fear is that Sinn Féin will in the fullness of time get to wield the levers of power on both sides of the Border while the IRA continues to exist, and continues to act.
In the meantime, Washington will watch. Already the bipartisan approach adopted by Republicans and Democrats on Northern Ireland in more recent years has begun to fray at the edges as the November presidential election approaches.
Earlier this week Senator John Kerry, who has hardly been noted up to now for commenting on Ireland, attacked Bush for not doing enough to help. Although he hardly displays an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject, Kerry has noted that the issue helped Bill Clinton to curry favour with Irish-America in 1992, and more especially in 1996.
For now, the difference between the two is that Clinton managed to persuade most people that he actually cared about "bringing peace in Ireland".