McCain and the brush with fame

Texas’ legal community was well represented last night as U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona clinched the Republican nomination for president and announced it from a Texas venue. The victory party at the Fairmont Hotel in Downtown Dallas was a typically Texan affair, with Texas Rangers standing by in their Stetsons, country music playing over the loud speakers, and chips and guacamole among the goodies provided. An attorney from Atlanta noted that nowhere but Texas could they get away with flying the state flag higher than the U.S. flag as they did on the backdrop of the stage. Texas attorneys attending included: Joe Fox, chief labor and employment lawyer for Dallas-based Celanese Corp.; Paul Theiss and Andrew Wirmani, associates with Jones Day who are volunteers with the McCain campaign; and David Ritter of Kane Russell Coleman & Logan, also a volunteer. “I like the fact that McCain is honest, willing to compromise when necessary, and that he’s got a lot of good ideas to move the country forward,” said Ritter, who added that he displays a McCain campaign sign in his yard. Wirmani said he and Theiss made some of the signs around the room, all with a patriotic theme — “Duty Honor Country,” “An American Hero” — “to highlight the contrast between McCain and the Democratic candidates, neither of whom have served in the military like McCain has.” Piers Morgan, a judge from the TV reality show “America’s Got Talent” and a contestant on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” was a guest at the Fairmont. Morgan, in Dallas holding auditions for the next season of the talent show, wandered up to the ballroom to see what the commotion was. Morgan, a former newspaperman who studied journalism at Harlow College in Essex, England, and worked at several British dailies in his “former life,” chatted amiably about covering the news, American politics and the McCain event.

-- Kristine Hughes