White House Party Is the Pits: Bush Pitches In on a Cold Day

Even without the unseasonably cold weather, George Bush’s 150 guests Saturday might have been forgiven for describing their visit to the White House as The Pits.

After all, that was the whole idea: The President was formally unveiling the new 40-foot horseshoe pit that he had had built on the South Lawn of the White House, and he wanted to kick it off in grand style, with a horseshoes game and a lawn party to boot.

But the biting April Fool’s Day wind turned the afternoon into something of a clunker, even for the President and world horseshoe-pitching champion Jim Knisley of Bremen, Ohio, neither of whom quite matched his usual performance.

“This is so embarrassing it stinks,” the leader of the Western world was heard to say when one of his pitches missed and bounced off the backboard. On his second try, though, the President--or perhaps a ringer for him--scored three points.

Gusty Winds

Although the President and his wife, Barbara, both wore windbreakers, the gusty winds were enough to knock the socks--or the shoes--off a horse. There were no horses, but there were plenty of horseshoes--including some gaily painted wooden ones used as table decorations.

There also were some nearly frozen people--including Democratic Michigan Gov. James J. Blanchard, who could not resist a dig at Bush’s patrician past. “I think we ought to see the Bush form,” Blanchard taunted. “Democrats never learned this game, you understand.”

Although the President is installing only one horseshoe pit, the White House built a second, temporary pit for what Bush described as “the overflow crowd” that the social staff had expected.

Bush became interested in horseshoes while he was serving as vice president, when he installed a pit at his home in Kennebunkport, Me.--ostensibly to make sure that his Secret Service agents had something to do.

Bush met Knisley--who won his second world horseshoe-pitching contest last August at Pleasanton, Calif.--at the Ohio State Fair during the campaign. Also joining in the presidential pitch Saturday was women’s champion Diane Lopez of Lompoc, Calif.

As soon as they were thrown open, the horseshoe pits became the target of the satirical barbs of the Gridiron Club, an organization of journalists that happened to be throwing its annual presidential roast later Saturday evening.

Gridiron President Lawrence M. O’Rourke of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch asked good naturedly: “What previous Administration could say after 100 days that it had a new horseshoe pit?”