Kofi Annan and I hosted the traditional luncheon, and when it was over I followed my usual custom of standing by my table to shake hands with the leaders who stopped by on the way out. There was some practical validity to this; apparently the lake had shrunk in size in the last thirty years. Our common ancestor was King John. Bob and Elizabeth Dole joined our delegation, along with several military leaders and a dozen members of Congress of both parties.
Brooks had been in the House for more than forty years and was one of my favorite congressmen. On the last day of the month, the Senate voted, 80–19, to approve another of my major priorities—bringing Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic into NATO. Roger joked to me that it was nice to finally be the brother who wasn’t in trouble. Bob Dole wanted to make a deal to reopen the government, and after a couple of days so did Newt Gingrich.
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