Why There Are Hotels in Washington

CLARK:
Darling, could you just move your lovely…On your side, if you could…So I can reach my shorts? Yuh, that's good. My God you're beautiful. When you hold your…..up to the light like that….You're so beautiful.

TAYLOR:
Yes, but what is it like? Tell me what it's like.

CLARK:
It's incredible, Taylor. Looking at you is incredible. Last night, you were just….fantastic.

TAYLOR:
No, I mean being a super-delegate. What is it really like?

CLARK:
Well, when you've been in Congress, when you've been in the inner circle, when you're on all the network people's Rolodexes, it's just, you know. It just rolls off you.

TAYLOR:
I can't believe how modest you are.

CLARK:
Well truthfully, when I get up in the morning, I don't look in the mirror and say to myself, "Clark, you're a super-delegate." I just don't think in those terms. I'm so many other things besides that, I've done so much, known so many people. Being a super-delegate, it's not even on the first page of my resume.

TAYLOR:
Really. Do we need to, you know, get dressed?

CLARK:
No, no, it's still early. I'll order something. Coffee, whatever. The coffee is great here. You want some coffee?

TAYLOR:
Would they have herbal tea?

CLARK:
They have everything. I'll call downstairs.

TAYLOR:
Your students at Yale must be really proud of you.

CLARK:
Oh sure, well you know how co-eds are. They're just so impressionable.

TAYLOR:
I'd just love to visit you in your office there.

CLARK:
Well, they don't give adjunct people offices, you know, they're so short on space up there. But I'll show you around any time. You get out much?

TAYLOR:
Honestly, no. I'm kind of introverted really.

CLARK:
So am I. I'm the same way.

TAYLOR:
I don't usually do this with someone I just met. But when I heard from the desk clerk that you were a super-delegate. How did you ever…..

CLARK:
Well, years ago I was just in the right place at the right time. Worked my ass off to get elected the Monadnock Village Auditor. But after that, it was like falling off a Lincoln Log. But I got out at the right time.

TAYLOR:
You mean you're not in office anymore?

CLARK:
No, I would've had to go up to North Dakota in the winter to campaign and it just would've been silly. Plus the pension plan they give you would choke a horse, so why stick around. But hey, what about you. You have just an amazing, amazing mind. For someone your age. Just the range of subjects you were able to discuss with me last night in the bar.

TAYLOR:
Well no, you…you're the one who knows so much. Just those things you were telling me about how cocktails were invented. That was just fascinating. It was all just so fascinating.

CLARK:
Oh no, you're the one. You were so generous last night. And then this morning….

TAYLOR:
No, no, Clark, it was you. I look in your eyes and I see a deep ocean of understanding, of sadness, of empathy. I guess everyone tells you that.

CLARK:
Well, most people do, yeah. So what do you do?

TAYLOR:
Actually, I'm sort of in politics myself. I'm working for one of the presidential campaigns.

CLARK:
Really. Which one.

TAYLOR:
Oh, it doesn't really matter to you, does it.

CLARK:
No, I guess not.

TAYLOR:
Can you do me a favor?

CLARK:
Baby, I'd give you my right arm on a Saturday night.

TAYLOR:
I'm sort of under some pressure to deliver for these people. Would you mind signing this Democratic National Committee pledge form. It just says you'll vote our way. There's a pen under my…..blue frilly undergarment over there. Should I turn on the light? Darling?

CLARK:
No. I like to be kept in the dark.