Wednesday,
October 17
NIAF Gala Brings Out Italian American Celebs
The
ANNOTICO Report
The
NIAF three-tiered head table of luminaries
included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito.
Speaker of the House, Nancy
Pelosi, who is second in succession to the presidency.
Other honorees included William
Novelli, head of the influential
AARP, and famed film director Martin
Scorese.
The
evening's favorite was Rudy
Giuliani, who already has made history as the first
Italian-American to mount a sustained presidential candidacy. New York Yankee
great Yogi Berra
got the heartiest welcome.
BaltimoreSun
by Don Frederick
October 15, 2007
At a marathon
gala in
A
three-tiered head table of luminaries that looked out upon the black-tie
gathering included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito. One of those honored at
the banquet was Nancy Pelosi,
who as Speaker of the House is second in succession to the presidency. Other
honorees included William Novelli, head of the
influential AARP, and famed film director Martin Scorese.
Judged by the
crowd's reaction, however, the evening's favorite was Rudy Giuliani, who already
has made history as the first Italian-American to mount a sustained
presidential candidacy and hopes to achieve another milestone by moving into
the White House in about 15 months.
Not all that much
has been made of the precedent-setting nature of Giuliani's campaign, as
we have noted before. But it clearly was on the minds of this audience, which greeted him with loud applause and shouts of approval
-- first when he was introduced at the dinner's start and later when he took
the podium to recieve an award for public service.
The event was
sponsored by the non-partisan National Italian-American Foundation, and a
buoyant Giuliani responded with some non-political -- and frequently humorous
-- remarks.
He made a point
of mentioning that he came from
He did not
elaborate that when he was seven, his parents relocated him to
He recollected
that as a young man he visited the home country and, while in
Since then,
Giuliani declared to laughter and a few disappointed "ohhhs,"
he dares not utter the native tongue of his immigrant grandparents (on both
sides of his family).
He did his part
to add to the lore of New York Yankee great Yogi Berra (who, during the introductions of
those arrayed at the head table, may have gotten the heartiest welcome).
One of the perks
of being mayor of
Pelosi, who was raised in
She did interject
a hint of partisanship, noting that as she was growing up,
her family was "staunchly Democratic." And, we had to wonder if her
reference to her "husband of 44 years," Paul Pelosi, was the
slightest of digs at Giuliani's more checkered marital past.
Amid the
prolonged (four-hour) celebration of achievements by Italian-Americans, one
historical footnote went unremarked upon.
John Pastore, a Democrat from
Don Frederick is
a political editor in the
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