It was a fun and I’m waiting on a picture of this. Larry King was there. He was the master of ceremonies. I walked up and said, “Hey, Lar, what’s shaking? You are kicking butt, Lar!” He put his arm around me and….well, everybody loves everybody at this. He introduced me his wife, Shawn. He told me some interesting things about her. She told me some interesting things about him. He asked me to come on his show to talk about my cochlear implant. I said, “I’ll get back to you.” (Laughing.) The Oak Ridge Boys were there. They were constant visitors to my TV show. They were there, hadn’t seen them a while. Larry Gatlin, Vince Gill and Amy Grant. I walked up and said, “Hey, baby, baby,” to her. Crystal Gayle. Probably the most interesting and longest conversation I had of the evening was Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister of Canada and one of the great eulogists of Ronald Reagan. Mary Matalin was there. I spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney, Bob Mosbacher, both presidents 43 and 41 were there. Jack Kemp and his wife Joanna, a little conversation with them.
But Larry King had his whole entourage there. The people that snapped the picture were producers of Larry King’s program and I gave my e-mail address, the picture of Gorbachev. I gave my e-mail address and I said, “Send this to me,” and they said, “Don’t worry. We’ll be glad to.” In fact, one of them was a 27-year-old young woman who’s working at CNN, just getting started when she said that she grew up listening to me in New Jersey. Her name was Eleanor, forget her last name. I said, “What are you doing working on the Larry King show?” She said, “It’s a start.” (Laughing.) Oh, she didn’t say that! I don’t want to get her in trouble. She was very excited to be there. So I’m still waiting on the e-mail delivery of the picture that was taken. It’s digital. As soon as I get it, we’ll be able to post it on the website. No, I didn’t say evil empire. I didn’t pull a Margaret Thatcher. I did not say evil empire. I almost thought about asking Mary Matalin for some lipstick to put a birthmark on my head, but I didn’t. I played it straight. I was a model of decorum at this event.
At any rate, so that’s that. As soon as I get the picture, and I made ’em read that e-mail address back to me, because I wrote it down plain and simple as I could so they could get it right, and they said it would be to me sometime today. One way or another we’ll get this. There was also a still photographer there taking pictures for Gorbachev and I’ll get one of those at some point, too. So regardless — I just couldn’t hold back. I was going to wait until I got the picture to tell you the story, but I couldn’t hold back. I had my own personal Gorbasm Saturday night, folks!
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