Truth is found in what lies beneath
It was the same venue United States President George W Bush used the following week to give a rare news conference on the occasion of the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
On the television screens it appeared the perfect backdrop for the imperial presidency, with viewers seeing Mr Bush framed by the imposing dark blue curtains behind him, emblazoned with the White House seal.
However, that image would have been shattered had the audience watching at home been able to see what Mr Bush was looking out at from the podium - a squalid, grotty tin-can of a room, complete with ripped carpets and bus shelter-style stained seats.
It was as far removed from television shows like the West Wing as Bush’s Iraq policy is from victory.
A similar gulf between perception and reality exists across the shifting topography of Irish politics as the next Dáil poll begins to loom on the horizon.
Publicly, Labour only has eyes for Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats are desperately throwing themselves at any potential partner with the possible exception of Hamas, and no-one will go near the Shinners.
Privately, the whispered phrase that echoes through the corridors of Leinster House is that “it’s all about how the numbers fall”.
Fianna Fáil will have been in office for nearly 18 of the previous 20 years if the Oireachtas runs its course to the summer of 2007.
Such an achievement marks them out as the most ruthlessly efficient re-election machine in Western Europe and one unlikely to relinquish power easily.
Hence the overt pursuit of Labour and covert preparation for an accommodation with Sinn Féin.
Predicting an election result some 14 months out is a particularly dangerous business, but at present it appears likely neither the Coalition or Rainbow alternative will be able to command a majority.
The arch pragmatist Bertie Ahern has moved to target Pat Rabbitte as a potential weak link in the Rainbow as he makes blunt appeals to Labour over its leader’s head.
The average age of Labour TDs will be 59 when the hustings roll around again and the Taoiseach is hoping if they face the choice of tasting power for maybe only six months in a rag-bag blue/red/green coalition, or being assured of four or five years in power with Fianna Fáil, they may well be tempted to rebel against their leader.
In that scenario, Mr Rabbitte’s intriguing refusal yesterday to flatly rule out going into government with Fianna Fáil makes a lot of sense.
The Fianna Fáil strategy is also aimed at harvesting as many second preference votes from Labour backers as possible as it desperately tries to avoid the dearth of number two support that turned Fine Gael’s 2002 performance into a massacre.
And then there is always Sinn Féin. Though he typically left himself enough room for plausible deniability, PD hard-man Michael McDowell deftly floated the idea that whatever Mr Ahern says, a Fianna Fáil/Sinn Féin understanding is a live option.
As far as Fianna Fáil is concerned, power is power and its favourite cliché has always been that politics is the art of the possible.
Some mainstream Fianna Fáil TDs even talk privately of not just being willing to rely on Sinn Féin votes in the next Dáil, but drawing up a formal programme of Government with them.
This could be a possibility in, perhaps, two elections’ time, but is extremely unlikely next time out - especially as the Shinners want the Offences Against the State Act repealed as part of a deal.
But even the fact it is being discussed is telling.
One Government TD suggested it would be like when Charles Haughey ruled out a coalition, then made a pact with the PDs.
Say what you like about the PDs, but they hadn’t just disarmed their paramilitary wing when the 1989 deal was done.
The White House press room is due for a long awaited makeover next year but it’s unlikely Irish politics will be spruced up to the same degree.
The Dáil can be a murky, devious little world - that’s one of the reasons it’s so fascinating.
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